TEK Workforce Development Internship: Summer 2025
- Rose High Bear
- Sep 25, 2025
- 2 min read
By Rose High Bear (Deg Hit’an Dine, Inupiaq)
Founding Director
Our team at Elderberry Wisdom Farm was excited to greet eight talented young Indigenous interns earlier this summer. They just completed their training and prepared their final presentations on August 28. Our Summer 2025 TEK Workforce Development Internship has provided opportunities for them to learn about and help to develop our Native American Plant Nursery here at the farm, plus tend our Three Sisters Garden and another dozen organic raised vegetable garden beds we have developed for growing vegetables for gifting to Native elders here in the Salem area.
You can watch some of our intern's final presentations below.
A highlight has been their habitat restoration training which we provided through experiential service-learning activities at partners’ work sites. We acknowledge our great partners for all the hands-on training they provided this summer, including the North Santiam Watershed Council, Elanor at Persephone Farm, Polk Soil and Water Conservation District, Institute for Applied Ecology and their Willamette Valley Native Plant Partnership, plus Scholls Valley Native Plant Nursery.
This experience helped them strengthen their conservation career pathways and at the same time reconnected them with the world of nature. We mentioned in the last newsletter how the power of this experience strengthened their health and wellness resilience which is validated by recent NIH research indicating how spending time in nature improves mental, physical and cognitive health. This exposure to our natural world can reduce stress, improve mood, enhance cognitive function and even lower the risk of certain diseases. It is worth sharing the article again, What is the impact of nature on human health? A scoping review of the literature, J Glob Health.
I also mentioned last month that our staff is adding urban forestry to our work and preparing lesson plans and work plans as we begin meeting with students at local schools and planning activities in Salem’s urban forests starting this fall. We are consulting with school personnel and look forward to including students and their families in November plans to plant trees that will strengthen tree canopies in Salem’s low-tree-canopy schoolyards and neighborhoods. Research is documenting how this work continues to gift our team with mental health benefits: Stress reduction, improved mood, reduced anxiety and depression, and the potential for enhanced creativity and mindfulness.
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