SIERRA NEVADA REGIONAL MEETING RECAP & RECORDINGS
March 19, 2026
Hosted by Mountain Counties Water Resources Association and Sierra Nevada Conservancy, the Task Force’s Sierra Nevada Regional Meeting at the Chicken Ranch Casino Resort in Tuolumne County was the largest Task Meeting to date with nearly 500 people registered for in-person attendance and over 350 people joining online. During the meeting, three panels of local leaders provided examples of how partners in the Central Sierra are working across land ownerships, utilizing innovative funding strategies, developing a robust workforce and building necessary infrastructure to bring wildfire projects to scale.
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Tribal Representative
- Kyle Cox, Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians
Co-chairs
- Wade Crowfoot, California Natural Resources Agency
- Jason Kuiken, U.S. Forest Service
Task Force Executive Committee
- Joe Tyler, CAL FIRE
- Anne Cottrell, Rural County Representatives of CA
- Bobby Macaulay, CA State Association of Counties
- Don Hankins, Indigenous Stewardship Network
- Sam Assefa, Governor’s Office of Planning & Research
- Katy Landau, CalEPA
Director’s Report
Patrick Wright, Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force
Achieving Resilience: Scaling Efforts for All-Lands Approach
Moderator: Patrick Wright, Task Force
- Mike Albrecht, Associated California Loggers
- Jason Kuiken, U.S. Forest Service
- Liz Peterson, Tuolumne County
- John Buckley, Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center
Sustaining Resilience: Building Workforce & Infrastructure to Implement Projects at Scale
Moderator: Ashley Conrad-Saydah, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
- James Hanson, Central Sierra Economic Development District
- Diana Beasley, Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians
- Anukool Lakhina, BurnBot
- Colin Campbell, Heartwood Biomass
Financing Resilience: Innovative Strategies for Funding Projects & Plans
Moderator: Ashley Conrad-Saydah, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
- Nuin-Tara Key, California Forward
- Andrew Engler, RockRose Risk
- Kevin Johnson, PG&E
- Richard Sykes, Upper Mokelumne Watershed Authority
Closing Remarks
Executive Committee