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Sierra CAMP: Sierra Climate Adaptation & Mitigation Partnership
Sierra CAMP is a public-private, cross-sector partnership working to promote climate adaptation and mitigation strategies across the Sierra Nevada region.
What is Sierra CAMP?
The Sierra Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Partnership (Sierra CAMP) is an engaged group of individuals and organizations who understand that their well-being depends on the health and long-term resilience of the natural systems around them.
A public-private, cross-sector partnership, Sierra CAMP works to 1) identify and promote climate adaptation and mitigation strategies across the region, and 2) build connections with downstream urban areas to develop broader support for investment in Sierra resources that are critical to the rest of the state.
Sierra CAMP is one of the five regional climate adaptation and mitigation collaboratives supported and facilitated by the Governor’s Office.
Sierra CAMP Objectives
Sierra CAMP aims to reduce the burden of climate impacts on communities and ecosystems throughout the Sierra-Cascade, and in the downstream urban communities that depend on those rural resources.
To achieve these objectives, Sierra CAMP will:
1. Catalyze leaders from government, business, academia and community groups to come together, within and across market and jurisdictional boundaries, to: share information and best practices, identify critical needs and agreed-upon actions, leverage existing efforts and resources, and develop new funding sources; and
2. Develop and strengthen connections with urban downstream users of Sierra ecosystem services to build a stronger collective voice for investment in Sierra resources.
Why Sierra CAMP?
With decreased snowpack, continued drought, and more numerous and damaging wildfires as the new "normal", we need to act now to protect California communities and the resources they depend on.
Sierra CAMP starts by bringing together key voices within the Sierra region, but it goes a step further by also engaging urban downstream communities and decision-makers in crafting solutions. It is Sierra CAMP's vision to have community leaders from Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area urging lawmakers to invest in the upper watershed as a strategy to ensure reliability of their water, energy, recreation and other resources.
As the state makes historic decisions about where to invest billions in new and existing funding, Sierra CAMP offers a collaborative mechanism for ensuring that the connection between urban population centers and the rural resources they depend on is recognized and valued.
Governance Policy
Sierra CAMP’s Governance Policy identifies the membership strategy, determines rights and responsibilities of steering committee members and general members, determines contribution fee structure, and identifies decision-making and priority-setting process. Upon joining Sierra CAMP, members review the Governance Policy and sign the corresponding Membership Agreement.
Region
The project region spans from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in the south all the way north to the Oregon border, and from the Sierra foothills to the Nevada border.
The Sierra is a resource-rich region covering more than 25% of California’s land area, or 25+ million acres. It is the state’s principal watershed, supplying up to 2/3 of California’s developed water supply for urban areas – including San Francisco, the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Coast and Southern California – and 1/3 of California’s rich agricultural land.
The Sierra sustains 60% of California’s animal species and almost half of its plant species. In addition, the Sierra supplies up to half of California’s annual timber yield and 15% of the state’s power needs, with the capacity to develop even more renewable energy through biomass, solar, and wind power. Its forests and agricultural lands are also uniquely suited to help reduce the impacts of a changing climate by sequestering carbon.
Targeted Stakeholders:
-Local government
-Industry
-Academia
-Special district
-Nonprofit organizations
-Health and human services
-State of California agencies
-Federal agencies
-Existing urban collaboratives in Sacramento, Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Sierra Business Council:
Sierra CAMP is managed by the Sierra Business Council under the strategic guidance of the Sierra CAMP Steering Committee. Sierra Business Council is an organization with a 20-year history of fostering thriving communities in the Sierra through projects that promote, develop and amplify the area’s social, environmental and economic capital.
You can learn more about Sierra Business Council's Sierra CAMP and join their member network by visiting their website.
For additional questions, or to get involved, please contact Sierra CAMP Manager Diana Madson.
If you would like to support the Sierra Nevada Alliance Initiatives,
please click here to contribute to our funding.
The policy of the Resource is to include articles that appear in local or
major media outlets relevant to Sierra conservation. We also include news
releases, event notices, funding opportunities and job announcements sent to
us from our Member Groups and friends. If you as a reader disagree with the
content of a submission we encourage you to submit a letter to the editor of
the issuing publication to reach the broader audience who read the article.
You are welcome to forward your letter to the editor to the Alliance for
inclusion in our new "Letters to the Resource" section. We also invite Letters
to the Resource to be directly submitted on any article with which you're
concerned.
Newsletter contents prepared by Kate Gladstein.
If you have articles, events or announcements that you would like included in this newsletter or if you have feedback,
please email Kate!.
