Plumas Corporation

There is no coherent plan guiding public/private investment in natural resource infrastructure management issues of the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade mountain region of California. Public investment funds are typically allocated based on the current political crisis; improving water conditions during drought or forest health/fuel reduction after catastrophic fires such as 2018 & 2020. Due to many factors, regional communities have lost much of the resource management infrastructure necessary to develop and effectively implement the types projects sought in these "crisis" funding cycles. No business can sustainably invest in equipment, facilities, and human talent on 3-year grant contracts driven by reactive crisis management. Recent active private investment in natural resource restoration, while admirable, is often seeking projects with the highest direct return on ecosystem services; again without investing in the project development queue.

There has been a short-sighted lack of interest in investing in long-term capacity for project development to ensure a sustainable stream of projects and adequate capacity of trained community workforce to implement these projects. To achieve these objectives requires several decades of consistent investment to rebuild community infrastructure and knowledge. The only sustainable solution to the water, carbon, wildlife and fire issues in the region is to invest in the regions communities, who have the highest vested interest in a sustainable natural and human environment.

Plumas Corporation's goals are to assist community stakeholders in developing the expertise to identify, develop and implement their projects in their backyards. Currently a handful of NGO's are conducting this work for said stakeholders by traveling around the region. There are too few NGO's and too many projects for this to be the ultimate solution. Let us help others to do, not do for others. Specifically, Plumas Corporation is seeking every opportunity to nurture and incubate local capability and capacity in communities throughout the region. While seeking those opportunities, Plumas is directly implementing forest and watershed restoration projects as 'example' projects to further stoke local interest in these restoration activities.

Plumas Corporation maintains a full suite of projects to the extent of our own capacity almost entirely through word-of-mouth referrals. We maintain close communication with our partner NGO's in the region to strategize how best to allocate our collective resources to meet immediate project demands while operating strategically. Once engaged with stakeholders and decision makers on individual projects, Plumas Corp senior management and individual project managers are regularly reaching out to local groups and individuals to participate in more hands-on activities, such as monitoring and re-vegetation work, to build more community familiarity with these projects and outcomes.

Plumas Corporation is also incubating/supporting several National Forest or watershed-based groups to tackle both watershed and forest health/fuel reduction projects. Plumas Corporation's unique niche is as an implementation focused organization. While we undertake technology transfer, we are concurrently assisting public & private landowners in developing, funding and directly implementing watershed restoration projects, especially montane meadows. Montane meadows are nature's reservoirs, slowing and retaining winter and spring runoff for release to streams later in the region's dry season, May to October. While performing this crucial role, the presence of that water provides a lush vegetative community that sequesters carbon, provides critical wildlife habitat and improves land productivity. Coupling meadow restoration with forest health/fuel reduction projects establishes a seamless fire resilient landscape, where fire can resume its natural role, while local and regional communities can reap the ecosystem service benefits of part of sustainable landscapes.

Plumas Corporation has two senior management positions; an Executive Director (ED) and a Operations Director (OD). Also, both the ED and OD each carry a suite of projects to manage. In addition, the organization supports six project managers for stream and meadow restoration projects. Each project manager handles a suite of 4-6 projects in varying levels of development and implementation. The forest health and fuel reduction projects are guided by five project managers. An ancillary local project within Plumas County, a County Chipping Program is managed by a seasonal manager. A new position is being filled to coordinate Giant Sequoia grove forest health projects across multiple jurisdictions in the southern Sierra Nevada. All of the above are supported by a full-time Administrative Assistant/Office Manager.

Plumas Corporation has been developing this structure and expertise since 1987, beginning with one project manager and one program coordinator. The organization gradually built its internal capacity as projects were identified, developed and funding resources became available. Currently, the watershed staff are managing 23 active projects from Lassen County in the north to Kern County in the south. Forest health staff are managing 9 projects, predominately in Plumas and Mono counties.

In that time, the organization has implemented over 102 watershed projects restoring over 5,200 acres of meadow floodplain, throughout the Sierra Nevada range. The forest health and fuel reduction program has implemented over 130 projects totaling over 13,000 acres of wildland urban interface (WUI) zones and public and private forestlands, mostly in Plumas County.

Additionally, Plumas Corporation has mentored three meadow restoration practitioners, one at the Tahoe National Forest and one with the Pit River Resource Conservation District (RCD). Both are now also working throughout the Sierra in support of the larger region. Plumas Corporation successfully incubated an NGO, Whitebark Institute, in the eastern Sierra Nevada that will be implementing fuel reduction and forest health projects in the Inyo National Forest in Mono County, Ca.