2020 Wild and Scenic Film Festival

Friday Evening, Vets Hall

Meadows - Yosemite Nature Notes
Steven M. Bumgardner | 2019 | 7 min
Yosemite National Park has over 3,000 meadows, which hold the greatest diversity of plant and animal species despite only making up 3% of the park. In just the past 150 years, people have negatively impacted these fragile ecosystems. Yosemite National Park, with the help of Yosemite Conservancy, is working hard to rehabilitate these meadows that are an important part of the park's natural and cultural history.

California's Watershed
James Thebaut | 2019 | 27 min
Created to place a spotlight and raise awareness within the general public and elected and public officials, California's Watershed explores the critical social and ecological importance of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the far reaching national security consequences of its rapidly evolving demise. This film presents the dangerous impact of warming temperatures and climate change on the watershed and its importance in maintaining the long-term health and security needs of families, cities, businesses, farmers, and environment locally and globally.

Fighting Fire With Fire
Sinead Santich | 2018 | 3 min
In an effort to restore the role of Native people as land stewards and mitigate the threat of wildfires, UC-Davis professor Beth Rose Middleton Manning fires up a hands-on lesson in cultural burning. Tribal Chairman Ron Goode leads students in an immersive experience preparing the land, igniting the fire, and carrying out indigenous traditions that have restored California landscapes for centuries.

Not If But When: Wildfire Solutions
Radu Sava, Rebekah Hood-Sava | 2019 | 39 min
Wildfires are becoming a global phenomenon and California is one of the places hit the hardest because of its dry climate. Experts in the Sierra Nevada are taking on innovative solutions at an unprecedented scale and if they are successful, it could influence work around the world.

30-minute panel discussion to follow featuring:
Roger Bales – Distinguished Professor of Engineering, UC Merced and Director, Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Martha Conklin – Environmental Systems Chair Founding faculty and Professor of Engineering, UC Merced
Dave Eggerton – Executive Director, Association of California Water Agencies
Matthew Reischman – CalFire Assistant Deputy Director, Resource Protection
Willie Whittlesey – Assistant General Manager, Yuba Water Agency

Moderated by: Rachel Hutchinson – River Science Director, SYRCL

Session sponsored by Big Springs Garden Retreat Center