NEVADA CITY, Calif. February 21, 2019 – Wednesday, March 6, 2019, Nevada County Resource Conservation District and Nevada County Office of Emergency Services are partnering for a free public screening of Fire and Forest Health: Your Tahoe National Forest alongside the timely Wilder than Wild: Fire, Forest and the Future at the Nevada Theatre. After the films, the community is invited to join in an ongoing conversation around the new reality of living with fire in the wildland urban interface. Panelists represent a diverse cross-section of the wildfire prevention community including: CAL FIRE, Fire Safe Council of Nevada County, Nevada County Office of Emergency Services, Nevada County Resource Conservation District, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Tahoe National Forest and University of California Cooperative Extension. The panel discussion will be moderated by YubaNet Co-founder, Pascale Fusshoeller.
A full house is anticipated, so Nevada County Media, KVMR, YubaNet, The Union, and KNCO have joined forces to ensure everyone in the community participates in this important event. With the help of these media partners and filmmakers, Kevin White and Steve Most, the films and discussion will be available on various media channels. Watch the film on Nevada County Media Channel 18. Live, community-wide, panel coverage will be available on KNCO, KVMR, YubaNet and The Union. Additionally, moderator Pascale Fusshoeller will be taking questions live from the audience and online via townhall@Yubanet .com. It is the hope that through new collaborations and continued conversations, planning will take place beyond this one night. Space is limited; to secure your seat please retrieve your free ticket early on Eventbrite at: ReadyNevadaCounty.Eventbrite.com. Doors will open at 4:45 P.M and the films will begin promptly at 5:15 P.M
Fire and Forest Health: Your Tahoe National Forest is an 11-minute film about the Tahoe National Forest, and how wildland firefighters prepare for yet another fire season. This film captures that wildland firefighters aren’t the only Tahoe National Forest employees trying to stop catastrophic wildfires and increase forest health. This film explores why Tahoe’s National Forests have changed and what’s being done to reverse this trend.
Wilder than Wild: Fire, Forests, and the Future is a one-hour documentary that reveals how fire suppression and climate change have exposed Western forests to large, high severity wildfires, while greenhouse gases released from these fires contribute to global warming. This vicious cycle jeopardizes forests and affects all with extreme weather and more wildfires, some of which are now entering highly populated wildland-urban areas.
There is much at stake. Landscapes that store water and carbon, produce oxygen, and feed and shelter a diversity of wildlife are at risk. “We are losing forests at a rate which is causing them to be a contributor to the problem of global warming,” says Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board. According to fire historian Stephen Pyne, “Forests should be renewable, but with climate change and all the other problems that are going with it, we could see a large-scale conversion of forest – the equivalent of clearing it.”
Highlighting these issues with personal experience, filmmaker Kevin White takes the audience on a journey from the Rim Fire of 2013, which burned 257,000 acres in the central Sierra, to the wine country wildfires of 2017, which destroyed 9,000 buildings and killed 44 people. Along the way, viewers learn how the proactive use of prescribed fire can reduce reliance on reactive fire suppression, see a California tribe renew their tradition of cultural fire, and meet stakeholder groups working with scientists and resource managers to build consensus on how to restore and manage the lands we love and depend on.
About the Nevada County Resource Conservation District
The Nevada County Resource Conservation District (NCRCD) was founded on January 4, 1944 with a mission to promote responsible resource management. The NCRCD is a state mandated, not-for-profit, Special District that is neither a regulatory group nor a county entity. We are a “political subdivision” of the State of California (under California Public Resources Code, Division Nine, Section 9003), not funded by the state, and required to pay state sales tax. We are federally tax-exempt under Section 170(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Service code and can accept donations as tax-free contributions. We receive a small percentage of revenue from property taxes of Nevada County residents. The NCRCD is governed by a board of 5 directors appointed by the Nevada County Board of Supervisors and is made up of local landowners who provide input for local resource management.
The NCRCD partners with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in assisting landowners and land managers in improving their land. The NCRCD and the NRCS provide technical assistance regarding issues that include erosion control, pond management, invasive weed control, fuels management, wildlife habitat improvement, pasture, orchard and vineyard management, and rangeland management.
About the County of Nevada Office of Emergency Services
The County of Nevada Office of Emergency Services (OES) is responsible for coordinating with County departments, local cities, special districts, and the community to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. OES is responsible for designing and conducting simulated disaster preparedness and response exercises and evaluating emergency staff training. OES is also responsible for maintaining the County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in a state of readiness.
OES’s Mission Statement is to develop and maintain a state of readiness in preparation for any natural, technological, or human conflict related emergency that could adversely impact residents of Nevada County. To minimize loss of lives, destruction of property and damage to the environment, and to ensure continuity of government services. Ready Nevada County is an initiative launched to support community education, and stakeholder collaboration around wildfire prevention and emergency preparedness.