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June 27, 2018

Sierra Happenings

Events and Activities

Film Submissions are OPEN for Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Calling all film makers! SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival shows environmental and adventure films that illustrate the earth’s beauty, the challenges facing our planet, and the work communities are doing to protect the environment. Through these films, Wild & Scenic both informs people about the state of the world and inspires them to take action.

Date: Ends November 30th, 2018

Please click here for more details.


California Adaptation Forum

Join adaptation practitioners from across the state and nation at the 3rd California Adaptation Forum! The Forum will feature a dynamic program across three full days including plenaries, breakout sessions, workshops, tours, a tools salon, a hosted reception, and numerous networking opportunities. Participants will walk away with new strategies, tools, and connections to accelerate adaptation efforts in their own communities.

Date: August 27-29th 2018

Please click here for more details and to register.


25th Anniversary Conference - Sierra Nevada Alliance

We are excited to announce the Sierra Nevada Alliance’s 25th Anniversary Conference in beautiful Kings Beach, California!

The theme for this special event is “Regional Resiliency.”

Date: August 15th - 17th

Please click here for more details and to register.


Job Announcements & Volunteer Opportunities

Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership Member (SNAP) - Sierra Nevada Alliance

We are seeking enthusiastic, conservation-minded people to commit to a year of service to protect Sierra natural resources and sustainable communities. During the year, SNAP members will gain skills and technical training, mentor with outstanding environmental leaders and receive an education award at the successful completion of service.

For more info, click here.

Civic Spark Sierra Nevada Area Opportunities

Find opportunities through Sierra Business Council, Sierra Nevada Alliance, Placer County, and the Town of Mammoth Lakes in Climate Projects, Water Projects, and Opportunity Access Projects. Interviews will begin in July and start dates are in September.

For more info, click here.

Development Assistant - SYRCL

SYRCL is looking for an organized, detail-oriented and friendly person to work on our development and fundraising team on a part-time basis. The Development Assistant will coordinate special events, and assist in tracking financial contributions, stewarding donors, and doing database entry and funder research.

For more info, click here.

Naturalists -Great Basin Outdoor School

Are you passionate about the outdoors, ecology, conservation, and working with kids? Great Basin Outdoor School is looking for candidates with a background in the natural sciences, experience working with kids, and a contagious enthusiasm for the outdoors.

For more info, click here.

Resources

Forest Health Project Grant - Sierra Nevada Conservancy

The Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 and the California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access for All Act of 2018 allocated funding to the Conservancy for a competitive grant program supporting forest health projects that result in multiple watershed benefits.

For more info, click here.


Gold Country Gleaning - Sierra Harvest

Volunteer to harvest fresh fruits and vegetables for those experiencing hunger, or get your unused produce harvested.
Don’t let your food go to waste or become a mess and have volunteers come harvest for you. Your extra fruit can make a meaningful difference for the one in ten people in our community who need healthy food.

Get more information here.


Upper Mokelumne River Watershed Authority

From its founding in 2000, the Authority has served as a venue for addressing water resource issues of concern to those who enjoy and rely on them. Working in collaboration with agencies, organizations, and individuals within the MAC and neighboring regions, UMRWA has secured millions of dollars in grant funding to develop and implement broadly supported water resource solutions.
Don’t let your food go to waste or become a mess and have volunteers come harvest for you. Your extra fruit can make a meaningful difference for the one in ten people in our community who need healthy food.

Get more information here.


NYT - Trash Most Likely to Litter a Beach Quiz

There’s a lot of trash in the ocean these days — remember the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? — and plenty of it, often plastics in various forms, ends up littering shorelines. Which item do you think is the most frequently found?
Educate yourself and then go pick up some trash!

Take the quiz here.


24 Hours of Reality

There are many ways to stop the climate crisis. Let Climate Reality send you their "Be the Voice of Reality" guide on actions that will help you find your voice on climate.

For more info, click here.


Pacific Forest Trust Annual Report

Forests are vital to our climate, water, and to rural economies. Pacific Forest Trust made substantial progress in 2017 toward their vision of ensuring that society values—and pays for—forests for all the benefits they provide. Partnering with many stakeholders, PFT works in the radical middle to bring together urban and rural communities to conserve our shared forest resource and ensure a more sustainable forest future.

For more info, click here.


Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit Camping and Campfire Restrictions

Visiting the Tahoe Basin this summer? Be familiar with the restrictions and regulations before you go (to any beautiful Sierra camp spot)

For more info, click here.


Become a 2018 Member Group of the Sierra Nevada Alliance!

