SEASONAL FIELD CREWS
2023 FIELD CREWS
WILDERNESS TRAIL CREW
The Wilderness Trail Crew is performing trail restoration activities within the Almanor Ranger District of the Lassen National Forest. The crew members are doing trail maintenance, hand thinning, limbing, low-stumping, and bucking of dead and small diameter live material. This is all with the intent of reestablishing and maintaining access to designated trails in order to increase accessibility to public lands within the LNF including diverse wilderness landscapes.
AMELIA RYAN
Amelia got hooked on trail work last summer in Colorado and she knew it was a career field she'd love to pursue. She feels fulfilled getting to put her body and soul into the Earth and see direct environmental benefits. Trail work and being outside helps Amelia find peace and rhythm in this hectic world.
Contact Information: (530) 284-1022; Email: aryan@sierrainstitute.us
CORTON OLVER
Corton is currently a student at Western Carolina University studying natural resource management. He has worked with the U.S. Forest Service as well as the North Carolina Wildlife Commission on various projects. Working at Sierra Institute is a great next step to continue working with and conserving our natural resources. He has always had interest in conservation due to his many outdoor hobbies such as climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, and backpacking. Spending time in the outdoors is a large part of Corton's life and he hopes to play a part in conserving and managing our environment for future generations.
Contact Information: (530) 284-1022; Email: colver@sierrainstitute.us
MARK KESSLER
Mark has dedicated most of his adult life to learning skills pertaining to the outdoors. He began with an associates degree in outdoor recreation from Paul Smith's College in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. From there, he studied at various primitive skills schools and organic farms learning how to live in more direct contact with the land. Mark's main areas of interest include hand tool sharpening and maintenance , hunting ,blacksmithing, and woodworking.
Contact Information: (530) 284-1022; Email: mkessler@sierrainstitute.us
SPENCER PANOUSHEK
After deciding practicing healthcare was not for him, Spencer chose to follow his passion for the outdoors. His favorite recreational activity is backpacking, so to be able to help create that experience for others is immensely rewarding. Spencer's long-term professional plans are still undecided, but they will certainly involve nature and its conservation in some capacity.
Contact Information: (530) 284-1022; Email: spanoushek@sierrainstitute.us
COLLABORATIVE FORESTRY TIMBER MARKING CREW
The Collaborative Forestry Timber Marking Crew is contributing to the restoration of mixed-conifer forests on the Almanor Ranger District of the Lassen National Forest by preparing stands for restoration thinning and hazardous fuels management. Project work will occur primarily within projects developed by the South Lassen Watersheds Group, a collaborative group planning for the future of forest management, climate resilience, and economic development in critical upper watersheds of northern California. Crew members are responsible for designating harvest/leave trees following provided marking guidelines (silvicultural prescriptions) and the guidance of the crew leader.
ANDREA BAKER
Andi is a student at University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) majoring in Forest Management and Ecology and minoring in Ecohydrology. She was born and raised in Reno, NV. Andi grew up kayaking, skiing & snowboarding, camping, hiking, and playing sports in the Lake Tahoe/Reno area. She loves being outdoors and traveling. Andi's favorite place to visit is the Oregon Coast to clam and crab. Her goal is to work outside and help the environment. She values sustainability and wants to spread awareness to how easy and accessible sustainable products can be.
Contact Information: (530) 284-1022; Email: abaker@sierrainstitute.us
BODHI O'BRIEN
Bodhi is a hard working guy who loves to have fun. He is graduating high school this year at Quincy High School which is a 30 minute drive from Sierra Institute. He plans on traveling to Spain next year to get away from the California life he knows so well. He has loved spending time outdoors since he was a toddler, doing things such as hiking, swimming, mountain biking, and snowboarding. Bodhi began working for Sierra Institute as a P-CREW Youth Corps Crew Member last year, and he enjoyed every second of it. This summer, he is returning to Sierra Institute both as a Collaborative Forestry Crew Member and a P-CREW Alumni All-Star Assistant. He prides himself on his leadership and work ethic and hopes to further improve himself in those aspects this summer.
Contact Information: (530) 284-1022; Email: bobrien@sierrainstitute.us
HAYDEN ABRAMS
This is Hayden's third summer working with Sierra Institute. He chose to work with the Sierra Institute because he really loves how we approach working with the environment and surrounding communities. Hayden is an avid outdoorsman that enjoys working hands on in the outdoors and staying active by playing baseball, skiing and much more. Working with the Sierra Institute inspired him to major in Watershed Science with a concentration in Sustainability.
Contact Information: (530) 284-1022; Email: habrams@sierrainstitute.us
JAVIER JENKINS_SORENSEN
Javi is a junior at Williams College studying Political Science and Geosciences. He spent the last summer doing forestry work in the Santa Cruz Mountains and geology in the Appalachians. He hopes to shift management practices around forests from human time scales to ones that better match the ecology inherent to them.
Contact Information: (530) 284-1022; Email: jjenkins-sorensen@sierrainstitute.us
SHELBY BEAM
This is Shelby's first job in forestry and she is hoping to work in forest restoration, conservation, or management in the future. She am currently attending Cal Poly Humboldt to major in Forestry. Shelby has lived in the redwoods most of her life and like to spend her summers hiking and backpacking in the Sierra.
