In last week’s Spotlight on the Disadvantaged Community Involvement (DACI) Program, I wrote about community identification and mapping.  This is the last entry in the DACI Spotlight series.

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Last week Team DAC had planned to visit the Yosemite-Mariposa Regional Water Management Group (RWMG), where we were going to review the community mapping exercise.  Our plans changed when we were hit by a winter storm and didn’t feel safe driving on mountain roads.  We had become a classic example of one of the rural challenges we were trying to address through the DACI program!  After all, how can someone participate in a water planning meeting if they can’t get there?

Fortunately, the weather only hindered us, and the regularly scheduled meeting went on as planned.  Adapting to the circumstances, I called in to provide an update on the grant, our planned activities, and how and why we were doing the community mapping exercise.  Also fortunate was the fact that we had completed the first round of mapping with participants prior to the meeting and I was able to share a draft map with the group.  Having this completed draft for participants to look at made it much easier to explain what we were doing and what effect it would have on the process moving forward.

This update was important for a number of reasons.  First, it was a great opportunity to actively participate in a RWMG meeting and receive updates from around the region.  It was also important to introduce myself and the project to the group.  We are administering a large grant and it’s important for the people we work with to understand what we are doing and how it will help the group achieve its goals.  Finally, by explaining the community identification process I was able to reach a larger number of people who can assist in outreach efforts.  We’ve been looking for workshop participants who can help us assess the capacity of each community.  After my presentation, I asked for suggestions about who we should invite to participate in the community capacity workshops, and I could hear the group brainstorming ideas.

Throughout January, I have introduced and previewed the DACI program with four blog posts.  Lauren Miller and I will continue working on the mapping project and preparing for the next phase: community capacity workshops.  Look for another blog post after we begin workshopping in April!

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 feelings of devastation and hopelessness.  

This grief permeates everyday interactions between neighbors at home and with perfect strangers at the grocery store. Nothing feels normal around here, and our community is faced with the heavy question of, “What do we want tomorrow to look like?” 

Our work at the Sierra Institute has always been forward-looking. Prior to the Dixie Fire, our efforts to build a forest restoration economy encompassed support to rural community well-being, fuels reduction efforts across our overstocked forests, and support to the economic development of small and local forestry businesses.  

Now in the shadow of the Dixie Fire, our work takes on a new life given the outsized role that shelter has played in shaping our community even before hundreds of homes burned to the ground.  

Even if businesses have jobs to offer, housing shortages limit where people can live, and now we are faced with the additional burden of road closures that significantly lengthen commute times. 

The loss of Greenville has devastated our community 

It is in this context that we recognize and celebrate National Forest Products Week.

Our years-long efforts towards building the Indian Valley Wood Products Campus in Crescent Mills could not have had more perfect timing.

Our campus is ready to meet the moment. 

In the coming weeks, we will start down a new path in our relationship with J&C Enterprises as we look to install a sawmill at our Campus. The sawmill will locate timber processing capability within the community to enable processing of blackened timber from fire recovery.

Most importantly, though, it will ensure that trees harvested from fuels reduction work can enter the lumber market, thus facilitating timely forest treatment and hopefully reducing chances of future catastrophic wildfire. 

The resulting local lumber supply will be a boon to our community members looking to rebuild their homes, especially given ongoing lumber supply availability and cost issues that have pervaded this pandemic. 

Small-scale and local forestry businesses are critical infrastructure for rural forested communities across the West facing threat of catastrophic wildfire. We are working with key delivery partners to support the needs of new and growing businesses, and we are optimistic that some successful wood products manufacturing businesses may grow out of the program.  

With the purchase of a small-scale sawmill, Sierra Institute and J&C Enterprises will process blackened timber for lumber to help with rebuilding efforts in our community.

We need community-scale forest products manufacturing capability to support both rural development and forest treatment.

To this end, we celebrate those businesses that are doing the hard work of rebuilding forest products manufacturing capabilities in rural towns across the state.

We envision a future whereby forests sustainably supply regional needs, not just in ecosystem services, but in carbon-storing and fire-resistent materials, like mass timber panels for homes, that can help us build wildfire resilient communities. 

Because we love our forests, we love locally-sourced forest products and aspire to see a post-Dixie future where improved forest management improves communities.

Learn more about our partners:

J&C Enterprises

Learn more about our projects:

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.

Like many towns across the region, some Westwood residents see the surrounding environment as both an attraction for potential economic development and a hazard, especially given the intensifying threat of severe wildfire that has worsened through more severe drought, decades of fire suppression, and loss of a forestry industry. 

Today, there are a few but growing initiatives seeking to improve forest management and bring rural economic development through targeted support to small, local forest businesses.

The first Sierra Forest Entrepreneurs includes twenty-five participants, including one participant from Westwood, representing a range of small, forest-related businesses ranging from hazards mapping, fuels mitigation, reforestation, small sawmill operations, and wood products manufacturers.

Starting in August and ending in December, participants will receive business development training from the Sierra Small Business Development Center and the California Capital Procurement Technical Assistance Center to grow their businesses. Other special presentations focus on wood products manufacturing operations adding value to timber harvested from fuels reduction projects, including TimberAge Systems, a small-scale mass timber manufacturer from Durango, Colorado, and Heartwood Biomass, a community-scaled firewood business in Enterprise, Oregon. Participants are able to network, and share common challenges and solutions to grow their businesses.  

By providing targeted support to small business entrepreneurs in the forestry sector, the Sierra Institute aims to ensure that rural forested communities can mitigate the future threat of wildfire and capture value from lower-value timber. Communities like Westwood can thrive when businesses are aligned with their needs and values.

Given that small forest businesses are a necessary part of a resilient ecosystem across the Sierra, the Sierra Institute will continue to identify ways to champion the work of these entrepreneurs. 

Learn more about Sierra Forest Entrepreneurs