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Cooperative Extension Uses STS Stories for Outreach

jmross — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:41:29 -0700

Holly George is using Saving The Sierra’s webstories to build interest in doing a digital storytelling project with cattle ranchers in the Sierra Valley, a hundred thousand acre tract of land made up wide-open spaces, meandering creeks, and close-knit communities in the Northern Sierra.

Holly is the Cooperative Extension Agent for Plumas and Sierra Counties. Her focus is education and applied research, mostly around land use and natural resources.   That means collecting data, reviewing natural resource policies, analyzing how current land use practices play out on the ground and packaging all the information she collects to share with folks who can use it.

But she's a big fan of enabling rural residents to share their own stories: "I'm really impressed with getting messages out in the words and images of people who are on that land, not in the words of extension agent. I can facilitate, create and develop a final project. But I think digital storytelling is good way to get messages to policymakers."

Digital storytelling is fairly new approach to generating community-based media. Though a series of workshops, ordinary folks produce short (2-5 minute) videos that combine a narrated piece of personal writing, photographic and other still images, and a musical soundtrack. Digital storytelling is grounded in the notion that everyone—regardless of technical or creative backgrounds—can produce compelling stories that benefit both the makers and the audiences they are trying to reach.

Why Ranchers’ Stories?
"I'm learning about the need for decisions makers and general public to better understand stewardship practices the landowners are implementing and some of the obstacles and hurdles they are encountering."

Holly says that ranchers are struggling with how to convey to a larger population base that there are multiple services that are provided through agricultural land: "It's more than hay and cows. Ag land provides flood attenuation, water filtration, wildlife habitat, and viewsheds.” These "eco-system services" are benefits that come from land stewardship. But they are benefits most people don’t link to agriculture, especially cattle ranching.

“Sometimes when people look at land use issues they separate the people from it, as if you just deal just with the land. But people are vital to the health of the land,” according to Holly.   “I’m trying to get the people component into the mix. Most of the people I'm working with in agriculture are multi-generational on the land and they are hoping to keep that land in good shape for future generations.”

Holly is also interested in enabling cattle ranchers to represent themselves and their way of life. “Livestock producers have gotten a bad rap. I really don't things guys wake up and say ‘what can we rape and pillage today’. They are in it for the long haul.”

Laying The Groundwork with STS’s Website
To get people interested in the idea of using place-based personal stories to communicate about issues and practices, Holly selected a half a dozen webstories from savingthesierra.org that featured Sierra Valley residents. These stories relate to what ranchers there are grappling with--like encroaching development, conservation easements, and the desire to preserve open space and local economies.   Then she played the stories at a series of public meetings and got people to talk about the content and impact of these short, simple digital pieces. After that, she got the names of those who would be willing to get involved in a digital storytelling project focused on ranching.

She also drummed up support by sending the STS URL to a mix of policymakers and planners, including the board of supervisors, regional water quality control board, California Rangeland Trust staff, and farm advisors.

As Holly puts it, “showing and talking about the stories was the corner stone of generating interest to get folks to participate.”   People were proud to see themselves and the people they know on the big screen.   Ranchers saw it as a great way to show what is happening on their ranch without having people traipsing across their property.   Local government and non-profit groups recognized the power of personal stories to engage audiences around community issues as well as assets.

Sierra Valley Storytelling Project
Now that she’s been able to generate interest as well as trust—ranchers aren’t always keen to work collectively or engage in group process—Holly is working with STS Co-director jesikah maria ross to put together a digital storytelling project that brings together 10-12 Sierra Valley ranchers to ‘tell their stories’ about agricultural viability and resource stewardship. In particular, the group will create stories that touch on why they ranch, current hurdles to successful ranching, and promising practices in Ag land stewardship. As a group, the ranchers will decide the messages they want people to walk away with after experiencing the stories. Holly and the storytellers will then use the final videos as a tool to outreach to decision makers, neighboring landowners, and the general public through community screenings and dialogues as well as via a project website. And in the process, the ranching community will build communication skills they can use in the future.

The digital stories will augment Holly’s own writing as well as be a handy tool in generating dialogue about the viability of agricultural land today. Holly thinks the people associated with stewardship practices and particular pieces of land will present a more compelling case on their issues than an objective scientist like herself. “You can capture more in their words and image than in an extension article. The passion that comes out in their voice, you can't get that in the written word.”

Producer's Journal: From Distribution to Community Outreach

jmross — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:28:01 -0700

It's been tremendously exciting for a first time radio documentary producer like me to see how well our hour-long radio special is doing in terms of getting airtime across the nation.

