Lopez-based conservation laboratory Kwiaht is one of 43 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive funds this year from President Obama’s 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Initiative. The projects are funded through the America’s Great Outdoors: Developing the Next Generation of Conservationists, a competitive grant matching program launched in December 2011 in conjunction with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps is a national collaborative effort to put American youth and returning veterans to work protecting, restoring, and enhancing America’s great outdoors. Funding goes to paid conservation work experience on public lands that builds technical skills and can result in permanent employment.

Announcing the grants at a May 22 ceremony in Denver, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell stressed the value of public-private partnerships that “leverage our federal investments with private support to help young adults learn new skills and gain great job experience while giving back to the community.”

Kwiaht’s grant will be used to train six Tribal college students and veterans in the use of GPS and GIS technologies to map ecosystems and model ecological changes, with a focus on the new San Juan Islands National Monument.

“We want to bring Tribal youth back to the islands to work alongside island youth on protecting landscapes of ecological and cultural significance,” says Kwiaht director Russel Barsh. “These landscapes are a shared legacy, and must become a shared responsibility for the next generation.”

Participants in Kwiaht’s 21CSC program will devote ten weeks to fieldwork this summer, introducing them to the islands’ hydrology, botany, nearshore fish, reptiles, bats and birds, as well as habitat classification and integrating field data with satellite imagery and remote sensing data.

“Many young veterans in the Northwest have already learned to use GPS technology,” Barsh says, “but not to map the migrations of newts, or monitor the changing distribution of bumblebees.”

“A healthy environment in the Pacific Northwest means a high quality of life and a strong economy,” Congressman Rick Larsen said. “The work staff and volunteers will do on the San Juan Islands National Monument this summer will support both of these goals. Conservation corps members will get important experience in the field while contributing to a better understanding of what makes for healthy wildlife and habitat on the Monument.”

“Kwiaht is one of our valued environmental education programs partners” noted Monument Manager Marcia deChadenedes.

To request an application send an e-mail to kwiaht@gmail.com. You can learn more about Kwiaht’s work at www.kwiaht.org.