Sierra Business Council News Summer 2003 Sierra and Plumas counties combine environmental protection and economic growth. How often have you heard people in the Sierra who frame the region's future in terms of jobs versus the environment? As two counties in the northern Sierra are demonstrating, rural communities don't have to frame the future in this adversarial way. They can grow jobs, communities and natural capital all at the same time. In the Sierra Valley, straddling Sierra and Plumas counties, two projects reveal how partnerships, which include the Sierra Business Council, combine these objectives. It's an especially important time in the Sierra Valley, where timber and ranching have been the mainstays of the local economy for 150 years - and where both are struggling. The projects are: protection of the 572 acre Maddalena Ranch to increase grazing opportunities, protect wetlands, grow eco-tourism, enhance school education, and help provide California with clean water; and an innovative effort to secure infrastructure funding to retrofit a closed timber mill - to reduce water pollution and create business and job opportunities in a fragile economy. Steve Frisch, who directs SBC's Working Landscapes Initiative and is involved in both projects, says that, "Sierra Valley residents are learning that collaboration is helping them to chart a new future for the land and communities they care so much about." The Maddalena transaction is a textbook case about how to hit multiple objectives with one project. Nestled in the middle of the valley, the Maddalena Ranch supports more than 100 bird species and contributes to the headwaters of the Feather River. Forty percent of the ranch is in wetlands, part of a nationally acclaimed wetland complex that draws thousands of tourists and researchers. The property was protected through a partnership of rancher Tony Maddalena, the Feather River Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy,-and SBC, which provided most of the funding for the project with the help of a grant from the Packard Foundation. Maddalena Ranch will be managed as a demonstration project, to illustrate how to protect important natural resources while continuing to graze cattle. By utilizing the ranch's natural assets to encourage birding, research and visits by school-children, the ranch will keep contributing to the local economy while protecting its historic uses. In addition, Tony Maddalena was able to use proceeds from the transaction to secure additional grazing property and bolster his business for the future. back to in the News

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