Bryon Hadwick is the new project coordinator of the Northwest California Resource Conservation and Development Council, a non-profit that works to bring economic development and conservation of natural resources to communities of Trinity, Humboldt and Del Norte counties. The Council's office is in Weaverville, next to Trinity County Resource Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an arm of USDA. The Council works closely with them plus other RCDs, tribal offices and other entities throughout its area.

Bryon is fifth-generation from Butte Valley, where he gained extensive farming and ranching experience raising livestock, working local ranches and raising, riding and training performance horses. Knowledge he learned applying holistic resource management practices proved to be an asset to Central Modoc RCD and to his new Council post here. He is an alumnus of Chico State University with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Business. Along with his wife Heather, he was also owner and publisher of the Butte Valley Lost River Star, a weekly newspaper serving the people and businesses of Butte Valley. On top of his other talents, Bryan is an award-winning leatherworker who plied his craft at the nationally-known Butte Valley Saddle Company in Dorris and still enjoys tooling rawhide and engraving silver. He also derives pleasure from family time with his two boys or going fly fishing — another great reason for living in Trinity County, he noted.

The mission of the Northwest California RC&D is to conserve natural resources and promote resource- based economic development that improves the standards of living for current and future generations in Trinity, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties by working collaboratively with Council partners to promote projects for the benefit of all communities. Council projects often focus on biomass-to-energy, forest health and improvement, agricultural promotion, sustainable fisheries, or local food security and nutrition.

Among Trinity County projects are the Children's Gardens in Hayfork and Weaverville, the Trinity Recycling Project, and the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Weaverville Community Fuel Reduction Project which provided much of the environmental clearances needed for large scale fuels reduction projects or timber harvest on private land, making such work more economically feasible.

Other Council projects in Trinity demonstrated economic value of using small diameter timber or woody biomass left from fuels reduction activities. Timber pedestrian bridges for Weaver Basin Wetlands and Weaverville Community Forest are examples. Others include the round pole picnic pavilion in Lee Fong Park and a timber gazebo at BLM's Lowden Ranch. Another provided a furnace system at the Hayfork Wood Center/Business Incubator utilizing a company's wood waste-stream as fuel to heat the entire premises at zero cost. Another used chipped wood waste ("chunk wood") as a light-duty road surface material for two private dirt roads and a parking area, reducing muddiness and soil erosion.

The Council is working with Del Norte Resource Conservation District to develop a project that will provide a mobile beef processing plant for ranchers. It's a new concept in California, Bryon explained. There is less stress on cattle as they are not transported and ranchers won't lose profits to transportation costs and middle-men. The Council has also teamed with the Yurok Tribe to sponsor agricultural risk management workshops to promote agricultural markets and marketing opportunities.

The Five Counties Salmonid Conservation Program (www.5counties.org) transferred to the NWCRC&D in 2009. Its objective is to help Trinity, Siskiyou, Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties aid recovery of salmon and steelhead by improving county plans, policies and practices.

Bryon is enjoying the challenges. "I love it. The RC&D is one of the programs I've always wanted to be involved with. It's a nice change to work with multiple counties on a regional basis. The communities are great, people are friendly. That's the best part of small communities in northern California," he observed.

NWRC&D Council relies on grants from a variety of sources for it projects and operations. Sources include U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service. "Funding is always the challenge for RC&D councils," Bryon noted. "There's never a shortage of good projects -- just funds."