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OUR TOP STORY
SRT preserves reopen per state guidance; what to know before you go 
ABOVE: Kaweah Oaks is an inviting destination after months spent in a pandemic lockdown. SRT preserves reopened on June 15, 2020 and remain open pending further state guidance.
(VISALIA, CA) - After a nearly two-month closure, SRT preserves reopened on June 15 after state coronavirus guidelines were eased. However, with pandemic statistics exploding around the Golden State as August approaches, how long these destination lands remain accessible remains in question. And visiting the preserves still comes with a caveat.
"We regularly monitor the health statistics and State directives around the pandemic, and despite being a private nonprofit we are taking our cues from State Parks whose resources greatly exceed ours, and on whose public health expertise we can safely rely," said SRT Director of Marketing and Communication Aaron Collins. "As a science-based organization, our chief goal is to keep our visitors and SRT staff safe and healthy so the preserves may have to close on short notice if area conditions deteriorate."
And deteriorate they have, given Tulare County and Central California's worst-in-the-state infection rates and mounting death toll from COVID-19. After a fairly successful initial period, California is now one of the nation's pandemic hotspots.
The caveat is that -- despite some scientific evidence suggesting that viral transmissibility is not as likely in outdoor settings -- visitors must continue practicing social distancing even on hikes and remain mindful when encountering with others. Hikers should wear face coverings when coming within six feet of approaching fellow visitors. When touching high-contact surfaces like gate latches, restroom door handles, and other features, visitors should be mindful. Bring along hand sanitizer. And although the scenery has changed, take the same health precautions that you would at home like washing your hands regularly, and avoid traveling if you're feeling ill.
"If everyone maintains a safe, smart, healthy approach and has concern for one another by masking and observing these safety protocols, we will be able to continue offering our preserves as the vital community recreation resources they have become," Collins said. "We are relying on the public to respect our rules in order to maintain that access."
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Welcome to our third quarter edition of Currents!
I find myself writing to you in the midst of a pandemic that affects our culture, relationships, families and work in unprecedented ways. Like so many, I wanted this event to be over by now, but instead my heart breaks when I read the news that we are still in it and we will be for some time. We each face questions we'd prefer not to: How to school our children and keep doing our jobs, whether and how to spend time with parents and grandparents, and how to meet our spiritual and physical needs in stressful times.
Difficulties notwithstanding, SRT remains fully staffed and committed to the health of our region's agricultural and natural lands and to their importance to all who live, learn, play and work in the Southern Sierra and foothills, in California's Central Valley and in the Carrizo Plain. SRT's EARTH Academy is working with local schools and partners to eventually return to our preserves where we will grab the imagination and passion of our children (and adults, too) in a way that lasts their whole lives.
We continue to advocate for policies that benefit our natural and agricultural lands so that people and nature may thrive together for many generations. And our land management and easement acquisition programs remain robust from the Carrizo Plain across the Valley.
As a result, I can offer the following: if Sequoia Riverlands Trust can provide you with an island of respite and safety through its volunteer programs, preserve system, educational programming, social media outreach and other services then we are by all means here for you. I want to hear from you. Please reach out to me with your comments, concerns, ideas, wants and needs as we navigate the challenges of the coming months.
And please be safe. I look forward to meeting you in kinder times.
Cam Tredennick
SRT Executive Director
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SRT LEADERSHIP
Former top Visalia Administrator Olmos elected SRT Board Chair; first Latino to be named to post 
NEW BOARD LEADERSHIP COMES TO SRT: Retired Visalia City Manager Mike Olmos has been elected Chair of the SRT Board of Directors. Mike has served two terms of board service, his current one and another term in years past.
By Mike Olmos, SRT Board Chair
Warm greetings to our many supporters, donors, and partners of Sequoia Riverlands Trust.
As the new Chair of the Board of Directors of SRT, I'm honored to reach out to you about the positive state of our hard working organization and its ongoing success in implementing our mission to conserve natural and working lands in California.
I've enjoyed a long and fulfilling relationship with SRT, spanning many years. Having been raised in the San Joaquin Valley, working in my youth as a laborer in the agricultural fields and orchards, and in the foothills and mountains as a wild land firefighter, I have a deep love and respect for our natural and agricultural lands and heritage. After retiring from a 41-year career in city planning and city management, I'm grateful for the opportunity now to devote my time to the preservation of the exceptional lands that have influenced and created joy in my life for so many years.
