Make Your Water Heater Work for You, Plus a SNEW Project Highlight
May 18, 2023 No Comments
Learn about ways you can save energy and money through the WatterSaver program and how SNEW services are helping our community.
Economic Development & Natural Resource Manager
When I decided to attend graduate school to study natural resource policy, I didn’t exactly foresee graduating in the midst of a global pandemic. Instead, I imagined harnessing my freshly-gained knowledge to dive straight into a new career where I would build and advocate for resilient ecosystems and communities in the Mountain West.
Alas, life does not always (or maybe even often) go according to plan. When the likelihood of starting a permanent job following graduation flew out the window in March and April (along with the rest of the world’s expectations for 2020), I transitioned to looking for a summer internship. Having called Truckee home for many years, it was an easy choice to start looking in a community that I already knew and loved.
Reaching out to SBC was also an easy choice. Long interested in the intersection of climate and natural resources, and a devotee of the Sierra, I had followed SBC’s work for years. My master’s research took the connection to the next level, investigating how communities in the West have used natural resource stewardship as a means of rural economic and community development. In other words, I was studying how rural Western communities have sought to integrate “community vitality, environmental quality, economic prosperity and social fairness” before I even knew that those words comprise SBC’s mission statement. From my perspective, the fit seemed like a natural one. Case in point: when SBC’s Biomass in the Sierra came out this past winter, I eagerly printed and annotated a copy, because it was so relevant to what I was studying!
Happily, SBC also thought the fit was good and agreed to take me on for the summer. I’ve been (willingly) thrown into the deep end helping to distribute CARES Act funding in the form of relief grants for small businesses. While this is somewhat outside of my grad-school wheelhouse, I’m learning about a whole new side of community vitality while employing some of the community engagement skills I gained over the past two years. It also feels good to do something — anything — to help out those who have been hit hard by the pandemic and business shutdowns.
Over the course of my time at SBC, I hope to share a bit about what I learned in grad school. My research revealed some of the key factors that have enabled and constrained communities’ success in building what we referred to as the “stewardship economy.” The take-away lessons are tangible and actionable, whether you’re working on the community scale, managing natural resources as a government agency, or advocating for smart policy on the state or federal level. The good news is that progress is possible. The bad news is that it takes hard work. But, after only a few weeks, I’m pretty sure SBC is up to the challenge.
If you would like to learn more about my research on the rural stewardship economy at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability, you can download my project report here, or watch the (significantly shorter) webinar presentation (you’ll need a free Dropbox account). Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
Learn about ways you can save energy and money through the WatterSaver program and how SNEW services are helping our community.
Please join Sierra Business Council at an upcoming workshop designed to collect important community feedback on broadband access and digital equity in the Sierra Nevada on May 12 from 10 am to 2:30 pm.
Make an impact in your community through the CivicSpark program! CivicSpark is an AmeriCorps program dedicated to building capacity for local governments in California, Washington, and Colorado to address emerging environmental and social equity resilience challenges such as climate change, water resource management, affordable housing, and mobility.
As you know, California witnessed its worst wildfire season on record in 2020. Over 4 million acres burned, costing us more than 10,000 homes and buildings and at least 33 lives (not to mention the long-term negative health impacts of the dense smoke experienced across the state). Wildfire is a natural part of California’s landscape, but today’s wildfires are out of balance due to a century of fire suppression and misguided forest management. As climate change accelerates the risk of extreme wildfire, 2020 could be the start of our new normal. In 2021, we have an opportunity to keep that from happening. If we take action now, we can help protect our communities and restore the health of our forests.
As we gear up for the holidays, we’ve been hearing a familiar refrain: Shop Local. The value of supporting local businesses is well established: money spent locally supports a friend or neighbor’s job, charities and youth activities, and thriving downtown districts. The same is true for supporting local non-profits; your investment will be returned directly to the community. But this year, shopping local — let’s call it spending local — means even more.
Did you know that approximately 20% of California’s land — a total of 31,250 square miles— is managed by the U.S. Forest Service? For the Sierra Nevada region served by SBC, the share of Forest Service land reaches nearly 90% in places such as Alpine County.