My Nonprofit Reviews

I live in Tuolumne County, California. Much of the local region consists of public land including the Stanislaus National Forest, Wilderness areas, BLM land, and Yosemite National Park. There is also a lot of privately owned open ranch land.

Ranchers, loggers, developers, recreational interests and public agencies generally have strong points of view about how to manage all of this land. Fortunately, we have one organization in the region that advocates for the protection of the environment: The Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center (CSERC). Without CSERC’s tireless advocacy, there would likely be more ‘leap-frog’ developments into open space land; there would be less oversight of cattle grazing on public lands; there would be little if any monitoring of water quality in our mountain streams; and there would be much less camera monitoring of rare wildlife, such as the Sierra Nevada Red Fox.

I am continually amazed at the volume and quality of work done by CSERC. The staff attends countless public meetings dealing with Forest management plans, FERC relicensing plans, OHV and over-snow vehicle plans, and Yosemite management plans. Often CSERC is the only voice at these meetings advocating for water, wildlife and wild spaces. Often, too, CSERC has done the research that other organizations haven’t done. The CSERC staff is recognized as experts on tree mortality in the region and water quality issues in the forest. While CSERC represents a strong voice for the protection of the environment, its goal is to collaborate and find middle ground with loggers, ranchers and developers. For example, CSERC believes that to promote healthy forests, a mix of thinning logging and prescribed burning is necessary to open up dense forests to prevent large wildfires. Rather than oppose all development, CSERC tries to steer developers to build projects on ‘infill’ parcels rather than exploiting the open grasslands and oak woodlands.

Another wonderful aspect of CSERC’s advocacy is its practice of organizing volunteer work parties to help out the Forest Service and BLM with projects that might not otherwise get done. These projects include meadow restoration, stream bank stabilization, fencing off of sensitive meadows from cattle, and rehabilitation of illegal OHV trails. Over the years I have participated in many of these work parties. I don’t know of any other environmental group that has so many opportunities for this sort of hands-on work. In addition to doing useful work in beautiful settings, these projects are a wonderful way to share CSERC’s vision with other people.

I feel incredibly fortunate that an organization such as CSERC is thriving in our county. CSERC’s diligent ‘watch-dog’ presence gives me confidence that our precious natural resources will be protected for years to come.