I am taking this position amid interesting and challenging times. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all our lives, created fear and uncertainty, and limited our ability to enjoy and appreciate the many wonderful attributes that our region has to offer. Further, we've all been profoundly affected by the civil unrest and discourse sparked by the incomprehensible killing of George Floyd and the renewed calls for equality for Black Americans and for people of diverse ethnicities and races, sexual identities, religious affiliation, and other diverse characteristics.
Yet, as we struggle with these unique challenges, the business of life goes on. SRT continues on its path of competently managing the conservation of significant natural, agricultural, and grazing lands throughout our region. The vision of SRT's Board of Directors continues to be the competent stewardship of lands encompassing our natural and agricultural heritage, and in making these lands accessible to the public and scientific community to visit, study, and enjoy.
The pandemic has created significant challenges for SRT. With more than 40,000 acres of conserved lands throughout the San Joaquin Valley, adjoining Sierra foothills and Carrizo Plain, SRT staff is successfully stewarding these lands while implementing social distancing and other safety precautions to help staff and visitors avoid catching and spreading the virus. At the same time, we have experienced strong interest in visiting our natural lands such (as SRT's Kaweah Oaks Preserve) by people yearning for access to nature as respite from sheltering from the pandemic.
SRT's Board of Directors, Executive Director, and excellent professional staff are working tirelessly in sustaining organizational operations and managing our extensive collection of natural and working lands. We do so with strong appreciation and gratitude for your ongoing assistance. In particular, your donations are critical to the success of our conservation efforts, especially in this time of financial uncertainty.
Speaking for the Board and Staff, we are deeply thankful for your unwavering support. We pray for your continued wellness and wish your families peace and happiness.
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SRT EDUCATION
SRT, amid pandemic, retools EARTH Academy for third year
ABOVE: SRT Education and Volunteer Director Bud Darwin congratulates an EARTH Academy student upon completion of the program.
(VISALIA, CA) - SRT's EARTH Academy is back for its third year this fall, despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus on education systems. This last program year was cut short in March due to the pandemic.
During that five-month hiatus, the SRT Education Department has spent time learning, planning, and reaching out to school districts and individual schools. "We are confident that we can offer a rewarding and immersive experience for students while keeping everyone safe and following all health guidelines and mandates," said Bud Darwin, SRT Education and Volunteer Director.
This year, however, aspects of the program will look different as SRT adjusts to the new distance learning models that each school district will use, as well as to ever-evolving health guidelines and mandates. "We will definitely still have students in the field, learning directly on, from, and about the land just as we have in past years," Darwin said. "However, we will not be having large community events until health guidelines change, such as our winter Soil Sponge event."
Like much education instruction currently, EARTH Academy will not likely have students interacting in person, but instead via a virtual platform. This will all depend on evolving safety guidelines from schools, which may change over time. SRT continues working with schools to finalize details, and will announce additional changes or updates as soon as possible.
"Unfortunately, as we have seen, the pandemic continues to change and pose new challenges at us. So everything above may be subject to change at any moment for the 2020-2021 EARTH Academy program," Darwin said. "We will continue to adjust and adapt to the best of our abilities while keeping health and safety at the forefront of our minds."
Over the past two years, the EARTH Academy program has served 55 students from six different school districts, for a combined total of 2650 learning hours. EARTH Academy received grant funding from the Environmental Protection Agency in its inaugural year, for which SRT has again applied for the year ahead.
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SRT LANDS
Tricolored Blackbird among species aided by SRT initiatives
ABOVE: A Tricolored Blackbird visits SRT's restored Jenks Pond in the Carrizo Plain. (PHOTO: Camdilla Wirth)
By Alexandra Feller, SRT Intern
(CARRIZO PLAIN, CA) - The Tricolored Blackbird is returning to California's Carrizo Plain thanks to SRT habitat improvement efforts there. This is the first year signs of breeding were documented since SRT began land management there in 2016.
Millions of Tricolored Blackbirds once inhabited California, but due to the conversion of their freshwater marsh nesting habitat into agricultural uses, especially in the San Joaquin Valley. their population has declined over 80% since the mid-1900s.
