November 30, 2023
Marla Stark
President & Chair
It’s been a magical year!
Hard work, solid science, and good timing.
Plus, a historic snowpack to manage.
Now we need your support to fill the gaps.
Whether it’s $20 or $2000, your
donation will have tremendous impact.
This Conservancy has now targeted high-elevation restoration projects across the full length of the JMT’s 213.7 miles that will continue for the next 8 to 10 years. To ramp up, our team worked extremely hard over the last 9 months to scale up projects, expand our internship program, migrate to an advanced accounting platform, and adopt state reporting formats. A major achievement.
While restoring meadow ecosystems is critical for sustainable water supply, it is also a key element of climate management. Carbon emissions from fossil fuels in the energy sector are not the biggest piece of the pie chart in global warming. Policymakers and scientists have long known that the loss of photosynthesis, ie. the destruction and degradation of green growth on the planet, is a much larger component.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has identified the major causes: deforestation, agricultural practices, and damage or destruction of terrain. Our Conservancy is working in the third branch to restore the vast and powerful meadow ecosystems and riparian corridors of the Sierra Nevada.
This restoration work achieves stunning results. An August 2022 study led by researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno reported that:
Restored Sierra Nevada meadows sequester carbon at a rate up to 10 times greater than international climate change goals, and they continue to do so for more than 20 years after being restored.
We need sustained philanthropic support to grow our organization, expand our fieldwork, and improve our operations. Please consider adding this Conservancy to your year-end giving. Thank you.
