The Sierra Nevada Alliance is proud to present the Sierra Corps Forestry Fellowship Program which started in Fall 2019.  The new program is generously funded by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy through the Timber Regulation and Forest Restoration Fund and the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program.  One of the most prevalent challenges facing efforts to restore Sierra Nevada forests today is a shortage of experienced workforce to implement restoration projects. Implementation funds are abundant, but technically trained staff is limited. With this difficulty in mind, the Sierra Corps Program placed five Fellows with Host Site partners throughout the region to conduct work in forest health planning and project implementation, biomass utilization, and wildfire recovery efforts. The first round of Host Sites that the program has partnered with include: American Forests, Calaveras Healthy Impacts Product Solutions, Eastern California Water Association, Eldorado National Forest, Sierra Valley Resource Conservation District, and Yosemite Sequoia Resource Conservation and Development Council.   

Fellows bring previous experience in, and passion for, forest health work to boost their career in this field and assist with restoration implementation, strategic assessment and monitoring, technical permitting and planning, GIS analyses, community outreach, collaborative facilitation, or other relevant tasks. This program is modeled after the Alliance’s 14-year-old Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership watershed program. Both programs create a legacy of conservation leaders for the Sierra and Nation and build capacity for Alliance conservation partners to strengthen the overall impact of work on the ground. Visit our staff page to meet the five Sierra Corps Fellows working in this first year of the program.