Lacking stable breeding ground, Tricolored populations continue to diminish. They are currently listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act. In 2019 however, the petition to add them to the Federal Endangered Species Act was denied.
Without additional funding and protection from federal recognition, the distinctive bird whose name derives from its black body, red shoulder patch, and bright white bar is at risk of continuing its steep decline, particularly now in light of climate change in combination with the habitat loss.
SRT's Senior Wildlife Biologist Camdilla Wirth and Assistant Conservation Biologist Ian Axsom have been working to restore the habitat of the Tricolored Blackbird around Jenks Pond in the Carrizo Plain. The site, managed by SRT, part of a 5,000-acre parcel that was originally sold to the Carrizo Plain Conservancy as a mitigation site for a nearby solar farm, was established in order to offset potential habitat damage specifically to threatened species like the Giant Kangaroo Rat and San Joaquin Kit Fox.
SRT manages close to 30,000 acres of land in conjunction with Carrizo Plain Conservancy--a small land trust focused on conserving land in the region sometimes referred to as California's Serengeti. SRT owns about half of the 30,000 acres but still frequently collaborates with the Carrizo Land trust for management.
Wirth saw an opportunity at Jenks Pond to recreate the natural marsh habitat that once existed in abundance around the region. After earning the needed grand money, her team began by installing a fence around the pond in fall of 2019. The fence runs around the pond and works to create an undisturbed habitat by controlling the amount of wildlife that passes through the area. With the help of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, they fenced the area including gates equipped to let elk and other animals to pass through on their way to a redirected water basin.
Before the fence, it was typical for larger animals like Tule Elk, Prong Horn, and Coyote, to visit the pond as a source of water. Wild pigs, a common invasive species in California, were especially disruptive to the riparian zone as they would often wallow in the mud and knock over the healthy cattails Tricoloreds need to build their nests in. After establishing a thick cattail forest, the second priority became to plant "brambly type California natives to create a buffer around the cattails allowing them to grow," Wirth said. These plants will also provide useful windbreak.
Cattails die back every year which is yet another obstacle as the Tricolored will only select a healthy mature cattail to nest in between, "We do what we can to encourage young cattails to come up," Wirth said.
In early December, the team planted 250 California natives including blackberry and wild rose.
Adult Tricoloreds can sustain themselves with seeds, but their young need a steady diet of seeds and insects. With this in mind, a number of native plants that attract pollinators and other insects were also planted around the cattails.
In less than a year, their efforts started to pay off. In mid-May Wirth and Axsom observed nests containing two to three eggs from the blackbird. There were only a few nests, but it was still early in the mating season.
April brought 16 or more nests that could be seen from outside the fence. Of that they have seen three with hatched babies so far. "Who knows what is going on in the inner cattails, there could be more," Wirth said.
She observed offspring that were not fully fledged but had feathers and downy heads. She is proud to see direct results of their work so quickly, and only expects more positive results as the plants around Jenks Pond mature and attract more insects
Habitat restoration efforts have hardly slowed in recent months. The team hopes to soon plant another 250 native plants in the area, bringing the total to around 500. Wirth also plans on seeding the surrounding grass fields with wildflowers to attract even more pollinators.
In an area where it is often difficult for the Tricolored to find a home, Wirth is proud that she and SRT continue to work to create one in partnership with the Carrizo Plain Land Trust and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
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SRT PEOPLE
SRT says annual goodbye to AmeriCorps Members
ABOVE: Claire Thompson, SRT Conservation Technician; Daisy Mack, SRT Volunteer Coordinator; Sneha Kumar, SRT Education Technician; and Grace Van Kan, SRT Conservation Technician. (file photo)
(VISALIA, CA) - In a year when hope for the future seemed in limited supply, SRT's AmeriCorps Members proved to be a major source of inspiration for the SRT community. Integral and vital to our education, volunteer, and conservation functions, these AmeriCorps members, through their national service, proved to be highly committed individuals with the grit and determination to serve SRT's mission despite the complications of a pandemic.
While with SRT, they took local action on important conservation projects and issues while serving their country as they explored worthwhile conservation careers under the auspices of the Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership (SNAP).