To date, Saving The Sierra: Grassroots Solutions for Sustaining Rural Communities has played on over 170 station in 28 states (not to mention in Canada and Australia!). And not just in the West! Places as far afield as Massachusetts, Iowa, and Florida are running the program.

It tells me that people of all stripes in many places appreciate media that draw connections among the health of our ecology, economy, and community and want to hear success stories on how folks are coming together across divides to generate local solutions to thorny conservation issues.

Catherine and I had hoped to air on 150 stations, but now our goal is 200! Getting on 100 stations is considered a huge success by public radio standards.

But we don't just want the work to reach audiences through radio. That's why we're now turning our attention to connecting with non-profit organizations that deal with the issues, places, or people profiled in the documentary. We're exploring with various organizations how they might use our professionally made media to advance their public outreach goals.

For example, the third segment of our documentary is called "Long Live Mono Lake " and focuses on the relationship between the rural Mono Basin and the city of LA that depends on the basin's water. The segment gives a brief history of the historic water battle between the Mono Lake Committee and Los Angeles, introduces the different caretakers of the land (from Native Americans to environmental activists to the LA Dept. of Water and Power), shows how LA youth are learning about where their water comes from, and examines how the city of LA has--through challenges brought on by rural activists--has gone from draining Mono Lake to hosting one of the most successful urban water conservation programs in the country.

In conversations with The Mono Lake Committee (MLC), we figured out that they have thousands of tourists who come by car to visit their shop in Lee Vining every summer to get information, maps, and sign up for various public education experiences like canoeing down as South Tufa State Park. And they wanted to share the story of how their relationship with LA has shifted to one of collaboration as well as let folks know more about the history of the area and their public education programs (all covered in our segment).

So we hatched a plan: why not make a CD that has a short recorded introduction by the MLC followed by our Long Live Mono Lake segment that folks who come visit can play in their car when they are driving around the area?

So we did it. Here I am recording Geoff McQuilken recording a 2 minute script!

The MLC plans to burn about 1000 copies to pass out to both tourists who come through the area and also to give to doing presentations to colleagues, policymakers, and funders. Pretty cool huh?

If your organization can use either the stories in our documentary or on the Storybooth page on this website, let us know!

Extra Credit

jmross — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:40:05 -0700

My good pal David Manahan taught Environmental Studies courses at Sacramento State over the past few years. As a big supporter of this project, he offered his students the opportunity to get some extra credit for exploring our website and writing about their experiences.

Recently David moved to Australia to take a teaching position and in cleaning his files he passed on to me a stack of reflection papers his students had written about their experiences with our website. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"I have never been part of blogging. If I was to become a blog addict though, I would like it to be with an organization like Saving The Sierra. It was interesting to listen to the different stories, and hear the varying definitions on what conservation means to people. It was inspiring in a way to see that so many people are willing to come together in order to conserve a part of nature. It also made me feel like I should be making more of an effort like these citizens, and gaining some real memories by being part of something"

"After finishing this activity, I now realize how important it is to save the Sierra. I think it is really important to get people in the state of California to be aware of the situation in the Sierra Mountains and how our actions affect it. I know that I will be more aware of my own actions and that I will do things that are environmentally beneficial and not harmful."

"From the blog, I learned more about the issues in the Sierra and how people are taking action to help. It showed me another side of the Sierra that I never knew. From hearing the stories of people who are active in the environment, it really inspiredme to do more and to help protect our environment that we all live in."

"I think the things people are trying to do to conserve the environment, culture, and economy of the Sierra Nevada is very powerful. The things that the people are doing are very inspiring and motivational. It makes you want to do something to make a difference."

"From the blogging experience, it was great to see the different comments and views people have on the different stories. It was surprising to learn what goes on that we really don't hear about. For me personally, I just know what is going on in our community and sometimes we need to see what is going on throughout the state. We don't realize that everything affects us. I just hope that the majority of citizens will become more aware of what's going on in our environment and help end some of the current issue we are dealing with today."

Any thoughts you'd like to share on how this website has made a difference for you?

With All This Talk About Water....

jmross — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:12:10 -0700

Here's another voice to add to the mix.

It's an editorial I clipped from about a month ago that cites both the what Governor might do when it comes to conserving water and some interesting facts on just how much we might conserve through some new technologies. I nabbed it as it reminded me a lot to the third piece in our hour long documentary (a 20 minute segment called Long Live Mono Lake) which explores--in part--how the City of Los Angeles has become a leader in urban water conservation.

I agree with this editorial that puts forward water conservation as one of the most effective, easy to implement, strategies to get everyone--individuals, cities, states--engaged in water conservation. I also agree with the author that conservation isn't he answer...it's just part of the formula we'll have to find to address how we use, preserve and water in the future.

