Join Regenerative Forest Solutions, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District (Gold Ridge RCD), staff from Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program, and additional expert speakers for this series highlighting forest health practices and related watershed benefits, forest management planning, regional milling infrastructure, prescribed burning, Indigenous forest and water stewardship knowledge, and more. This event is hosted in Sebastopol at The West Mill at Green Valley Farm + Mill.

Each series date will engage participants in stewardship strategies for improving forest and watershed health with presentations by expert speakers including our special guests (listed below), scientists from Gold Ridge RCD, and forest landowners. Participants will also get to see a demonstration and overview of milling infrastructure as well as information on how to bring good fire back to the land with staff from Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program and our guests.

The morning lecture will be followed by a walking tour before lunch (attendees bring their own), followed by a milling demo in the afternoon. After the demonstration, participants will self select into two groups – Group 1) Forest Management Planning, and Group 2) Forest Stewardship. Group 1 will stay at the mill and will make a plan for their next steps in incorporating lessons from the day. Group 2 will head into the forest to hone their practice by contributing to various forest stewardship activities (e.g. limbing, piling, and shaded fuel break expansion activities).

Each date costs $25 to attend; no one will be turned away for a lack of funds. Please email us at info at regenerativeforestsolutions.org if any financial or mobility assistance needed to support your attendance and participation.

EXPERT SPEAKERS: We are honored to be joined by the following speakers during our upcoming series and encourage you to learn more about their work and efforts prior to your arrival.

OCTOBER 22

– Sierra Cantor, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District

– Staff of Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward Program

– Jeremy Fisher, Forestree Collective/Green Valley Farm + Mill

– Peter Nelson, Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley, Dpt of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. We are honored to have the participation of Professor Peter Nelson during our October 22 series date who will present on Indigenous Perspectives to Resilient Forest Stewardship.

Peter Nelson (Coast Miwok and tribal citizen of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria) received his PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and is Assistant Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and Ethnic Studies. Professor Nelson works at the intersection of anthropological archaeology, Indigenous environmental studies, and Native American Studies in collaboration with tribal nations and Indigenous peoples in California and abroad on issues of cultural heritage preservation, settler colonialism, climate change, and Indigenous landscape management. Professor Nelson engages Indigenous archaeology and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methodologies to achieve community partner goals and utilizes a suite of approaches to his research such as geophysical survey (Ground Penetrating Radar, magnetometry, and resistivity), LiDAR, GPS/GIS mapping, paleoethnobotany, and ethnographic methods to document, learn from, and manage tribal cultural and ecological landscapes.

Professor Nelson participated in the 14-acre burn at Green Valley and has his Wildfire Firefighter Type 2 Certification (NWCG). We are so pleased that he can join us and present and encourage participants to read more about him here: https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/users/754001