Dear friends and supporters of the Yuba Watershed Institute (YWI),

We hope this message finds you and your family safe and well. This year has brought one disturbance after the next, between the pandemic, ongoing economic shutdowns, widespread social unrest, and another record-breaking fire season, including the Jones Fire, which deeply affected members of our community and could have been much, much worse.

In the face of these challenges, the YWI is doubling-down on building resiliency in our forest-dwelling communities. In order to increase and accelerate our impact, we’re building new partnerships, expanding the scope of our work, and implementing our ‘Inimim Forest Restoration Plan.

For the past few years we have been laying the groundwork to restore the health of the ‘Inimim Forest, comprised of multiple Bureau of Land Management (BLM) parcels on the San Juan Ridge. This year with the help of our contractors we completed the following treatments as part of the ‘Inimim Forest Restoration Plan:

• Implemented a 200-feet wide shaded fuel break on 55 acres along key roads necessary for ingress and egress in the case of wildfire;
• Felled 15 acres of hazard trees at risk of falling on roads;
• Hand cut and piled understory fuels on 4 acres to improve forest health;
• Covered 87 acres of piles to be burned this spring.

As a result of our successful history of collaboration with the BLM, this year we received three new Sierra Nevada Conservancy grants to:

• Implement 314 acres of additional forest health treatments on the ‘Inimim Forest; and
• Develop plans to improve forest health on additional BLM parcels and neighboring lands under conservation easement, including 260 acres in the Little Deer Creek watershed near Gracie and Banner Lava Cap Roads and 1,230 acres in the Round Mountain area between Purdon and North Bloomfield Roads.

We are partnering with the Bear Yuba Land Trust, Sierra Streams Institute, and Firewise Communities on these new planning projects. We are also participating in the new Yuba Forest Network to increase cooperation and coordination across the watershed. We’ll be hosting a prescribed fire training workshop this spring and we’ve been working with Sierra Forest Legacy and others to build capacity to reintroduce beneficial fire into our local landscapes. These partnerships enable us to build on, share, and expand our expertise and help us to advance ecological forestry in our region. The YWI was founded 30 years ago to facilitate collaborative forest stewardship and this work is more important now than ever.

We need your help to expand our capacity to meet the tremendous needs and opportunities of this time. There is so much work to do to restore our forests and our collaborative approach can help us to achieve collectively what no one individual or organization can do alone.

Please consider supporting this important work by starting or renewing your YWI membership today!

Join at www.yubawatershedinstitute.org/membership/.

Your generous support will also help us provide other programs the community has grown to love, including:     

• The annual Yuba Watershed Fungus Foray and Wild Mushroom Exposition;
• Our publication Tree Rings: The Journal of the Yuba Watershed Institute, where we bring you essays, artwork, and poetry on current watershed-related themes; and
• Unique educational field programs, volunteer events, and evening and weekend workshops.

We are grateful for your past support and hope that you will be inspired to help the YWI by contributing at an increased level. Thank you for your dedication to preserving the biodiversity of the Yuba River watershed and beyond!

Sincerely,

Want to see what treasures await us in the forests of the Yuba River watershed?

Join the Yuba Watershed Fungus Foray and Wild Mushroom Exposition on December 12-13, 2020 at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center (17894 Tyler Foote Rd., Nevada City, CA 95959). Please note: this is a different location than the previous several years.

The event will be significantly scaled down and completely outdoors in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

At the Fungus Foray, on December 12, we have space for 6 participants in each of the 7 foray groups. Each group will leave the Schoolhouse at a different time on Saturday morning or early afternoon and drive to a separate foray location. Participants will drive separately in single-family groups and will maintain 6 ft. of distance at all times. Purchase Tickets for the Yuba Watershed Fungus Foray (12/12/20)

On Sunday, December 13, the Wild Mushroom Exposition will take place outside the Schoolhouse, and participants can sign up to view them and talk to our mushroom experts during 1-hour shifts throughout the day. Each shift is limited to 12 participants. Masks or face covering will be required, and proper social distancing will be encouraged. Purchase Tickets for the Wild Mushroom Exposition (12/13/20)

PLEASE NOTE: The Sunday Wild Mushroom Exposition will be cancelled in the event of rain. All ticket-holders will be reimbursed in full if the event is cancelled.

The Yuba Watershed Institute (YWI) is pleased to announce that we have hired two new staff members to assist with our forest stewardship planning and implementation projects. These positions will largely be supported by three grants from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy’s Proposition 1/Proposition 68 Forest Health grant program that were awarded to the YWI this past March.

Cameron Musser has been brought on as our new Forest Health Project Manager. With a B.S. in Genetics and Plant Biology from U.C. Berkeley, a M.F.S. from Yale’s School of the Environment, and experience in Sierra Nevada industrial forestry, Cameron brings extensive forestry knowledge to the YWI.

We have also hired Corinne Munger as our Biologist/Environmental Planner. Corinne has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from U.C. Santa Cruz, a M.S. in Biology from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and 17 years of experience as a biologist and environmental planner. Having served on the the YWI board of directors since 2013, Corinne is deeply invested in carrying out the YWI’s mission through her contributions to our planning efforts.  

It has been a busy start for our new staffers as the ‘Inimim Forest Restoration Project‘s implementation phase for 2021 gets underway. After she was acquainted with the ‘Inimim Forest, Cameron made her treatment method and prescription recommendations for 160 acres of fuels reduction within the ‘Inimim Forest’s Big Parcel and 70 acres of road-side shaded fuel breaks throughout different U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) parcels on the San Juan Ridge.

In late October, the YWI team released a request for proposals that lays out the project details, environmental compliance requirements, and general conditions for potential contractors. Pink, blue, and orange flagging is hanging throughout the ‘Inimim Forest — ready to show contractors the project boundaries, important water features, and vegetation that has been selected to remain untouched. The stage is set for contracts to be awarded at the beginning of December for work beginning after the holidays in January.

Other happenings around the ‘Inimim Forest include burn pile preparation at the Shields Camp parcel and the upcoming annual Fungus Foray. The ‘Inimim Forest has been selected to host one of The Nature Conservancy’s Prescribed Fire TRaining EXchange (TREX) events for the upcoming spring. In collaboration with the Yuba Forest Network and Open Canopy LLC, this training event will tentatively take place in April on the Shields Camp and Bear Tree Parcels of the ‘Inimim Forest, where there is a high density of burn piles from previous fuels reduction treatments.

Stay tuned for more information about the scaled-back, COVID-compliant version of the Fungus Foray that we will be hosting in mid-December.