Our goal at the Sierra Nevada Alliance is to protect and restore the Sierra Nevada by strengthening individual efforts and joining together as a region-wide force. The most integral component of the Alliance is our strong network of Member Groups. The goal of the Alliance Member Group program is to increase the value of this network as a resource to all involved through expanding our base of Member Groups. We work to actively facilitate collaboration amongst Member Groups to broaden our collective impact on behalf of the Sierra.
Contact Sara Monson here

For more info, click here.


Highlights

Snap The Sierra Photo Contest

Thanks to everyone who entered, voted and shared our first-ever Snap the Sierra Photo Contest. We received 24 entries and raised hundreds of dollars to protect The Range of Light. We anticipate hosting another photo contest next year.

Here are the top three places for our 2018 contest - Congratulations to the winners!

1st Place: Eastern Sierra Sun Peak by Brandon O’Neill
Caption: Dramatic light on an early morning in the Eastern Sierra just outside Lone Pine.
Date: May 25, 2018
Location: Lone Pine, CA
Signature-Jenny

2nd Place: I love Tahoe by Kimberly Gramckow
Caption: Beautiful Lake Tahoe
Date: May 2018
Location: Bliss State Park
Signature-Jenny

3rd Place: Tahoe Toes by DeWitt Van Siclen
Caption: Gotta get a little dirty in the mountains!
Date: May 31, 2018
Location: Skylandia State Park Signature-Jenny

SNAP Spotlight: Ellyse Varone and Ariel Bohr at Tuolumne River Trust

Signature-Jenny


Ariel graduated from college in 2009 with a degree in Anthropology and it wasn’t until many years and a few long-distance trails later that she decided to focus on environmental conservation as a career path rather than just a hobby. She is a California native and her love of mountains and the Sierra range in particular compelled her to take a position with SNAP. Ellyse traveled over from Colorado where she was born and raised in hopes of finding her niche within the natural world and employment. With a degree in Natural Resources Management she has been inspired as an environmental steward to restore and protect the Earth that is her home and playground. As a fulltime explorer she decided to see what the Sierra Nevada mountains had to offer and how she could contribute to conservation awareness.

Autumn at the Tuolumne River Trust was dominated by school and community presentations that continued into the winter months. The SNAPs took a 3-D augmented reality sandbox and an enviroscape---used to simulate a watershed and stormwater runoff-- around to the local schools to educate the students about the local watershed and how and why it’s important to keep it healthy. This curricula fascinated children and adults alike, and continues to be a staple in TRT’s outreach efforts at local fairs and career day events. Along with school presentations, the SNAPs undertook Stream Team, a monthly water-quality monitoring project performed on behalf of the Tuolumne County Resource Conservation District. The goal of Stream Team is to assess various parameters of stream health, including pH, conductivity, temperature, and turbidity. Water samples are collected at specific sites and tested for nitrates, phosphorus, and potassium.

In early January, the SNAPs were joined for the next three months by a National Civilian Community Corps team (NCCC), another branch of AmeriCorps that addresses community needs throughout the nation. These 14 individuals were from all over the country, from San Jose to Buffalo, and they were elemental in the implementation of a number of TRT’s large-scale restoration projects including trail building and maintenance, building a fire break, and tree planting. These restoration efforts are all happening because of the Rim Fire, a 257,314 acre megafire (the largest on record in the Sierra Nevada), that occurred in 2013.This scope of work promotes overall forest and watershed health as well as providing an element of aesthetic values. Specifically the tree planting engaged over 400 volunteers and put about 14,000 trees in the ground. After the NCCC team left in early April, the SNAP’s continued work on trails and planting as well as creative opportunities with specialists on wildlife surveys, river trips, pollinator studies, and rain/greywater builds. They are currently preparing for a summer of meadow restoration which will include a lot of invasive species removal and native seed collection to promote hydraulic functions and species diversity. Although it will be a hot summer, full of weeds and seeds, hopefully there will be also be plenty of opportunities for swimming hole adventures!


Join us for our 25th Anniversary Conference

Go to W3Schools!


Author and environmental activist Richard Heinberg will deliver the Keynote Address at the Sierra Nevada Alliance's 25th Anniversary Conference on August 16th.

Go to W3Schools!

Heinberg is one of the foremost advocates on a shift away from reliance on fossil fuels and throughout his career, has authored thirteen books, including some of the seminal works on society’s current energy and environmental sustainability crisis. Additionally, Heinberg has delivered hundreds of lectures on energy and climate issues to audiences in 14 countries and has appeared in several film and television documentaries, including 11th Hour, in 2007, alongside Academy Award-Winning actor and notable environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio.