Sneha Kumar It's a goodbye, and a hello. AmeriCorps SRT Education Technician Sneha Kumar returned to that position for a second year in 2019. Originally from North Carolina, she fell in love with California and the Central Valley. Sneha will join SRT Education Department staff full-time upon completion of her AmeriCorps service.
"The past two years at SRT have been truly life changing for me. Through AmeriCorps, I have learned so much about local ecosystems, teaching, and SRT in general," Kumar said. "Additionally, I have been incredibly fortunate to explore California and really grow some roots in this community. I have gained true lifelong friends, and I truly feel like a California girl. I am excited to continue working in the Education Department and continue teaching students about the environment and the amazing local opportunities in the Valley."
Claire Thompson Following her first year of service, Claire returned to SRT for a half-year AmeriCorps stint as field crew lead. She also lent SRT some of her beautiful outdoor photography in the process, as seen in Currents. In the spring, Claire completed her service to SRT and AmeriCorps and joined Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks as a Biological Science Technician. She now roams the high country beyond the reaches of the internet, news of the world. etc.
"As expected, I'll be taking lots of pictures. I can't wait to share them with everyone once I return from my societal hiatus. I'm anxious about what state the world is going to be like when I come out of the wilderness, but I really hope it will be at least slightly better," Claire said in a final social media post before departure.
Daisy Mack Daisy Mack came to SRT in fall 2019. Growing up at Camp Nebagamon in northern Wisconsin instilled a deep love of the natural world in her, leading to her conservation volunteer service with SRT.
"My time at SRT has been exactly what I came out to California for. My goals for the year were to gain experience in outdoor education, work outside frequently and do a little bit of self discovery," Mack said. "Through our SRT Education Department I had been working with students in SRT's ongoing EARTH Academy program. This work with excited young people led to many rewarding moments. Working through the Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership program has been a great experience for me. I have met many cool people with interesting positions across the Sierra Nevada range. In the future, I look forward to more outdoor education and continued work with clean water projects to protect our natural lakes and waterways."
Grace Van Kan Grace lived more adventures than most experience in a lifetime in her first decades on the planet. She spent her formative years in Howard County, Maryland before moving with family to the Philippines and Japan, where she attended high schools. After graduating she participated in the New Heaven Reef Conservation Program in Koh Tao, Thailand, then graduated from DePaul University in Chicago, IL with a B.A. in Environmental Studies, participated in service projects with the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management in Georgia and Utah, respectively; then spent a summer as a Youth Conservation Corps crew leader in Virginia among other pursuits. Grace then joined AmeriCorps as SRT's conservation technician.
"What an incredible experience it has been to work and conserve California's stunning lands. This past year has provided me with great insight into an environmental culture that I was unfamiliar with, having come to Visalia from Chicago and having had little understanding of what exactly a land trust was," Van Kan said. "I am grateful to have been able to work with both newcomers navigating the environmental career field as well as professionals with deep roots and wisdom. At the end of my term as a SNAP member, I will be returning to Virginia to further my environmental career and education."
"SRT is incredibly grateful to our valued AmeriCorps members and the Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership," said Cam Tredennick, SRT Executive Director. They brought their passion, curiosity and spirit of national service to SRT from all over the nation and have left our organization better for their participation. We wish them all the very best in what we expect to be productive careers ahead."
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SRT LANDS
SRT land protection advances despite pandemic economy
ABOVE: Kern County ranch land rolls peacefully beneath the Sierra Nevada.
(VISALIA, CA) - Despite the numerous stumbling blocks posed by the coronavirus pandemic, SRT continues to make land protection gains throughout Central California. While the past quarter's historic economic contraction saw a nearly 33% GDP decrease, SRT added to its portfolio of conserved lands.
"We're very proud of these land protection gains that we continue to make, especially considering the difficulties of the current national economy," said Cam Tredennick, SRT Executive Director. "Despite the trying times, we will continue to advance the cause of farmland protection into the future and we remain ready to help farmers keep farming and ranchers keep ranching using the specialized financial and conservation tools needed to achieve stable operations across generations," he added.
