Not displaying correctly? Click to view this email in your browser

Resource
Articles

  Climate Change  |   Forestry  |   Recreation  |   Water  |   Wildlife  |   Other Articles

July 9, 2015

Sierra Happenings

Events and Activities

ESLT's Lands & Legacy Celebration!

Come to celebrate California's "Wild Side" with the Eastern Sierra Land Trust for their conservation party of the year: Lands & Legacy! This annual event celebrates the protection of the Eastern Sierra's treasured wild and working lands. Co-hosted by Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, the event will include a signature Benefit Dinner at the stunning Parallax Restaurant and a special Benefit Concert featuring renowned musical talents Chris Webster and Nina Gerber.

Date: July 24 - 26, 2015
Place: Mammoth Lakes, CA
Price: Prices range between $112-125

For more information and to register, click here


Free King Range Hikes!

A sustainable trail building workshop is set for July 18, at the Hidden Valley Trailhead, led by Arcata BLM Recreation Technician Avery Love.

View a full moon rising over the Pacific Ocean sunset and the King Range on July 31st, for a 2.5 mile hike to the summit of King Peak, led by BLM Wilderness Ranger Paul Sever.

Date:
Trail Building Workshop: Sat, July 18, 9am - 12:30pm;
Moonlight hike: Fri, July 31, 4pm to midnight.
Place: King Range National Conservation Area
For more information, click here!
To sign up, please email The King Range Project Office or call 707-986-5400.


State of the Lake with Dr. Geoff Schladow!

UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) will release the annual Tahoe: State of the Lake Report on Thursday, July 23. Director Dr. Geoff Schladow will present the most important factors that affected lake health last year at a public presentation at 6 p.m.

Date: Thurs July 23, 5:30 - 7:30pm
Place: Tahoe Environmental Research Center
291 Country Club Drive
TCES Rooms 139/141
Incline Village, NV

For more information or directions, call 775-881-7566, or click here!


Job Announcements & Volunteer Opportunities

Positions available through Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership!

Do you love the Sierra? Want to help restore and protect the Range of Light? Do you want to gain valuable environmental professional experience? Apply to become one of the 28 Members of the 2015-2016 Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership (SNAP)!

For more information about available positions, click here to visit the Join SNAP page.
For additional information, please contact S.N.A.P. Program Director Lynn Baumgartner, or call 530-542-4546 x 705.

CULTURAL RESOURCE FIELD TECHNICIAN!

The Great Basin Institute, a Reno-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization, is hiring up to two (2) Cultural Resource Field Technicians, including one Senior Field Technician, to focus on cultural resource survey and preparation of site records on Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest managed lands primarily within the Bridgeport and Carson Ranger Districts.

Job description and application info here.


Resources

River Network - Call for River Rally Workshops!

The call for workshop proposals for 2016 River Rally 2016 in Mobile, AL is now open! Do you have a proven approach or innovation to protect and restore rivers? Can you teach others to become stronger, more effective caretakers? Do you have ideas? River Rally provides an excellent opportunity to share your knowledge and experience with a broad audience.
More information available here.


Top Destinations for Rafting the California Rivers

Summer opens the door for some great rafting opportunities to escape into the heart and beauty of California’s public lands. Plan your trips to these river sites with a list of top destinations to explore dazzling scenery and audacious rapids.
More information available here.


Resilient Lands and Waters Initiative - California Headwaters Partnership

NOAA is providing new details on the Resilient Lands and Waters Initiative, including the California Headwaters Partnership. The California headwaters includes watersheds in the Cascades and Sierra Nevada.
Recent updates for the California headwaters have been published.
More information available here.



Highlight

Please join us August 10th for the
Fourth Annual Sierra Water Workgroup
event in North Lake Tahoe!


Sierra Water Workgroup
Sierra Water Workgroup, supporting Sierra Nevada watersheds!

This year’s SWWG event is a full-day workshop focused on issues and tools around the theme “Protecting Our Water.”

Pre-determined issues include:
  • Quantification - how to figure out how much we have;
  • Beneficial and Reasonable Use in the Sierra - What do with what we have;
  • Quality - source protection, legacy mining, forest planning, etc.; and
  • Interaction of pressures and interests in the Sierra water supply exerted by California's needs - in times of drought and in light of climate change.

  • We will spend the day framing questions about how these issues can be addressed with specific tools and concrete action, including timelines and assignments, as opposed to simply doing additional planning. We will investigate the trending policies regarding these issues in California and how are dollars expected to follow those policy trends.

    Come prepared with your region’s specific high-priority concerns framed by the broad issues above and receive consultation from big shot lawyers and issue and policy experts. There will also be time for mingling and networking. We can’t wait to see you again, or for the first time, this year!


  • Draft Agenda: Available on the website!
  • Registration: Only $45 for the fully catered one-day event with legal and water experts from across the Sierra and state. Click here to register now!
  • Sponsorship Opportunities: Whether attending or not, sponsors receive tabling space and other benefits. Click here for more information


  • Register TODAY before your summer fills up!

    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@sierranevadaalliance.org.




    Cartoon3



    Cartoon1



    Cartoon2



    Recent News

    Climate Change

    Jerry Brown will visit the Vatican for climate change talks with Pope Francis
    Fresno Bee, David Siders, 7/9/15

    Sierra Link: Gov. Jerry Brown, a longtime champion of environmental causes and one-time seminarian, will travel to Vatican City this month to meet with Pope Francis and attend gathering of local officials on climate change and human trafficking.