Purchase your conference tickets by June 30th to enjoy the early bird discount. Please visit our website to learn more.

More information and tickets can be found here.






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 Rachael Blum, Administrative Assistant with the Sierra Nevada Alliance.
If you have articles, events or announcements that you would like included in this newsletter or if you have feedback,
please email Rachael.



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Recent News

Climate Change

Why Republicans Are Backing an Obama-era Climate Policy
Brad Plumer, Kendra Pierre-Louis & Coral Davenport, New York Times Climate Fwd, June 20, 2018

Sierra Link: Over the past month, a growing chorus of Senate Republicans, conservative taxpayer groups and corporate executives has been urging President Trump to implement a major Obama-era policy to tackle climate change.

Judge Dismisses Suit Against Oil Companies Over Climate Change Costs
John Schwartz, New York Times Climate, June 25, 2018

Sierra Link: A federal judge on Monday threw out a closely watched lawsuit brought by two California cities against fossil fuel companies over the costs of dealing with climate change. The decision is a stinging defeat for the plaintiffs, San Francisco and Oakland, and raises warning flags for other local governments around the United States that have filed similar suits, including New York City.

RIP Monsanto, the Agriculture Giant Americans Loved to Hate
Halle Detrick, Fortune, June 4, 2018

Sierra Link: Monsanto's takeover by Bayer could create a GMO juggernaut too powerful for Europe to resist, while conveniently "disappearing" a tarnished brand, critics say. Concerns abound over concentration in the seed market.

Forestry

Yosemite Mariposa Grove Of Giant Sequoias To Reopen
Sacramento CBS, June 13, 2018

Sierra Link: After three years of restoration and $40 million, the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite is now open to the public.

California's Forests Are Choking
Howard Hardee,Sacramento News and Review, June 21, 2018

Sierra Link: The Sierra Nevada Conservancy, an agency concerned with the growing forest-carbon imbalance, estimates 200 million trees have been killed by drought, fires and bark beetles since 2010, meaning the wildlands of the Sierra Nevada are releasing carbon dioxide on an enormous scale. That’s right:
California’s forests are polluting the atmosphere.


Recreation

High Sierra Paradise For Free (And For Sale)
Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle, June 21, 2018

Sierra Link: Caples Lake is a gorgeous 600-acre lake located near Carson Pass in the central Sierra Nevada with excellent cabins, camping, fishing, low-speed boating and hiking.

Outdoor Family Vacations Can Bind or Break
Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle, June 24, 2018

Sierra Link: The accompanying lists show what works and what does not work, along with the 10 Commandments of camping with kids. By region, here are the best destinations for families and children.

Water

A New Groundwater Market Emerges in California. Are More on the Way?
Alastair Bland, News Deeply, June 22, 2018

Sierra Link: The pilot program is kicking off in Ventura County, but experts say that it may be replicated in other parts of the state as California works to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and curb overpumping of aquifers.

California Limits Daily Personal Water Use to 55 Gallons - Kind Of
Matt Weiser, News Deeply , June 20, 2018

Sierra Link: The state’s new per capita limit on indoor water use is groundbreaking, but there is no practical way to enforce it. Rather, it is intended to inspire more conservation and guide larger efforts by water utilities.

Wildlife

Awakening the Grizzly
Jeremy Miller, Pacific Standard, June 14, 2018

Sierra Link: Can the grizzly be restored to California? And if so, should it? To the first question, Greenwald believes the answer is a resounding yes.

Ursus Horribilis
Pat Dillon, Moonshine Ink June 14, 2018

Sierra Link: Though I wish our forefathers had not killed them all, consider how much different a camping trip or a walk out to the trash can at night might be if Ol’ Brin still ruled the Sierra.

Sierra Nevada Fishing Report: Always Be Aware Of Fire Danger
D. Price, Tahoe Daily Tribune, June 21, 2018

Sierra Link: Before we get to the report, I would like to stress the importance of fire danger. We are a tinder box waiting for any spark to set us off. That is why it is so important to always be careful when we are out enjoying the local beauty we have..

Other

Ancient River Could Flow Again in Tucson, Thanks to Recycled Wastewater
Matt Weiser, News Deeply, June 18, 2018

Sierra Nevada Link: The Santa Cruz River was once the lifeblood of Tucson, Arizona. Due to heavy development and groundwater overdraft, it hasn’t seen year-round flow in 70 years. The city plans to revive the storied desert river with recycled effluent.





Sierra Nevada Alliance

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

phone: 530.542.4546
fax:530.542.4546

www.sierranevadaalliance.org

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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.