Forest Service Cultivates Diversity Agency Applauded For Hiring Minority Summer Workers
Joe Encinas and Jackie Woods work a hard market, pushing a product to folks who fear it.
They’re among a handful of people responsible for recruiting minority summer workers to North Idaho’s forests.
Cue the theme to “Mission: Impossible”?
Not quite.
“They’ve all heard North Idaho is a dangerous place to go,” said Encinas, Hispanic employment manager for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests.
“You just have to sell it to them in a positive light,” said Woods, the forest’s temporary-employment officer.
Encinas and his colleagues have been so successful, officials who oversee the region’s 12 forests tout them as leaders in their field.
The Panhandle Forests’ recruitment work makes it “one of the shining stars in the region,” said civil rights specialist Sunny Hemphill, from the agency’s regional headquarters.
North Idaho’s forests hired more than two dozen minority college students for summer work last year. This year, that number will almost double.
“You just have to bring them into the fold, make them part of the team,” said Encinas. “Once they’re here, their initial fear leaves quite quickly.”
Encinas will be a guest speaker tonight at a gathering of business and human rights leaders who are meeting to reinvigorate a communitywide battle against racism.
The event is sponsored by the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment and the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and is expected to draw hundreds of people.
Recruiting minorities to a region that’s home to the Aryan Nations is far from easy, Encinas said. But the approach is simple: Aggressiveness. Honesty. Lots of attention.
In addition to attending job fairs and hosting multicultural events, Encinas recently established a unique recruitment agreement with the Bureau of Land Management, Treasure Valley Community College and the University of Idaho.
Encinas recruits seasonal workers for work ranging from wildlife and fisheries to computers. He tells interested students that the region’s image is exaggerated - but not entirely undeserved.
“You have to prepare them for what they could encounter,” he said.
One group of minority summer workers endured racial harassment from the manager of an apartment complex who had contracted with the Forest Service to house them. Another worker was called derogatory names while walking in downtown Coeur d’Alene.
In that case, the forest supervisor himself went to police to report the incident.
“It will not be tolerated,” Encinas said.
“Some people are very accepting of what we’re trying to do,” he continued. “But there are those here who don’t accept people from other cultures. That kind of thing goes on, and it’s very easy for some people not to see it.”
Hemphill said some Montana forests introduce their minority workers to rural police departments as a means of stopping racial harassment before it starts.
“We’ve had some troubles with shop owners who follow employees around, fearing they’re going to steal something,” she said.
The culture shock of moving to a near all-white community also makes it important for forest officials to spend off-hours with seasonal workers.
“That part has worked out great,” said Woods. “Last summer, they had so many invitations - to go boating, fishing, to go camping - they had to turn some down.”
Woods and Encinas say their program has been incredibly rewarding.
Some seasonal workers have been guest speakers at multicultural conferences. Others have hooked Encinas up with future recruitment sources. Still others have helped the agency out of jams.
Last year, a bilingual seasonal worker served as a translator when agency officials were negotiating with a Mexican-American contractor.
This summer, Woods said, a Laotian seasonal will be asked to serve as an intermediary between the forest and Laotian bear-grass gatherers.
“We’ve got a long ways to go,” Encinas said. “But if you look over the past century, we’ve come a long way, too.”
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