Winter 2005
Vol. XIV, No. 1


Featured Employee

Laura Murphy

Laura

The RCD is happy to introduce a new member of our team! Laura Murphy is the new AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project Member placed at the RCD office in Weaverville. She began working with us in October, and has already become involved with several exciting community projects. Laura spends a large amount of time in the classroom teaching all grades of Trinity County students about our local natural resources, especially salmonids. She has also become involved with developing a school curriculum for implementing a county-wide recycling program.

Laura graduated from the University of California, Riverside in June, 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology. She eagerly anticipates beginning a graduate degree at UC Davis in Soils and Biogeochemistry after her placement with the RCD ends. She is very interested in sustainable land-use practices, and intends to focus on agricultural soils management. She feels that the experience she is gaining at the RCD regarding landowner resource conservation issues is invaluable to her future career goals.

Laura enjoys bicycling, swimming, dancing, hiking, gardening and all manner of crafts. She is greatly looking forward to longer and warmer days in Trinity County which she will fill with all these outdoor pursuits. The natural beauty of Trinity County reminds Laura of the landscapes of Montana and New Zealand, and she is very happy to have the opportunity to work in such a beautiful natural setting.

District Manager's Corner

by Pat Frost

Pat
New Year’s is a time of resolutions. We join a gym or promise ourselves we’ll pass on the pie after dinner. It also is a time of hope and expectations for the coming year.

I draw great hope from the people around me, and this year I have high expectations for the District. I see a lot of energy and enthusiasm for conservation. The Weaverville Community Forest is one of these hopeful projects. I see a strong bond forming between people in Weaverville and the managers at BLM to give the community a say in managing the land and water around them. We have had a good response to our landowner survey for the Upper Trinity River Project, and I expect to have many more people give us their two cents worth by sending in their surveys so that they can get some free wildflower seed and we can learn from their experience. Working with children always gives me hope. The enthusiasm and artistic skills of our Salmon Poster winners tells me that we can expect great things from them in the future. The District is guided by a Board of Directors. I have been very fortunate to have five individuals, who bring a wide range of experience and expectations to the table every month. You only have to look at Article 5 to see why I am resolved to have the best year ever for the District – Mike Rourke and Patrick Truman lead by doing and by being leaders in conservation.

So join us at the District by resolving to get involved in a conservation project this year, whether it is fighting noxious weeds in your neighborhood, clearing brush from around your house or just spending a little time getting to know the creek near your home.

Salmon

Salmon Poster Contest Winners

Sixth grade students from Weaverville Elementary School were invited to design salmon posters as part of the Bar 717 Environmental Education Camp last fall. Posters were displayed at the Annual Salmon Festival and judges from the Trinity County Arts Council, The Trinity River Restoration Program and the RCD selected the winning art work. These pieces will be used to promote the Annual Salmon Festival to be held in October. The artwork can be viewed here.

First Place: Nicholas Adrian
Second Place: Kayla Lopez

Honorable Mention:
Emme Feeser, Lian Lancaster, Emy Tkach, Brianna Swansen, Jacquie Gier

Survey Sent to Upper Trinity
River Watershed Landowners

A hearty thanks to all the landowners who have received the watershed survey and returned them so quickly. We appreciate the great response we are getting, but some have been returned without a name which means we may miss a few of you when we send the packet of wildflower seeds as promised. If you have returned the survey, but have not received your seed packet by mid-spring, please give us a call.


WANTED

The RCD is looking for the donation of a small tandem axle trailer or the old style single stall horse trailer with tandem axles that would be suitable for mounting a 300 gallon water tank for use in the fuels reduction project. Anyone who has one sitting out in the back 40, rusting away and buried in weeds that would like to see it put back to good use can give John a call at 623-6004.


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