The Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council recently awarded $297,000 in grants to 15 organizations dedicated to getting youth outdoors.

One of the organizations that received a grant was Sierra Native Alliance. The group received $12,000 for its Youth Conservation Internship program hiring low-income youth in Placer and Nevada counties to restore an abandoned environmental education center on a historic Nisenan Maidu site in Auburn.

Youth will learn environmental preservation skills from an indigenous perspective and take the lead in developing a peer environmental education curriculum for ongoing use at the Sierra Native Alliance Cultural Education Center.

For more information, visit www.SierraNativeAlliance.org