Editorial: Governor's water plan a boost for conservation, Sacramento Bee

April 3, 2008

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/832558.html

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger surprised many in 2006 by signing a bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

Now he seems interested in pursuing a similar cap on practices that waste water.

Schwarzenegger told legislators last month that, as part of a comprehensive water package, he wants a 20 percent reduction in per-person water use in urban areas by 2020. His Department of Water Resources is now formulating strategies to meet that target, and lawmakers could soon be debating bills to further the state's conservation efforts.

This renewed focus on conservation is encouraging on at least two fronts. By finding common ground on ways to improve water efficiency, state leaders could lay the groundwork for progress in other areas, such as improving water quality and conveyance in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Conservation also makes financial sense. For many areas of California, it is the cheapest, most immediately available source of new water.

Consider these numbers: Each year, cities and suburbs use about 8.7 million acre-feet of water, or about 2.8 trillion gallons. Compared with agriculture, cities and counties consume just a fraction of the state's overall supply. But because urban areas are growing quickly and generally don't have seniority in water rights, many of them pay a steep price for their water. Thus they have a built-in incentive to make the most of every drop.

Over the last two decades, certain urban areas – particularly those outside of the Central Valley – have invested heavily in water efficiency. Those investments are a key reason why the state's population has grown with only modest investments in water storage.

Yet more could be done. According to Chapter 22 of the current California Water Plan Update, an extra 3 million acre-feet of water – one-third of the current urban usage – could be saved yearly with existing technologies. These include installing more efficient sprinklers and landscaping at city parks and highway medians; expanding metering of water and replacing an estimated 10 million antiquated toilets that were installed in homes and offices prior to 1992.

In this session, lawmakers have introduced varied legislation – including Assembly Bills 2175, 2882, 2153 and 2219 – to tighten conservation. All are works in progress and vary in approach. AB 2175, for instance, would require water agencies to achieve a firm per-person target in reducing water consumption, but would give credit to those that have already invested in conservation. AB 2153 would require new developments to reduce their water consumption "footprint" by helping disadvantaged communities and farmers pay for improved efficiency.

While conservation isn't a panacea for all of the state's water challenges, it still retains untapped potential, as well as unseen environmental benefits. The less water that is pumped out of rivers and over mountains, the less energy the state must purchase from power plants, including those that burn dirty coal.

Water conservation goes hand in hand with California's overall effort to prepare for, and reduce the threat of, climate change. If state leaders can recognize that nexus, 2008 could be a year of real accomplishment on water.

Rural Ozone: Crops and Country Lungs

jmross — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:35:43 -0700

I came across this post from our colleagues at Yonder which both surprised and shocked me. Do you have a sense of the air pollution levels in the rural Sierra? They're pretty bad.

In fact, Nevada County appears to have some of the worst air in the nation.

Why is it that rural areas have such polluted air? And where is it the worst? Want to find out? Read on...

http://www.dailyyonder.com/rural-ozone-crops-and-country-lungs

A Word From the Ranching Community

jmross — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:20:40 -0700

It's been an uplifting but hectic week. Our hour-long documentary special Saving the Sierra: Grassroots Solutions for Sustaining Rural Communities is playing in 12 states on over 50 stations and the calls, requests, and emails keep coming in! It's incredibly gratifying to know that public and community radio stations across the country are airing the show...and we've only just begun our distribution and outreach efforts!

But maybe more gratifying are the personal notes we are receiving from Sierrans who've listen to our program or looked at this website and took the time to send us their comments.

Here's one, for example, from rancher Jenny Brown:

Hello Jesikah,

I am a member of the Local Food Coalition, as well as a member of the Yuba County Resource Conservation District.

My daily life as a rancher, and producer of Grass fed beef brings home the continual message that we must be engaged in the educational outreach to everyone who lives in the Sierras, as well as those who visit our area. I have lived on my ranch for over 19 years and have seen so many changes, especially in the political and legislative forum.

As an elder and one who lives and practices sustainable agriculture, I have been asked to speak to many groups about my life and how I ranch.

I would appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

You my visit my web site at www.highsierrabeef.com

Til then, thank you for all that you are doing to educate and ENLIGHTEN.

Bless your day,

Jenny Brown

Hearing from folks like Jenny really makes me feel that our project has been a success. Saving the Sierra is about creating ways for folks up and down the range to share their what they value about this place and what they are doing on it's behalf as a way to build a community for stewardship throughout the mountains and among up and downstream communities. We've wanted to help start conversations, make connections, share best practices, and get more folks involved in preserving the Sierra's natural and cultural resources. When I get a note like this from Jenny who is asking to start a dialog, sharing her life work (High Sierra Beef!), and supporting the idea of using media to education and enlighten--it makes my day! Thanks Jenny!

