LIVESTREAM March Nature Night

Wild Horses, Wolves, and Other Wildlife of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation

The Warm Springs Indian Reservation is a vast (640,000 acres) and diverse landscape that is home to a wide range of wildlife. Join Deschutes Land Trust and Austin L. Smith, Jr., the General Manager of the Branch of Natural Resources for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, to take a closer look at wildlife and wildlife management on the Warm Springs Reservation. Smith will discuss the dynamics of managing populations of wildlife including wild horses, wolves, and the reintroduction efforts around bighorn sheep and mountain goats. Learn more about these animals and others as they adapt to climate change, wildfire risk, and the shift of predators within their habitats

*An ASL interpreter will be provided for this Nature Night.*

Austin L. Smith Jr. has lived in Central Oregon most of his life. He grew up on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and is an avid hunter and fisherman, exercising his rights as a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs like his ancestors before him. Austin served in the United States Marine Corps from 2004 to 2009. He was deployed three times overseas before separating from the Corps with an Honorable Discharge to pursue an education using the GI Bill. Austin attended Central Oregon Community College, earned his Associate's degree, then transferred to Oregon State University-Cascades and graduated with a degree in natural resources conservation and technology with a focus on wildlife management. While attending college, Austin worked as a wildlife technician for the Tribes from 2010 to 2015 and was hired on full-time by the Branch of Natural Resources in Warm Springs as the tribal wildlife biologist in 2015. Currently, he oversees the Branch of Natural Resources for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Austin has a lovely wife, a 20-year-old son, a 3-year-old daughter, and the newest addition, a 1-year-old son. He enjoys his time with his family taking adventure trips to the "Inche'Wana" (Columbia River) and exercising his treaty hunting and fishing rights.