• About
    • Mission
    • Our Approach
    • History
    • Our Team
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  • What We Do
    • Supporting Healthy Forests and Watersheds
      • Collaborative Forestry
      • Biomass and Woody Renewables
      • Upper Feather River Watershed
      • Watershed Conservation Program Study
    • Building Vibrant Communities
      • Disadvantaged Community Involvement Program
      • Sierra Fellows
      • Rural Community Development Initiative
      • Increasing Access to Healthcare
      • Socioeconomic Monitoring
    • Developing Young Stewards
      • Natural Resource Education
      • P-CREW Summer Youth Conservation Corps
      • Recreation Programs
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Our Approach

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Research, education, and community collaboration are the tools of our trade. Our work ranges from researching the outcomes of a national law on rural communities, to educating youth in  natural resources to encourage stewardship  of our ecosystems, to facilitating assessments and bilingual dialogues about healthcare, to testifying in the halls of Congress.

 

Research

The Sierra Institute uses research methods that bring communities into the process or that bring researchers into the community’s quest for knowledge. Involving communities in research helps improve our understanding of issues and can empower communities to participate in decisions that affect them. The Sierra Institute pursues research that contributes to improving community wellbeing and ecosystem health.

The Sierra Institute uses participatory research to help rural communities and workers investigate and identify ways to address issues they identify as important. Examples of past projects include:

Proyecto Salud: a project focused on improving health and healthcare access among rural, Latino immigrants

Assisting low-income, culturally-diverse mushroom harvesters to monitor gathering and land management activities that affect their harvest

Partnering with Native American communities in their efforts to document, sustain and practice Traditional Ecological Knowledge

 

Education

The Sierra Institute views education as any process that creates useable knowledge or facilitates an opening of the mind to new ideas, knowledge, and experiences. The Sierra Institute pursues education by creating forums and networking groups of similar focus and linking communities with each other, policy discussions, and resources. Some examples include:

Working with teachers to integrate natural resource management principles across the curriculum

Tours of innovative forest and watershed restoration projects through the Center of Forestry

Establishing dialogues and learning circles among community groups and policy makers regarding natural resource management (including the Lead Partnership Group, the Pacific Community Forestry Center)

Producing outreach information on maintaining healthy forests and watershed at the local level

 

Community Collaboration

The Sierra Institute advances community and ecosystem health by facilitating dialogues, public involvement in policy development, and community capacity building. We work to build the capacity and resilience of rural communities to participate in decisions that affect them. Some examples include:

Leading public involvement processes for major science and policy efforts, such as the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project

Educating policy makers on issues important to rural communities through one-on one meetings, agency briefings, and congressional testimony

Coordinating the Lake Almanor Watershed Group to advise on sustainable management of the Almanor Basin watershed

Facilitating workshops to build trust and capacity for collaboration between Latino community members and health and human service providers

About Us

  • Mission
  • Our Approach
  • History
  • Our Team
  • Contact Us

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