In the second quarter, the organization's gains included 105 acres of prime agricultural farmland in Kern County. This was for mitigation for three separate projects: two in the City of Redlands and one in Loma Linda. Lennar Homes of California Inc., developed a tract in Loma Linda and the city required they mitigate for the loss of 92 acres of prime farmland. Larry and Pansy Jacinto developed a tract in the City of Redlands; required mitigation was for nearly 10 acres of prime farmland. Sam-Redlands, LLC developed in the City of Redlands which required them to mitigate for the loss of three acres of prime farmland. Additonally, SRT worked with landowner Keith Gardiner to conserve a portion of a 160-acre pistachio orchard owned by King-Gardiner, LLC. Additionally, SRT worked extensively with Gardiner and Rob Geis of Pacific Ag Management, combining these projects to provide a more cost-effective approach for the project developers. SRT had previously worked with Gardiner to conserve two properties near Wasco consisting of row crops, orchards, and vineyards for a total of 472 acres in 2009. It was funded by a grant one from the California Department of Conservation Farmland Conservancy Program and funds that SRT had received for the Kern County Agricultural Mitigation. A second, SRT's Wasco II agricultural conservation easement, is comprised of 571 acres. This project was funded by grants from the California Department of Conservation Farmland Conservancy Program and the United States Department of Natural Resources Conservation Service's Farm Ranch Land Protection Program.
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LAND + IMAGE
Artist Rangel explores Sierra Nevada in 'Layers of Place"
NO EXCUSES: Artist Matthew Rangel doesn't let his subject's remoteness deter him from capturing it firsthand.
By Aaron Collins, SRT Director of Marketing and Communications
[Editor's Note: A version of this article appears in the August 2020 issue of Lifestyle Magazine's ART NOW section.]
Some artists content themselves with art-making about the great outdoors from the safe confines of their studios. Not Visalia-based artist Matthew Rangel. He once trekked on foot from his former home in Dinuba on the Valley floor up to the top of the Great Western Divide, recording his experiences and observations along the way for what became an acclaimed suite of fine art prints entitled A Transect: Due East. In Matthew Rangel: Layers of Place currently on exhibition at Arts Visalia through September (as the coronavirus gods permit), Rangel draws ever more deeply upon his unwavering and readily identifiable visual vocabulary, beckoning viewers much like a modern day John Muir to seek solace in nature just as he does, reveling in its austere beauties, astounding scale, and topographical brutality. The High Sierra is certainly a suitable location for social distancing. Some of what makes the current work fascinating is his incorporation of art-making strategies from contemporary and Modern predecessors, from luminaries Ed Ruscha to Maya Lin, but with a little Leonardo DaVinci thrown in for historical heft befitting the grandness of his chosen subject, the Sierra Nevada. Akin to Ruscha's notable photographic art book Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966), which is just what it sounds like but presented contiguously with an accordion fold, in Rangel's six-panel Sierra Nevada Codex (2015; etching and fine art lithography) he toys with the question, what if I were to make a continuous sequential representation of something so vast as one of the earth's major mountain ranges? This is art to geek out on. Like Lin's critically-noted river series, in which she rendered the liquid of America's rivers in solid bronze using GPS data, Rangel too converts what is incomprehensibly vast yet singularly unseen into something visually digestible. His large-scale Tulare Lake (2015; digital pigment print on Japanese Azuka kozo paper) performs a similarly revelatory function with regard to the lake's historic ecosystem vanishing act. Kaweah Flume, Middle Fork (2010; fine art lithograph on Rives BFK paper) hints that human-scale efforts to control nature might not quite be up to the task.  ABOVE: Kaweah Flume, Middle Fork by Matthew Rangel (2010); lithograph on Rives BFK paper; 11"x 14"
Like those contemporary greats in whose conceptual company he finds himself, Rangel is decidedly trawling the familiar artistic waters where art's usually cliched tropes of beauty and standard artistic fare are typically plied. Instead, he has created works that are complex, layered meditations on a personal experience of nature's magnificence.