    Mapping drought's impact on electricity generation
    High Country News, Jonathan Thompson, 7/7/15

    Sierra Link: Surely the most obvious link between water and energy, and between climate and electricity generation, though, is found at the West’s numerous hydroelectric generation stations, and California — deep in a nasty drought — is feeling that link in a painful way. Think how this will affect us at home in Sierra Nevada.

    Scientists see climate change in action in California wildflower fields
    LA Times, Sasha Harris-Lovett, 6/24/15

    Sierra Link: Winters with less snow and more sun are taking a toll on California wildflowers. These twin trends, observed in our own Sierra mountains, have reduced the diversity of wildflower species in a Northern California research meadow by 15% over 15 years, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Forestry

    Enforce environmental regulations on illegal pot growers
    Sacramento Bee, Jane Braxton Little, 7/4/15

    Sierra Link: This article is an intriguing call for stronger environmental protection. Illegal marijuana cultivation is identified here as a widely recognized environmental menace, not only impacting streams and forests with pesticides and from bulldozing trees, but also impacting coho salmon, Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, all threatened species, from extensive water diversion.

    GALENA’S ‘BEE HOTEL’ COULD SAVE THE FOREST
    Great Basin Institute, BBeffort, 5/5/15

    Sierra Link: It looks like someone built a firewood shelter in front of the Galena Creek Visitor Center, but upon closer inspection there are many small sections featuring terra cotta pots, hay, shelving, and other various material. This ‘bee hotel’ attempts to provide a pesticide-free haven for bees, bugs and other pollinators, environmentally critical in the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin.

    Recreation

    Secretary Jewell Announces $405 Million in PILT Payments to Support Vital Services in Rural Communities
    U.S. Department of the Interior, Press Release, 6/25/15

    Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced that about 1,900 small governments around the country will benefit from the 2015 PILT program. PILT program eligibility is reserved for local governments (mostly rural counties) that contain non-taxable federal lands and provide vital services, such as public safety, housing, social services and transportation. These jurisdictions provide significant support for national parks, wildlife refuges and recreation areas.

    A film documents two friends on the Sierra trek
    High Country News, 5/25/15

    Sierra Link: Here is a review of an interesting new film, “Only the Essential: A Hike from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail”, by Colin Arisman.


    Water

    California water bill likely to pass U.S. House, then lose steam
    Sacramento Bee, Michael Doyle, 7/7/15

    Sierra Link: An ambitious California water bill will pass a key U.S. House committee this week and soon will sail through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on a near party-line vote. Whether it gets approved by the Senate or not, it will contribute to our discussion about water management in the highland areas.

    As lakes drain, we must rethink water
    Sacramento Bee, Editorial Board, 7/4/15

    Sierra Link: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials, who operate the Central Valley Project, relied on a faulty gauge in April and overestimated the amount of cold water behind Shasta Dam. That error may seem trivial, but not in this fourth year of drought. The error is now cascading throughout the water system, making clearer than ever that Californians (and Sierrans) must rethink how water is used.

    Fears surface about mercury in Shasta Lake fish
    Sacramento Bee, Associated Press, 7/5/15

    Sierra Link: Mercury, a legacy of the Gold Rush, has worked its way into the food chain of Shasta Lake, with levels beyond what is considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, state tests have found. Shasta is California's largest reservoir and cherished by anglers — many unaware of the mercury in the lake and in the fish they catch.

    Wildlife

    Warm-water threat forces hatcheries to move fish
    Sacramento Bee, Ryan Sabalow, 6/26/15

    Sierra Link: For the second year in a row, managers at two state fish hatcheries below Folsom Dam say the threat of fatally warm water in August and September has again left them no choice but to move fish. What does this mean for the future of aquaculture in the Sierra?

    Mono Lake's ecological crisis is a blow to wildlife, L.A. water supply
    LA Times, Louis Sahagun, 6/24/15

    Sierra Link: As this body of salt water recedes, repercussions mount: exposed alkaline flats give rise to dust storms, a haven for endangered migrating birds has become more vulnerable to predators, and Los Angeles — which has diverted water from this lake for seven decades — could be cut off. The 1-million-year-old lake is within two feet of the level that state officials say threatens the alpine ecosystem at the base of the eastern Sierra Nevada.

    California says new Delta tunnels plan better for environment, fish
    Fresno Bee, Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow, 7/9/15

    Sierra Link: California officials, unveiling the fine print on a significant redesign of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Delta tunnels project, said Thursday that the plan would reduce impacts on the environment and improve habitat for endangered fish and other species. This affects our native fish species in the Sierra, where they are already threatened.

    Other Articles

    Exploring Tule Lake, an Austere Land With a Complex History
    The New York Times, Elizabeth Zach, 6/26/15

    Sierra Link: This is an interesting article taking us on a complex regional history of a small lake in northern California. Such an article could be written about many of our lakes!

    Your Contribution to the California Drought
    The New York Times, By Larry Buchanan, Josh Keller, Haeyoun Park, Tony Cenicola and Dave Frank, 5/21/15

    Sierra Link: The average American consumes more than 300 gallons of California water each week by eating food that was produced [here]. This article is incredibly interesting and indicates how California's water crisis is a nation-wide issue.





    Sierra Nevada Alliance

    P.O. Box 7989
    South Lake Tahoe, CA 96158

    phone: 530.542.4546
    fax:530.542.4546

    www.sierranevadaalliance.org




    Since 1993 the Sierra Nevada Alliance has been protecting and restoring Sierra lands, water, wildlife and communities. The regional climate change program shapes and implements county and regional resource plans that promote smart land use, incorporate sustainable water management practices, aggressively reduce greenhouse gases and adapt to climate change.