One Ending and Another Beginning this Spring at Saving The Sierra

One Ending and Another Beginning this Spring at Saving The Sierra

Published on May 8, 2008 - 7:26:06 AM

May 8, 2008 -- Here in the Sierra we are still waiting for the big melt. Somehow it's been just cool enough to keep a lot of that snow up in the mountains. And while we could always use some more rain, I'm about ready for spring to warm things up. And jesikah reports from her Central Valley garden that Spring is well on its way. Hope you are enjoying the change of season wherever you may be.

CA COUNCIL FOR HUMANITIES INITIATIVE CONCLUDED SUCCESSFULLY

Thanks to partnerships with The Sierra Fund, the Center for Sierra Nevada Studies at Sierra College, and the Sierra Nevada Alliance, we've completed the two-year initiative that launched Saving The Sierra as a regional media project and online community. Our work was further enhanced by a stellar advisory board and hundreds of stories from folks around the Sierra. We thank you all for your contributions to the success of our project. That's the ending, now here's another beginning, just in time for Spring!

DOCUMENTARY HEARD ON RADIO 'ROUND THE COUNTRY

A big thank you to all the radio stations around California and across America that broadcast our hour-long documentary to celebrate Earth Day! The program has been heard in 14 states and at least one city in Canada at this point! We're offering the show FREE to all college, community, public, and low power FM stations throughout the US for one year. And our marketing team at Creative PR is contacting many more stations to air the program, because it's not just for Earth Day. If you are connected to a local radio station, request that they play the documentary and send them to our website for more information: www.savingthesierra.org.

Raising rural voices is an issue that will be important any time of year. And telling everyone how rural communities are finding solutions to sustain their culture, economy, and environment is an ongoing part of our regional media project.

Check our online Tune In Guide for more broadcast times as they are confirmed.

PODCAST OR DOWNLOAD THE DOCUMENTARY

We've also made the entire documentary available as a podcast and a download from our website (in case you missed the broadcast). We encourage you to share it with friends and colleagues. It's easy to do from the documentary page where you can comment on the show, email it to a friend, or share it on networking sites like Facebook, Digg, etc.

NEW, IMPROVED WEBSITE

We're excited to share the fabulous updates to our Dottie award-winning website, savingthesierra.org Now, you can explore all our stories on a Google map. It's great to actually see that we've gathered voices from Kern County to Quincy and Tahoe to Jenner (on the coast). Our Drupal web developer Jeremy Isett has done an amazing job of customizing the Google maps to match the gorgeous design of our website. And our graphic designer Gale Peterson has beautifully reworked and updated some of the web pages. We've recently added about 20 new interviews. Hope you will give it a look and listen! We've added plenty of ways for you to share stories with our Tell A Friend email feature, or with your friends at Facebook, Digg, etc. And you can give each story a rating. Just click 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars to register your vote.

ONLINE TOOLKIT FOR SUSTAINING RURAL COMMUNITIES

You'll notice a new homepage design that features our documentary, the new Story map, and the Sustaining Rural Communities Toolkit, produced in collaboration with the Sierra Business Council. Thanks to President Steve Frisch who believes in the power of sharing stories and linking listeners with resources to learn more and take action. There's much to explore about land use planning, public participation, conservation easements, and at the Toolkit.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO SEND ITEMS FOR THE BLOG AND FEEL FREE TO COMMENT ON ANY POSTING THERE!

As always, if you have a desire to blog on a subject that is near and dear to you, we welcome your participation. We'll train you to use the Blog at Saving The Sierra and help create a buzz about your participation. Got an idea and want to write about it? Get in touch! And remember anyone can comment without registering. We've had some very interesting comments about the documentary and other key issues that we've posted.

GOT IDEAS ABOUT PARTICIPATING ON SAVINGTHESIERRA.ORG?

As you can see, we've been busy. We've concluded our CCH funding with this national documentary broadcast. But, you'll still see and hear us online. Folks have been asking us, "What's next?" We can imagine all kinds of fun projects, and we'd love to make this Website the place to be for telling Sierra stories. Do you have a school project that includes writing about your town? We can feature it! Are you collecting audio interviews for an oral history project? We'd love to include them on our Storybooth page, with photos! We could just as well ask you all, "What COULD BE next?" Got ideas? Give us a holler!

You can always email us at info@savingthesierra.org

Whether we see you in the Sierra or online at savingthesierra.org,

Thank you very very much for your support!

Catherine Stifter & jesikah maria ross,
co-producers

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