In contrast to the occasional grandiosities of an Albert Bierstadt or Ansel Adams, Rangel avoids gilding the Sierra's magnificence and the perils of one-upping the range's obvious allure. Using various elements such as journalistic notation, anecdotal fragments, and physical observation placed on gridded cartographic underpinnings, these works serve as both documentary proof of his direct experiences there and as countervalence for Bierstadt's and Adams's more fanciful instincts, and even Rangel's own self-confessed Romanticist leanings. "These pieces serve as a kind of proof that I have invested my physical agency in these landscapes," he says, and as record of the feats required both to experience and capture them. "The form my art takes derives from my perception of my surrounding environment and how I've made some connection to that as a human being from this area, and as an artist. Reflecting that layered approach is the way I perceive the world when I experience it. I subscribe to the 19th Century Romantic landscape. I love observing features in the landscape and giving them my devotion, and having a spiritual moment. I totally subscribe to that. But that's not all I feel I can say about it. I want to research it, go there and add other layers, entry points -- layers of place," he said. As much as Rangel's work reflects his direct observation of the landscape, he also makes use of digital tools. Photographs, maps, and drawings all must be digitized, taking the process from analog to digital and back to the old-tech analog of fine art lithography printmaking processes. "Transference between analog and digital can be smooth or clunky and at times those things work against each other. But that is a major way I mitigate the complications in design and layout of my work," he said.
 ABOVE: Once Upon a Time, Once in my Lifetime, California Condor by Matthew Rangel (2016); lithograph on Rives BFK paper; 11"x 15"
Rangel, a COS art professor, traces one important "aha" moment to a visit to Phoenix Art Museum's DaVinci exhibition. "I'm interested in Leonardo. He's very important to how we perceive things through drawing in Western culture. But he is also important because he started dialogue in other realism like ecology. His entry point was drawing. His curiosity led him to do his own self-provoked and motivated research about the landscape, using firsthand direct observation, laying out for someone to interpret and read it. So when humans started into ecology, it goes back to him," Rangel said. Whereas Thomas Cole's historical landscape paintings pointed to America's "manifest destiny,' Rangel's work suggests the value of the journey's real end point is much more experientially derived and personally determined, if only one has the requisite adventuresome spirit needed to explore the remote and often treacherous locations he visits in person. "Amie got quarter size blisters on her heels" is typical fair game for Rangel's quotidian field notes, and - opposite of Cole - he intimates no sweeping promises, in exchange for the suffering, that ardent seekers might lay claim to lands that aren't theirs.
ABOVE: Tulare Lake by Matthew Rangel (2015); digital pigment print on Asuka Kozo paper; 128"x 96"
"I hope this layered approach to visual graphics language points a way in how we can experience the landscape, how we use it, designate its use, how we connect with it, whether we will protect it, or destroy it. I just want to get people to think about it." And in taking steps toward fulfilling that personal mission, Rangel has succeeded brilliantly.
Longtime SRT supporters will recall Rangel from his role in founding the SRT-sponsored Kaweah Land And Arts Festival. More of his work (along with wife Amie's) can be viewed at rangelstudio.com. For more information about the current exhibition, please visit artsvisalia.org.
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SRT CAREERS
SRT seeks Advancement Officer
(VISALIA, CA) - Do you love helping nature flourish? Are you seeking a career that positively impacts the future for us all through protecting our important natural resources? Do you want to work in a work environment full of accomplished, highly-educated, and highly-committed individuals in a land conservation environment?
If so, you should consider joining the Visalia-based team at Sequoia Riverlands Trust, a nationally-accredited conservation organization based near the Southern Sierra Nevada foothills and Sequoia National Park.
Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT) is a regional nonprofit land trust formed in 2001 to conserve the natural and agricultural legacy of the southern Sierra Nevada and San Joaquin Valley. SRT has ambitious programs in land and conservation easement acquisition (habitat and farmland), land stewardship, restoration, conservation outreach, land policy and planning, and environmental education.
SRT seeks a talented Advancement Officer dedicated to building community relationships and attracting financial and other vital resources that help protect important lands throughout Central California. To see if this position is a good fit for you, consider the following:
Position Description: SRT's Advancement Officer is a dynamic position with an opportunity for professional growth that includes a challenging mix of marketing, fundraising, development, and communications responsibilities. The Advancement Officer is a central position within our organization that requires strong engagement in most areas of SRT's core conservation programs. The successful candidate will be a crucial member of our team advancing SRT's mission to inspire love and lasting protection for important lands.
