We cannot have hope for the future if we do not plant it.

In light of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the Dixie wildfire becoming one of the nation's largest, and global catastrophic events in our newsfeeds each week, it can be hard to find optimism for the future of our planet and the life it sustains.

As we give you updates and highlight the projects we are working on (thanks to the support from people like you), we hope to deliver a glimmer of optimism to your inbox.

The Tuolumne Watershed gives us so much. It provides us refreshing, cool water that flows through our taps; it grows food that nourishes us; it provides us space to play as we roam its rapids and explore it’s trails; and connects us as it flows through our diverse communities.

We are working to make sure that this landscape we love is protected, restored, and resilient against drought, flood, and fire.

Whether through political advocacy, floodplain and meadow restoration, river clean-ups, trail maintenance, community organizing, education programs, park planning, or re-forestation, we are stewarding a healthier watershed that can withstand the climate events to come.

With wildfires on our minds, how are we preparing our forests to be more resilient against them?

While many areas within the footprint of the 2013 Rim Fire lost their forest structure, some areas adjacent to the burned landscape and throughout the Stanislaus National Forest are still intact. Forests that have not been hit by high-intensity wildfire have become a refuge for wildlife. However, they still remain at threat from drought, tree mortality, and an era of fire suppression – making them more vulnerable to the catastrophic wildfires that are becoming all too common.

We are re-building resilience in these forests through low-intensity prescribed fires and thinning the undergrowth of smaller trees and shrubs to decrease fuel for fire. These fuels reduction projects will return the forest to a more natural state by removing smaller trees that were able to take root during decades of fire suppression. The smaller trees create “ladder fuels,” a ready pathway for fires that historically stayed on the ground, that climb into the tree canopy causing fires that burn too hot, reach too high, and quickly become unmanageable. These small trees also compete for water and nutrients with large ponderosa pines and other conifers that provide important habitat for wildlife both in their crowns and on the open, plant-covered forest floor that surrounds their trunks when the forest is healthy.

Projects like these give the forests a better chance at surviving wildfires and bring them back to a healthier, more natural state.