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<OL> <LI> Maintain a reservation focused and located extension program to provide enhanced on-reservation access and locally driven outreach programming; <LI>Improve reservation agriculture and natural resource management to enhance productivity, sustainability and quality of life;<LI> Improve health and wellness in youth and families on the reservation; <LI>Promote positive youth development to build resiliency, personal responsibility, knowledge, and capacity of reservation youth. </OL>
FRTEP Project goals support USDA Strategic Goals 2, 3, 4,& 6 through these science knowledge-based objectives: <OL> <LI> Improve trust and utilization of University & USDA resources through local development and access to Extension outreach and resources; <LI> Provide information, analysis and education to promote the efficiency, marketing, and competiveness of agricultural production; <LI> Provide reservation focused education and programs to improve the sustainable management of forests and rangelands;<LI> Teach youth, families, and industry practices in food safety, nutrition, and healthy lifestyles; <LI> Provide reservation tailored decision making, goal setting, life skills, and other youth development educational programming.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program (FRTEP) proposal will fund the foundation for the Colville Reservation Extension Program. Without a USDA supported extension program, the reservation area is an underserved area by Cooperative Extension. Both county (Ferry & Okanogan) extension offices surrounding and overlapping the reservation had been reduced in staffing to the level of single Faculty agent offices from previous levels of three agents in each office. Ferry County is the lowest per capita income county in the state of Washington with Okanogan not much higher. The geographical area of the reservation covers 1.4 million acres. This large geographical and harsh terrain prohibit adequate coverage and delivery to such a large area and diverse clientele by only one neighboring agent with low funding by the county. To complicate matters, residents of the reservation live in 4 geographically isolated communities divided by 4 mountain passes. Coupled with this, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation is composed of 12 distinct Tribes whom were at one time spread out across Eastern Washington and Idaho. The varying locations, cultures, occupations, and family composition result in varying agricultural, social, and youth development needs which each community wants addressed in each of their locations, not at one central location. For agricultural producers: distance, high fuel costs, geography, isolation, cultural differences, and harsh climate on the Colville Reservation result in a lack of easy access to Extension research information, technology, and other educational resources that could increase productivity and/or marketing choices, reduce costs and risks, solve problems and address other issues threatening the future of agriculture on the Colville Reservation. An on-reservation Extension office, located on the reservation, is needed to deliver quality and quantity of Extension education programming to this otherwise underserved audience.
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APPROACH: The Project Director, the FRTEP Educator, the Family & Consumer Sciences Educator, and the Biofuels/4-H Challenge Coordinator, and secretary will work as a team, and when needed, in collaboration with neighboring County Extension offices and/or other Tribal departments, to develop and deliver effective USDA Cooperative Extension outreach educational programs. Program delivery methods include creating and conducting educational programs, and adapting existing science based curriculums and programs to meet the needs of the clientele on the Colville Reservation. The following objectives and strategies and methods were developed by working with input from the Tribal Extension Advisory Committee, Tribal Department Staff, Tribal members and descendents, and meeting several times with the Tribal Council over the last year. These objectives are in relation to each of the goals laid-out for the Reservation FRTEP Program earlier.