Major Responsibilities:
*Assist Executive Director, Marketing and Communications Director, and Board of Directors in cultivating new individual major donor relationships while fostering positive relations with and rewards for existing mission supporters
*Identify, cultivate, and secure corporate and foundation funding sources
*Develop prospective major donor list and research area philanthropic giving statistics
*Assist in the development of an engaging and vital SRT Membership Program that creates a pathway to increased involvement, from volunteers to committee and board service
*Track and process donations and prepare acknowledgement letters and other correspondence with donors via DonorPerfect
*Support grant application and report processes as well as prospect for new grant funding sources
*Collaborate in maintaining SRT website and in developing content for SRT print and electronic communications
*Participate in implementing social media strategy
*Gather statistics and data to create various reports related to program evaluation and fundraising
*Organize annual mailings to individual and institutional donors
*Develop and sustain SRT Planned Giving Program
*Coordinate, maintain, and expand contact management databases and systems
*Support special event planning, promotion, and execution of outreach events and other fundraising efforts
Other Responsibilities:
*Attend staff meetings, other administrative meetings, and company events
*Assist with SRT Conservation and Education departments' programming with support for implementation as needed
*Infrequent travel is necessary for conservation field events and between SRT properties
*Perform other duties as assigned
Desired Qualifications:
*A Bachelor's degree in a relevant field with a minimum of four years of progressively responsible experience, preferably in a nonprofit environment
*Excellent written and verbal communication skills
*Self-motivated individual with creative problem-solving abilities
*Strong presentation and public speaking skills
*The ability to organize and prioritize work to meet critical deadlines
*Excellent interpersonal skills and eagerness to work collaboratively in a team-oriented environment
*Strong computer skills including proficiency in using Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), DonorPerfect, social media including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram and a willingness to learn new applications
*Availability to work limited evenings and weekends
*Experience with and/or interest in desktop publishing and design, with the goal of proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite and other software
*Understanding of, appreciation for, and commitment to the conservation mission and environmental advocacy work of SRT
Salary: This is a full-time position with a salary range depending on experience and education, including a generous benefits and time-off package with employer-paid health insurance and 401(k) plans.
ABOUT SRT: Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT) is a regional nonprofit land trust formed in 2001 to conserve the natural and agricultural legacy of the southern Sierra Nevada and San Joaquin Valley. SRT has ambitious programs in land and conservation easement acquisition (habitat and farmland), land stewardship, restoration, conservation outreach, and education.
SRT seeks talented individuals dedicated to the conservation of our natural resources, and we offer our staff competitive salary and benefits. SRT is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER: Sequoia Riverlands Trust provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or disability.
TO APPLY: Email resume and cover letter to: info@sequoiariverlands.org. Please put "SRT Advancement Officer" in the email's subject line. If Internet accessibility is problematic, please send materials via U.S. Postal Service to SRT, 427 S. Garden St., Visalia, CA 93277. And please, no phone or email follow up inquiries. Applicants will be contacted in the event that we wish to further explore your qualifications.
To learn more about SRT, visit: https://sequoiariverlands.org
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SRT WATER POLICY
SRT's Powers collaborates on Tulare Basin groundwater policy, SGMA roles
Jeff Powers, SRT Stewardship Director, with the late Murphy Powers.
By Jeff Powers, SRT Stewarship Director
As Director of Stewardship for Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT), I serve as a member of the Tulare Basin Watershed Partnership Network (TBWPN) Design Team. SRT is the preeminent Southern San Joaquin Valley land trust serving nine counties, primarily focused on the Tulare Basin watershed region in Fresno, Tulare, Kings and Kern Counties.
On June 26, the Design Team joined with a diverse group of 35 regional upper/lower water and natural resource leaders for a "network kick-off" meeting via Zoom. The meeting focused on discussion of Draft Charter Elements prepared by consultant Robert Gould/Ag Innovations and the Design Team, including Safeeq Khan, Carole Combs, Matt Hurley, and myself, for input by the meeting participants.
At this meeting, we presented an overview of the draft TBWPN Scope of Work, well received by the attendees, who had constructive suggestions of how to refine it. Here is a summary of that formative discussion:
Where? The entire Tulare Basin region, four major river watersheds (Kings, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern), ridgetop catchments to the Valley aquifers including forests, agricultural and working lands, and urban areas. No area is off-limits for consideration.
What? A locally-determined landscape-scale approach to connecting ridgetop catchments to the Valley aquifers, including all surface and groundwater bodies; strongly focused on nature-based solutions and green infrastructure that complements and integrates with gray infrastructure to diversify, enhance and manage all water sources.
