Producer's Journal: Telling the New Sierra Story by Catherine Stifter

Posted by Sierra Citizen

June 3, 2008

Like many stories about the Sierra, this one started with a river. Actually, it started waist deep in one of my favorite rivers. On a hot August day about three years ago, jesikah maria ross and I were standing in the cooling currents of the Yuba above Bridgeport, brainstorming a way to work together. We wanted to combine my 28 years of public radio journalism experience with her 20-year background in creating participatory media projects. And right there in the river, we found our inspiration.

We envisioned a community media project in which people who live, work and play in the Sierra could talk to each other about what they value about this magnificent mountain range; a project that could document the not-very-well-known story of how folks are coming together across geographic, political, and social divides to champion the places they love. These stories about collaboration and the hard work being done at the dirt level are mostly missing from mainstream media. When there’s a story about rural communities, it usually involves the "Q word" (quaint) or focuses on stereotypical conflicts seen from the urban perspective.

jesikah and I wanted to bring real rural voices to the radio, make downstream communities more aware of conservation issues at the top of their watersheds, and motivate greater involvement throughout the state in stewarding the natural and cultural resources of the Sierra. So we created "Saving The Sierra: Voices of Conservation in Action ." And, over the course of two years, we offered a variety of opportunities (at community events, on our website and through public radio programs) for people to share how this landscape inspires them to talk about what they are doing to preserve the environment, the economy and the rural heritage and culture of the Sierra.

Read the full article at Sierra Citizen online.