By Lauren Redmore One of the biggest barriers facing improved management of California’s forests is the general scarcity of small forestry businesses to service landscape needs for fuels reduction and other wildfire preventative measures. Once a thriving sector across the state, small forestry businesses took a hit in the 1990s as capacity consolidated towards industrial, often land-owning, […]
Sierra Institute Blog
Forest Products for Forest Communities
We began this week with the first snowfall of the season gently blanketing the mountainside beyond Taylorsville. This first glimpse of winter symbolizes the march of time in what has felt like an endlessly dry summer—one where our community was upended for weeks on end, concluding for far too many with tragedy and loss, in […]
Economic Development and Workforce Solutions – Sierra Forest Entrepreneurs
By Addie Wright and Lauren Redmore For rural forested areas across Northern California, economic development initiatives can sometimes be at odds with the environmental and social needs of local communities. As an organization committed to advancing both community and environment, the Sierra Institute has been involved in socio-economic monitoring of many communities over the years. […]
SCALE and The Evolving Impacts of Wildfire
In the Winter of 2020, the Sierra Institute conducted a series of interviews in preparation for our SCALE meeting, in which we aimed to gain perspective from our stakeholders regarding their experience in the 2020 wildfire season. The impacts discussed in these conversations were highly-varied and nuanced, ranging from practical discussions of hindered collaborative and […]
How Has the Dixie Fire Affected Sierra Institute’s Work?
By Kyle Rodgers and Noah Abramson The Dixie Fire burned hot through several communities, reducing homes, businesses, and everything in between to piles of burned rubble. It is hard to reflect on positive fire effects when so much was lost, but looking across the landscape there are some hints of hope among the smoke. Our […]
RISE-ing Up To The Challenge
By Lauren Redmore and Zoe Watson The timber industry decline that led to mill closures in the 1990s left many rural forested communities in California without an economic base, driving out many families in search of economic opportunity. Those who stayed behind still lack family supporting employment opportunities. As timber processing capability plummeted before stabilizing […]
Youth Support Wildland Urban Interface Fuels Reduction Efforts in Butterfly Valley
Last summer, in 2020, the Sierra Institute for Community & Environment youth crew, Plumas Conservation Restoration and Education in Watersheds (P-CREW) worked in Butterfly Valley, CA. This 500-acre valley is managed by the Plumas National Forest and is home to the Butterfly Botanical Area which was designated in 1976 as a protected area due to […]
Earth Day Reflections by Spencer Lachman
To me, Earth Day is an opportunity to reflect on our individual relationships to global systems. The adage goes, “Think globally and act locally”, suggesting we should consider the broader implications of our actions on our global community and the intentionality of the decisions we make as consumers, humans, and Americans. To understand these identities […]
Native Plant Propagation: A New Collaborative and a Novice Horticulturist
I’ve never thought of myself as a gardener and especially not as a native plant horticulturist; however, as I came in as an Americorps Volunteer with the Sierra Institute this is exactly the role I took on for one of the many projects that were waiting for me. This role I find myself in is […]
Who Cares about Forest Roads?
By Virginia Pritchard Virginia started working at the Sierra Institute in the Fall of 2020 as a Collaborative Forestry Management Apprentice and will be working on West Lassen Headwaters Infrastructure Assessment and Watershed Improvement Project. She graduated from Oregon State University in 2016 with a dual B.S. in Environmental Science and Microbiology with a Chemistry […]