Fire, Water, and Conservation in the Northern Sierra Nevada

The goal of this workshop is to introduce local citizens, students, and other interested people to the theory and practice of the conservation and restoration of fire-prone Sierra Nevada landscapes, including their human communities, forests, wetlands and the riparian ecosystems associated with their watersheds. 

We will explore these issues in the context of an indigenous “world view” that underlies Traditional Ecological Knowledge; briefly review the ecological problems arising from the impacts of forest and watershed management associated with Western land use practices; and, finally, explore the need for collaborative partnerships among residents, agencies, non-profits and others to assess and treat forest and watershed landscapes proactively to protect their increasingly at-risk lands, people, and ecosystems. In particular, we will work with the North Yuba Forest Partnership (NYFP) and key faculty and experts associated with San Francisco State University (SFSU) through the Sierra Nevada Field Campus (SNFC), and other collaborators, to  develop the foundation of what could become a long-term citizen science monitoring program designed to track potential ecological impacts and benefits from forest thinning and montane wetland restoration.

The workshop will be held at the SNFC and involve lectures, guest lectures, field trips, field design and some field sampling experience.  While the primary focus is on monitoring impacts to vegetation, we are also interested providing a framework that could attract scientists interested in monitoring mammals, birds, fungi, insects, and other organismal groups. Ideally, this workshop will lead to the establishment of a long-term, citizen science monitoring program that focuses on biological changes to both control sites and treatment sites over time.