How? Solutions-oriented collaborative work, bias for action and "learning by doing" to foster solutions not otherwise possible. Actively support good, coordinate and amplify relevant efforts in the region that is already happening; not reinventing the wheel Align with State efforts, like Water Resilience Portfolio, where appropriate Compelling and well-coordinated efforts will attract more funding. Learn from actually doing things. Support good work, don't reinvent the wheel. Undertake compelling, well-coordinated efforts that attract funding.
Who? All Network participants and their organizations; key partners and allies (from within and beyond the region)for specific initiatives; with participation expanding over time in diversity, quantity and community-wide engagement
When? Beginning Now in 2020 and decades into the future
The draft Scope of Work is one of nine Draft Charter Elements prepared by the Design Team and Robert Gould for review by 50 TBWPN leadership invitees who now constitute an extended "design team." Two of the nine Charter Elements (Purpose Statement and Scope of Work) were reviewed and commented upon in some depth at this meeting, while two more (Big Goal and Guiding Principles) were only touched upon. The other five Draft Charter Elements prepared thus far include Critical Shift, Resilience Definitions, Road Map and Governance. We hope to cover all nine.
For more information, please contact info@tularebasinwatershedpartnership.org.
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SRT POLICY
SRT issues statement on racial equality
July 15, 2020
Statement on Racial Equality
Sequoia Riverlands Trust
Dear Friends:
We at Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT) recognize the specific and egregious impacts of racism in our society, and join millions in declaring that Indigenous, Black and Brown Lives Matter, every day and always. We are a conservation organization dedicated to enhancing the human relationship with the natural and agricultural lands in the Central Valley, Carrizo Plain and Southern Sierra -- and dedicated to the education of our children on those lands. Accordingly, we must remain attentive to all who can benefit from our work. We condemn racism. Because we live and work in the culturally and racially rich Central Valley of California, we see the value of diversity in our communities. We are taught by, teach, and seek to translate into our own lives the value of biological diversity on the agricultural lands and preserves we serve. We understand that social and educational progress requires us to recognize the truth, power and potential of the peaceful demand for justice and equality, to learn to better recognize racism, and to condemn it wherever we see it. A large percentage of the students we serve are young People of Color, and we are responsible for providing safe and nurturing places for them to learn and to thrive. SRT also works closely with a diverse agricultural community, and it is abundantly clear to us that Native American Tribes are most often the best conservation partners. Yet SRT is part of a profession that is shamefully underrepresented by Indigenous, Black and Brown Peoples. We owe better to ourselves and to those we work with. Going forward, I commit to work with our Board and Staff toward the following. We will: - Leverage our talents and resources so as to combat systemic racism, and to enhance the Central Valley's incredible human diversity as an asset we can rely on to protect our natural diversity and agricultural heritage. - Aggressively seek partnerships that will enable us to participate in real and sustained action to address racism and environmental justice. - Seek Black, Brown, Indigenous and other People of Color to fill SRT Board and staff positions, maintain working conditions that welcome all cultures and races, engage in practices that ensure a safe welcoming environment on all SRT managed and monitored lands, and actively challenge peer land trusts and environmental organizations to do the same. I will engage our board, staff and colleagues in an ongoing discussion on the above topics so that we can better ourselves and our community, be more effective in our work, and promote unity. I welcome all of your comments and concerns as we take on these challenges, and I look forward to hearing from you. There is much we do not know. Please send an email to info@sequoiariverlands.org with your thoughts and suggestions. Sincerely, Cam Tredennick Executive Director, SRT
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Save Critical Habitat: DONATE NOW
Make an online donation today and safeguard valuable landscapes and wildlife habitat in the southern Sierra Nevada and San Joaquin Valley. Our open spaces and wildlife need your help!
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Join our Social Network
We're posting more events, updates, photos and the latest headlines across our social media pages. We want to hear your stories and see your photos from our preserves!
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Sign Your Class, Club, or Business Up for a Volunteer Day.
Volunteers can choose from a variety of projects:
- working in the native plant nursery
- maintaining hiking trails
- removing invasive plants
- planting natives at preserves
Sign your group or yourself on our website.
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Volunteer E-newsletter
Sign up for SRT's Volunteer e-newsletter to get updates on volunteer opportunities. Make a difference in your community! Click here for signup. |
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