June is National Rivers Month
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At Sierra Institute, we understand that healthy forests depend on healthy watersheds and rivers. Watersheds are the land where waters drain into shared bodies of water–including rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands. When we think about rivers we think about their roles within watersheds, as habitats for biodiversity, as definers of landscapes, and as important contributors to forest and community health.
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Beavers are some of nature’s best engineers. Their dams help to restore the spaces that exist along the edges of bodies of water like rivers and lakes and streams; these spaces are called riparian zones. Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) are human made structures built with natural materials found on site–just like a beaver would. Beaver dams and BDAs work by slowing water flows, raising water levels and causing temporary channels and pooling. This in turn creates new habitats for aquatic life, holds sediment, enhances stream channels, and provides water to vegetation.
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SCALE-Sierra to California All Lands Enhancement Annual Meeting
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Collaboration in forest management is vital in California. The Sierra to California
All Lands Enhancement project brings together 15-18 collaboratives working to address landscape-scale restoration, community enhancement, and resilience. This year’s meeting is open to all landscape restoration stakeholders, practitioners, agency officials, and others in California. It will offer opportunities for sharing experience, advancing peer learning, and collectively solving unique and common challenges through in-person networking and educational sessions. We will meet in-person at the North Tahoe Event Center on July 24-25, 2025. Tickets are $185 and include lodging, some meals, and participation. If costs are a barrier, please reach out to Bella Bledsoe (ibledsoe@sierrainstitute.us) or Zach Browning (zbrowning@sierrainstiute.us) for potential accommodations.
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South Lassen Watersheds Group
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The South Lassen Watersheds Group (SLWG) has been convening and planning projects for eight years. Last week, we facilitated a summer field tour that provided a valuable opportunity to review progress over time and reflect on how partners are continuing to adapt to changing needs and conditions across the landscape. The tour, focused on the Lassen National Forest, brought together about twenty agency staff, local organizations, and community-based practitioners to strengthen shared understanding of current implementation efforts and explore pathways for deeper collaboration. Participants discussed topics such as reforestation, hand-thinning, and streamlining timber operations, during stops at the West Shore Reforestation Unit, Mill Creek, and timber sale areas near Mineral. The group engaged in conversations about improving communication and transparency through tools like ArcGIS Online Story Maps and partner updates. The tour reinforced SLWG’s mission of supporting collaborative, adaptive, and landscape-scale restoration rooted in community and ecological resilience.
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2025 California Brownfields Workshops: Reuse, Renew, Revitalize
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On June 3, 2025 Sierra Institute’s Martha McAlister spoke about navigating EPA grants for Brownfields site assessment at the Center For Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) 2025 California Brownfields Workshop. Martha was one of three panelists for Transforming Brownfields into Vibrant Spaces–speaking about Sierra Institute’s work developing the Indian Valley Wood Utilization Campus, a former brownfield, and how to successfully leverage EPA grant funding. Thanks to several EPA brownfields grants, the Wood Utilization Campus will soon be the site of a working Cross Laminated Timber manufacturing facility and a new local employer–providing sustainable jobs in Plumas County.
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In addition to two assessments already underway, the Sierra Institute has capacity for 3-4 new brownfield assessment projects and is accepting proposals now through September 30, 2025. We are looking to collaborate with anyone who owns a brownfield or is interested in revitalizing one within the North State region (Butte, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Tehama, Trinity, Shasta, Sierra, and Siskiyou Counties). Review and final decisions will be issued in December.
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P-CREW 2025 Session 1 has begun!
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Twenty-one high schoolers ages 16-18 have just arrived for P-CREW Session 1 2025! This week they’ll be learning skills for camping and living outdoors: how to set up a tent, how to cook at camp, how to use tools, basic first aid and basic trail building/maintenance. Soon they’ll split into 2 crews and head off to their project areas for field work.
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What are some items on the packing list?:
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- Sturdy clothes and boots that can be ruined.
- Small quantities of toiletries–showers are rarely accessible.
- A dress up or crazy outfit for skits.
- Small musical instruments.
- Personal journals (we provide them with field notebooks).
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Tie-Dye Threads for Our Watersheds!
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Join us Saturday July 12, 2025 for a colorful afternoon at Broken Stick Arts & Crafts, in Portola, CA to support our youth conservation corps working to restore forests and watersheds across the Feather River region, P-CREW! Enjoy tie-dyeing, BBQ, refreshments, and good company while learning how youth are making a real impact on wildfire resilience and watershed health. Tickets are $45 – includes all materials, a custom tie-dyed P-CREW tee, BBQ & refreshments, and a taste of summer fun for a great cause. Help us grow the next generation of environmental stewards—grab your ticket and bring a friend!
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In May, the Sierra Institute hosted a series of workshops bringing together community members in Quincy, Portola, Taylorsville, and Susanville, CA to explore new risk management software called Vibrant Planet. In a joint effort with the National Forest Service and National Forest Foundation, Sierra Institute staff gathered community input and demonstrated how a prioritization and sequencing software could model wildfire risk and land management opportunity given community interest and values.
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Home Hardening, Insurance, and Wildfire Risk Housing Solutions
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In May, Executive Director Jonathan Kusel participated in a virtual Lunch & Learn: Home Hardening, Insurance, and Wildfire Risk Housing Solutions hosted by our friends the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation. To watch a recording of the meeting, click here.
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During the May Sierra Institute Board meeting we shared updates on a wide variety of project work currently underway and discussed how recent shifts in federal direction might impact existing, ongoing, and future projects. There was a preliminary conversation about a potential new headquarters building and a field tour to give board members the opportunity to see on-the-ground progress firsthand.
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In June, American Forests hosted Cone Camp. Among attendees were representatives from the Forest Service, the timber industry, land owners, Indigenous peoples and others involved in reforestation and restoration work. It was an opportunity to learn about seed and tree identification in California’s forests and how different groups are thinking about reforestation and restoration.
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On June 11, 2025, in coordination with our friends at Blue Forest, we welcomed representatives from PG&E, Sierra Nevada Conservancy and Metropolitan water district to visit some of our project areas to envision future collaborations for the benefit of our shared communities. We visited project sites throughout China Grade, Round Valley, and Taylorsville to talk about thinning, prescribed burning, burn scars, reservoirs, and watershed recovery.
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Your support helps us to sustain our work in our forests, our watersheds, and our rural communities. Thank you!
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P.O. Box 11, 4438 Main Street
Taylorsville, CA 95983
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