So send in your thoughts and comments! Let us know what you are doing to conserve the culture, economy, and environment of the place you love.

On The Other Side Of The Mic

jmross — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:21:07 -0700

Ever done an interview? How about one for radio? And in a sound proof studio but by cell phone (not the original plan but the work-around due to some technical challenges). And being asked important questions and you know your answers will reach a huge audience.

Well, I'm hear to say it's no easy task.

On Tuesday, Catherine and I paid a visit to the KQED studio in Sacramento to do an interview about our recent documentary for the statewide public radio magazine program The California Report. It was so wonderful to be invited to speak about our project on this show that airs on well over 30 community and public radio stations from Acata to San Diego. The California Report provides daily coverage of issues, trends, and public policy decisions affecting California and its diverse population. I listen to the show myself, so it was a bit of a jolt to have the host, Scott Shafer introducing himself and asking us questions.

jesikah

Press interviews about topics I'm passionate about are always a challenge for me. Besides having to stay super focused, you need to communicate as best you can in short, clear sentences. When it comes to talking about Saving The Sierra , it's not the clarity part that is tough; it's trying to distill two years of experiences, discoveries, challenges, and outcomes in a concise way.

But it was fun to be on the other side of the microphone. Plus it's always great to team up with Catherine to present the project, since we come to the documentary subject--the Sierra--from such distinct perspectives. Catherine, after all, lives and work in the Sierra. I on the other hand visit and love it; not to mention depend on it for water, clean air, outdoor adventures, and spiritual rejuvenation.

Catherine

The interview aired Friday April 11. Have a listen to it by clicking here and let us know what you think. Any other thought you would have added if you have the chance to reach out and connect with thousands of public radio listeners across the state?

From 0 to 80 MPH: Becoming A Producer In Record Time

jmross — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:47:15 -0700

I love radio. Always have.

I remember my first time descending to the basement in Freeborn Hall at UC Davis (my sophomore year) to check out the college station, KDVS 90.3 fm. As I walked through the double glass doors I was immediately surrounded by people of every stripe, shelves overflowing with records (this was the pre-CD era), and walls plastered with posters featuring rockers, folkies, mariachi bands, sonic artists and more. In one studio there was a grrl band warming up for their live spot; in the other the on-air DJ was back-announcing the set he'd just played featuring surf music mixed with bluegrass. Then some official looking types came in, the guest for the evening's public affairs show. The topic: US foreign policy in Nicaragua.

In that trippy, eclectic den of sound and information, I felt at home. And I moved in--hosting a regular show for about 10 years. That stint gave me a chance explore and experiment with various musical genres, public affairs programming, and audio production.

But being an announcer/programmer is way different from being documentary producer. And did I learn that through making our national hour long documentary special, Saving The Sierra: Grassroots Solutions for Sustaining Rural Communities.

Sure, having a background in radio production helped. Plus, for the past 15 years I've been a community video maker/trainer as well as indie documentary film sound recordist, producer, and assistant director. So it's not as if I hadn't been in and around media making for a while.

But telling stories with images and telling stories with sounds are two very different worlds. In radio, every second counts in a way that is totally different from video/film, where you get to put images together with sound to convey a place, a person, a feeling, or an issue.

I'd never done a radio doc, so I didn't stop to think that maybe doing a short piece instead of an hour long special for public radio might a wise first step.

And perhaps taking on the entire Sierra Nevada Mountain range was a tad ambitious. It is, after all, about the size of the state of Kentucky. Made up of some 20 or so counties within about 20,000 square miles stretched along California's Eastern boarder.

Yep, not exactly your small scale starter documentary. It felt like going from 0-80 mph. The speed dating approach to becoming a radio documentary maker.

Fortunately, I wasn't going it alone. I teamed up with two-time Peabody award-winning producer/editor Catherine Stifter. Between her skills and saavy and my curiousity and logistical abilities, we made a great team. And we had a bevy of project partners and allies along the way.

So in just two short years I've managed to get hip to the digital production realm (I'm old school and learned audio production on tape), handy with portable recording gear, better at crafting those pithy, yet descriptive radio lines (though still a challenge), more willing to cut the parts of the script I love, and enlightened about the whole radio documentary process from start to finish. Looking back, it's amazing to see how far I've come. And looking ahead, I can see that I want to do more.

Which is all to say: if I can do it, just about anyone can. And everyone should. Don't you think?