Contact Information: (530) 284-1022; Email: sbeam@sierrainstitute.us
LAVO FORESTRY RESOURCE TECHNICIANS
The Forestry Resource Technicians assist with a variety of natural resource monitoring and management activities within Lassen Volcanic National Park (LAVO) and across the South Lassen Watersheds Landscape. These crew members assist park staff with surveys for a range of wildlife and plant species, carry out invasive plant control and native plant restoration work, and conduct original research alongside park staff. These activities are fundamental to protecting the region's foundational biodiversity and scenic beauty by protecting native floristic and faunistic diversity.
P-CREW PLUMAS CONSERVATION AND EDUCATION IN WATERSHEDS
The Sierra Institute’s P-CREW youth corps is an immersive, five-week, experiential work opportunity designed to offer employment on northern California’s public lands to youth from rural and urban areas around the state. The program strives to develop the next generation of natural resource stewards through work experience, field-based learning, personal growth, and professional engagement.
Learn More about this year's Crew Leaders by checking out the P-CREW website at https://pcrew.sierrainstitute.us/
FIELD STAFF BLOGS
Collaborative Forestry Crew 2023
This year Sierra Institute’s Collaborative Forestry Crew made significant contributions to the advancement of fuels reduction and forest health projects on the Lassen National Forest’s (LNF) Almanor Ranger District (ARD). The crew arrived in late May and began timber sale preparations work within the West Shore Community Wildfire Protection Project. They started by painting the timber sale unit boundaries of an 814 acre fuels reduction timber sale called Foggy. Next, they GPS’d these unit boundaries to provide precise acreages for each unit and the sale as a whole. The crew also delineated Riparian Habitat Conservation Areas (RHCAs) within the timber sale units. Their next task was to designate which trees would be removed within each timber sale unit. The crew completed 215 acres of cut tree marking in about 6 weeks. This was a significant accomplishment considering the density and complexity of the tree stands they were working in. Foggy timber sale is made up of stands of true Sierra mixed-conifer, the species diversity is completely unique as compared to the rest on the LNF. The crew designated trees to be removed with paint so that there would be no paint left on trees after the area is thinned. The stands of trees within Foggy range from some that have been logged in the last 20 years to others that have not been logged for 40+ years, when the practice was to remove the largest trees available. This resulted in stands that are incredibly dense with nearly continuous fuels from the understory to the canopy. Due to the history of fires burning into this area from the Feather River canyon, and the proximity of communities such as Big Meadows, West Shore, Prattville, Canyon Dam, Almanor West, and many popular summer recreation facilities, it was determined that these dense stands should be thinned appropriately to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires moving through the area. In 2021, the Dixie Fire nearly burned the entirety of the West Shore and rightfully added a sense of urgency to accomplish the kind of work the Forestry Crew contributed to this summer. Thanks to their efforts, we are much closer to the goal of a healthier, more fire resistant forest in this critical area.
The crew was also able to become certified timber cruisers by the standards of the USFS. They accomplished high marks in both the written and field portions of the Qualified Cruiser Exam. They put these skills to use in the Titanic CCTV Timber Sale, a project in which trees will be removed along a future PG&E transmission line being built to provide power to a new CalTrans CCTV station of Morgan Summit. The new station will provide travelers of CA-36 with more information to make their journeys through this mountainous area safer.
The crew received training in the safe use of chainsaws, completing a rigorous three day S-212 training program. This certification is good for four years and will be very valuable in many different natural resource field work settings. The Forestry Crew used their chainsaw skills to clear roads and gain access to several different project sites. The crew also completed a two-day Wilderness First Aid course in which they gained knowledge about and practiced hands-on scenarios in order to recognize, treat, and prevent injuries and illnesses that are common in field settings.
This season, the Forestry Crew also completed the layout of several hand thinning projects in the Robbers Creek Watershed Restoration Project area. The goals of these projects are to enhance meadows and aspen that have been encroached by conifers, as well as reduce fuel loading in critical habitats for threatened wildlife species, in this case, the Northern Goshawk. During their work at Robbers Creek the crew had a special opportunity to work alongside and mentor crew members from Sierra Institute's youth corps program known as Plumas, Conservation, Restoration, and Education in Watersheds “P-CREW”. This was one of the highlights of the year for the Forestry Crew as they were able to present their work and give field demonstrations to youth navigating their first job in the natural resources sector. The enthusiasm shown by both the Forestry Crew Members and the P-CREW members towards forestry and conservation work was truly inspiring to witness. Giving hope that there will be new generations of natural resource field workers for years to come.
Personally, I would like to voice my heartfelt thanks to these young people who came to work in a place I have called home for many years, a place which has seen devastation and tragedy directly related to being a rural forested community. To receive reinforcements in the fight to try to prevent future loss as well as achieve some semblance of a functionally healthy forest environment from people of their quality is something I will always be grateful for. Some came from hundreds of miles away to do so. Some, like me, consider these forests to be their backyard. I know if you are a local to these parts as well, you probably feel the same. So if you see a young person at the gas station or grocery store, covered in paint, dirt, and sometimes ash one of these summers, take a moment and just say “Thank you”.
-Tony Charbonnier
Partnership Prep Forester
Sierra Institute