January 23, 2025 — Take it from us at NOAA Fisheries: Careers in environmental science and policy are rewarding and offer a wide range of professional opportunities. To help promote workforce development in these fields for tribal members, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) and NOAA have partnered to create a Workforce Development Workgroup.
The workgroup provides a forum for NOAA to work collaboratively with tribal governments to support tribal members with career education, training, and recruitment. This engagement enhances NOAA’s trust responsibilities and supports education and career development of tribal members in natural resource fields. NWIFC tribes have treaties with the U.S. federal government reserving their right to fish. They are co-managers of the fisheries with the states and federal government.
“Our goal is to connect Native youth with opportunities to learn more about natural resource stewardship and the wide variety of careers available to them,” said NWIFC Executive Director Justin Parker. “We want to pass this knowledge down to the next seven generations of leaders so they can continue to protect the natural resources our ancestors secured for us in our treaties.”