What’s This All About?
The Native American Rangeland Training Initiative (NARTI) is a partnership between the Society for Range Management, tribal governments, and other tribal organizations to help tribal natural resource staff address challenges that impact the sustainable management of rangelands on tribal lands. NARTI is comprised of a series of FREE online courses and field training opportunities. Our objectives are tailored to the different tribal community needs, cultural approaches, administrative needs, and local ecological communities, but we also address sticky compliance requirements for federal reporting. This program is being funded by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the US Forest Service.
How Our Courses Work
- This class is designed for any Tribal staff that work with natural resources in any capacity. We also welcome agency liaisons, Tribal College staff, or other individuals that work on or live on Tribal rangelands. This can include producers, non-profit employees, or teachers. Our goal is to help students do their job, but not necessarily become qualified as a fully-trained range professional that would require a 4-years of time in a college that offered that program.
- There is no cost for this course or any coaching that you receive. The funding from the NRCS and the US Forest Service cover the expenses.
- This class is self-paced and interactive, but instructors stay in close contact with each student to ensure success. This design accommodates Tribal staff that have busy schedules that make it challenging to keep up with a strict class agenda.
- Upon completion of each “tier” of courses (see below), students are eligible for Continuing Education Units through Salish Kootenai College (SKC).
- These classes are not designed for college credit. However, SKC has adapted the material in this course for a college credit course, but students must enroll through their system.
Course Structure
The Introductory Rangeland & Soil Ecology course is required for All NARTI participants to ensure everyone is aligned on rangeland ecology and management terms and concepts for future workshops and other short courses. The Introductory Rangeland & Soil Ecology course is designed to be taught at the fundamental level so that it provides value to all students with different educational backgrounds above a high school degree.
Instructors
Tiers 1-3 are taught through Thinkific by Dr. Diana Doan-Crider (Texas A&M University, Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management Adjunct Faculty), and Yvette Gibson (Oregon State University, Rangeland Science Faculty) with input from Tribal advisors. Special Topics courses will be developed and taught in partnership with experts in various fields with particular focus on Tribal issues. These classes have been designed to help students understand rangeland systems and perform rangeland management activities to meet their own community needs, but with consideration for federal agency compliance requirements.
Advisory Groups
At the request of tribal governments, advisory groups can be coordinated to provide continuous and on-the-ground assistance with newly created range management programs or challenging range management projects. Advisory group members will be selected among local and regional rangeland and soil experts (agency, university, non-profit), tribal professionals, and already existing natural resource and cultural partners with whom the tribes have been working. We request that members of the advisory groups include these activities as part of their own work descriptions (via agency directives or extension responsibilities), or volunteer their time and energy. Advisory members must be motivated to assist tribal staff, be readily available to meet with and conduct site visits, and be able to make time to assist with workshop instruction. Travel costs will be provided if not covered by their respective employers.
Workshops
*Note: due to the recent Covid-19 health concerns, field workshops are postponed until further notice. Online training, however, will continue.