Sierra Nevada Alliance

Annual Report Fiscal Year 2019-2020 The five inaugural Fellows were hired and started working in January 2020. Thurman Roberts was hired with CHIPS, Marlon Charneau with ECWA, Luis Vidal with EDNF, Katie Reidy with FRRCD and Rubie Teffeteller with YSRCDC. Fellows’ work so far has included: F Managing millions of dollars in grant funded forest restoration projects F Building capacity for project planning and prioritization through stakeholder engagement and facilitation F Conducting needs/capacity assessments for RFFC grants F Leveraging over $50,000 of in-kind match F Monitoring and restoring over 2000 acres of forests in the Sierra F Engaging over 100 different stakeholder groups and individuals throughout the Sierra F Attending grant writing, CEQA/NEPA, prescribed fire, project management, nonprofit budget management, and diversity, equity and inclusion culture trainings The Alliance is excited to continue to build and expand this program through the next two years. Fellow Thurman Roberts, who was promoted from a field crew position into his Fellowship with CHIPS, shared the following story in his second quarterly report: “A great story from work would have to be the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) funded Upper Mokelumne River Watershed Habitat Restoration and Defense Project that I have worked on from initial planning meetings to site visits, development of field prescriptions, crew recruitment and leadership development, field preparation, to implementation, monitoring, photo-documentation, mapping, requesting grant advances, invoicing, and reporting. Taken together, I have achieved a significant milestone in my Fellowship. Moving from a field crewmember to an administrator has required me to learn and quickly adapt. Time spent scouting the WCB project with our Registered Professional Forester has provided many hours of learning local environmental histories, fauna and flora, and helped to give a better understanding of project implementation, management, and prescription interpretation. Working with the USFS Amador Ranger District has allowed me to learn about the development and application of silvicultural prescriptions. Collaborating with ACCG’s monitoring workgroup has provided opportunities to learn monitoring techniques and technical protocols, soon to be followed with the actual monitoring.” Fellows at an orientation at CalFire site visit- January 2020 Sierra Corps Forestry Program… cont. 14