October 3, 2019 – The Reclaiming the Sierra conference returns to Grass Valley October 16-18, 2019 – the first time in nearly a decade that the West’s primary venue for showcasing innovation in assessment and reclamation of mine-impacted landscapes has been held in the Gold Country. Reclaiming the Sierra was launched by local non-profit, The Sierra Fund in 2010 to provide strategic direction and a platform for action for a wide range of organizations exploring ways to restore ecosystem and community resiliency to California’s headwaters devastated by gold mining. This year’s event takes a multidisciplinary look at four strategic targets for mercury abatement – hydraulic mines, forest and land management, contaminated sediment in reservoirs and the imminent threat to public health that mercury exposure poses.
The conference will kick off on Wednesday October 16 with an evening reception, Art at the Edge of Extraction, a showcase of local and international creatives working across a variety of mediums to explore the dual nature of the ingenuity and sheer destruction of mining. Thursday morning Dr. Jane Hightower, author of the novel “Diagnosis: Mercury”, will discuss why mercury exposure (through eating fish) has been identified as the most serious toxic public health threat in the world.
Scientists, agency leaders, and policy experts will convene at the Headwater Mercury Source Reduction Workshop on October 17 in a series of interactive panels on mercury abatement targets. Reclaiming the Sierra will finish out on Friday, October 18 with an on-the-ground tour of mercury sources in the headwaters.
The public is encouraged to attend all or part of the conference and become acquainted with the legacy mining impacts in our region, and what is being done to address them now and into the future.
What: The Sierra Fund’s (TSF) fifth biennial conference, Reclaiming the Sierra 2019: Headwater Mercury Source Reduction, is a platform to catalyze action around a vision of adaptive recovery for the environment and communities that are still blighted from 19th century Gold Rush. Join land managers, policy-makers, scientists, indigenous stakeholders and the interested public as we identify critical next steps in the headwaters in order to reduce the impacts of the Gold Rush and promote the resiliency of
natural and human resources from the Sierra to the sea.
When: October 16-18, 2019
Art at the Edge of Extraction Reception, Wednesday October 16, 6:00-8:30 pm
Headwater Mercury Source Reduction (HMSR) Workshop, Thursday October 17, 9:00 am-5:00 pm
HMSR Evening Reception, Thursday October 17, 5:00-7:30 pm
Mercury in the Headwaters Tour, Friday October 18, 9:00 am-5:00 pm
Where: Gold Miners Inn, 121 Bank Street, Grass Valley, CA
More Information: For more information and to register please visit The Sierra Fund’s conference website at reclaimingthesierra.org