ENVIRONMENT threat to human health , stirring dust up with recreational activities like mountain bikes or all-terrain vehicles can increase the possibility of exposure .
The organization has also become a trail builder , as shown by its role in the Deer Creek Tribute Trail in Nevada City . Dating back to 2005 , this $ 2.6 million multiphase effort to create what will be a 9-mile route really gained traction in 2010 when The Sierra Fund came onboard as project manager . Martin ’ s group acquired a grant of nearly $ 740,000 in 2012 ; $ 600,000 went to the seller of the 32 acres in 2018 and the rest paid for parcel surveying , assessment and lab testing results , among other tasks .
Along the tribute trail , there are two bridges . One honors the Nisenan who once lived in the area , and another recognizes the Chinese immigrants who labored in the mines and later on the railroads that helped build California to what it is today .
Thinking holistically
Many of the millions of visitors to the Sierra Nevada each year may not realize how the region , for all its beauty , is suffering . But that recognition is growing — California ’ s massive wildfires of recent years have made it impossible to ignore .
In 2018 , voters passed Proposition 68 , which authorized $ 4.1 billion in bonds to fund environmental restoration and conservation and outdoor recreation investments , and includes projects to mitigate the impacts of natural disasters such as wildfires . With a record fire year of more than 10.3 million acres burned in 2020 , “ it was sort of impossible for the administration now to escape the urgency of addressing California ’ s forest health problems ,” Avery says . “ We ’ re seeing broad-based consensus that California really needs to act decisively in protecting rural communities and the state , generally , from these fires and the impacts of these fires .” In January , Gov . Gavin Newsom proposed a $ 1 billion forest health package . In April , Newsom signed a $ 536 million wildfire package .
Embracing tribal ecological knowledge has proven critical in efforts to reduce wildfire risk . This approach includes guidance on things such as meadow restoration ( damaged by mining and , later , farming and ranching ), prescribed fire and selective thinning of overgrown areas — as opposed to the act of fire suppression instituted by the arrival of Europeans and Americans . “ With suppressing fire , we changed its nature , and we can learn now from the Indigenous people who did prescribed burning . And they would go in and use fire to clear out the underbrush , clear out the smaller trees , allow the larger trees to grow stronger and taller ,” says Gordon , who also is president of the Sacramento-based California Forestry Association . “ The big learning for me has been the history lesson that we need to listen to the Indigenous people who understood that you live with your natural resources , not that you use them .”
Martin says the wildfire-oriented projects present an opportunity for also addressing the legacy of mining simultaneously . “ How about while we ’ re out in the forest — because now everybody realizes the forest is really , really screwed up in this era of clear-cutting and followed by an era of fire suppression — you ’ re out in that forest anyway , and you see that there ’ s an abandoned mine . You can ( remediate it ),” she says . “ You can take the mine tailings and reroute the creeks around them instead of through the middle of them . You can chip the trees and brush ( and ) put it on these denuded soils , which were very erodible because they were power-washed away 100 years ago .”
Avery agrees with the need for a holistic approach . She says the focus is also on resolving policy impediments to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration and an entrepreneurial approach to dealing with the biomass that results from wildfire-reduction projects . “ We need to figure out how to increase the amount of wood processing infrastructure that allows us to deal with the small woody biomass that we know needs to come out of the forest ,”
38 comstocksmag . com | May 2021