There are few topics more crucial to a healthy Sierra than wildfire – but what will it really take to address a problem this big and this urgent? Please join us for a very special online film screening of Not IF But When: Wildfire Solutions The intensity and size of this year’s wildfire season leaves […]
Rural Communities
State of the Lake – Community Vitality
A vibrant community is based in a healthy ecosystem – but just as important is a working economy. When we were planning this event—long before pandemic made in-person gathering impossible—we wanted to foster a conversation with community members about the way our environment influences our economy and vice-versa – and how both affect quality of […]
Harnessing Your Independence
Work and Life in a Rural Setting “Must be nice,” I hear from different people in cities when I tell them I work in the heart of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The natural beauty, the serenity, the peacefulness, all must be nice they say. Yet it is hard not to note that the population of […]
Essential Ingredients
While driving from Oregon toward Indian Valley and my new position as Watershed Coordinator at the Sierra Institute for Community and Environment, I reflected on the circuitous route that finally brought me here. I thought of a childhood in the mossed, temperate rainforests of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a handful of years pursuing degrees and mountain […]
Sierra Institute Chosen for Rural Community Investment
Wood utilization in the Sierra Nevada got a big boost when the Sierra Nevada Conservancy awarded $400,000 to Sierra Institute for enhancing local business. The funding will help the Taylorsville-based organization increase use of low-value, small diameter wood, creating both healthier forests and better jobs. At least 10 redeveloped industrial sites will be incorporated in […]
Learning About Forest Collaboratives
Last month I attended a meeting of the Burney-Hat Creek Community Forest and Watershed Group (BHCCFWG, or BHC for short). It was held at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, a small building and an array of telescope dishes arranged seemingly haphazardly in the valley. The skeletons of burned trees on the surrounding mountains barely visible […]