We all have stories about a place that means something special to us. Or people who inspire us. Stories about successes, challenges, and how people found a way to make things work. The kind of stories that help us make sense of the world and our place in it.

If I gave you a recorder and my newly-acquired 10 tips for radio documentary, what places and people in those places would you record? What stories would you want to tell?

I'd love to hear.

Find Out About All Thing Rural

jmross — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 08:53:39 -0700

At long last--a news and information service for all things rural in the US! The Daily Yonder, published through the Center for Rural Strategies, responds to the need for new media that explores the issues, concerns, and culture of rural America. As the Yonder's website puts it:

"55 million people live in the rural U.S. Maybe you're one of them, or used to be, or want to be. As mainstream TV and newspapers retreat from small towns, the Daily Yonder is coming on strong.

We're your daily multi-media buffet of news, commentary, research, and features.

Check us throughout the day for breaking news, updates from the best rural bloggers and pointers to streaming live radio from the coast of Maine and to the wilds of Montana.

How about those presidential candidates? The Daily Yonder is your source for news of all the campaigns -- how they're reaching (or ignoring) rural communities."

The Daily Yonder welcomes ideas, stories, news, and photos of your Sunday dinner, among other things. We at Saving The Sierra will be linking up with the Yonderites to share what's going on in our rural mountain range. In fact, Center For Rural Strategies President Dee Davis sits on Saving The Sierra's project advisory board--so you can be sure we'll be linking efforts!

So have a look at the Daily Yonder and let us know what you think about it here! Tell us what kinds of news, views, stories, and culture should we share from our neck of the woods with this national rural media outlet.

Ranching and a West That Works

jmross — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:01:37 -0700

People who stop by often double take at the pile of books on my coffee table. Right now, stacked about half foot deep are: Storm Over Mono, Cadillac Desert, Edens Lost & Found, Shaping The Sierra, The Seven States of California, and Geologic Trips in the Sierra Nevada. I have to own up: with each passing day I become more of a California Studies geek. More specifically, a Sierra Nevada Studies wonk wannabe. I'm fascinated with pretty much all things Sierra and since so much of California history (and current resources) are bound up with the range...there is a lot to learn.

One area that I've been exploring is ranching in the Sierra. The interplay between economics and environment with some heritage and culture tossed in. My family on my mother's side are all farmers/ranchers, and I spent most of my summers and holidays on my grandparents' ranch. While my grandfather never complained about "those environmentalists" everyone else sure did. And since I've been a card carrying member of the Sierra Club since High School (along with a few other wilderness and wildlife organizations), the faces and eyes usually turned toward me when the rants began. I pretty much tuned them out, thinking my people were out-of-touch reactionaries that needed to get into town more often. I couldn't really understand or relate to their anger and frustration towards people like me, urban and suburbanites who didn't spend much time working the land but wanted to have wide open spaces and healthy environments to play in.

But I'm starting to get it. I just finished Home Land: Ranching and a West That Works (it had finally floated to the top of my stack of books) which is a collection of essays focused on the ranch lands, ranch people and ranch culture written by ranchers, rural poets, and conservationists. The book celebrates the new "radical center" into which former adversaries are now gravitating (i.e., ranchers and enviros). That's great.

For me though, what really comes through in this book is the bad blood between ranchers and environmentalists that has existed for years, particularly over grazing on public lands (i hadn't heard the slogan "Cow Free by '93" before, but evidently it was in fashion for awhile among some groups). The book helped give me a sense of the disconnect between rural folks and their urban and suburban counterparts. It gave me some insight into rural residents distrust of city folks and why they might be justifiably angry at the broader environmental movement. That is not a perspective I find in most of the books I come across. I can't say it's the most stellar writing or compelling compilation of essay, but I do appreciate how Home Land gave me a deeper sense of the backstory of all the vitriol that flew in both directions during the 80s and 90s between the rural ranching communities and the urban/suburban based environmental activists.

I feel like I have a better sense of what my family was getting so upset about those many years ago. Now I would probably have more empathy and understanding, though knowing me and my relatives--I doubt we'd still see eye to eye even today.

Circling back to this project that I'm now working on, Saving The Sierra: Voices of Conservation In Action, which is grounded in amplifying the voices of people coming together, across divides, to conserve the natural and cultural resources of the "range of light", a quote from the book stands out. It's Tony Malberg of Twin Creek Ranch: "I realized that if I'm going to survive the twenty-first century, I need to be trilingual...Ranchers tell stories. The BLM wants to talk data. And then there is the environmentalists...To connect with them you need to use poetry." (p. 116)

Reminds me that we all speak and listen differently at different points along our journeys. I'm trying to keep my ears and mind open while becoming trilingual.