3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Check-In

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm Optional activity / Walk or reception

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm Welcome
• Laurel Harkness, RVCC Coalition Director
• Irvin Jim, Chair, Inter-Tribal Council of California
• Jody, Holzworth, USFS Region 5 Deputy Regional Forester for Operations
• USDA Rural Development, California Director Maria Gallegos-Herrera
• Brittany Covich, Sierra Nevada Conservancy

5:30 pm - 6:00 pm Break

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Dinner

7:30 pm - 9:00 pm Optional evening activities / Bonfire social / Film screening “The West is Burning”

7:30 am - 8:30 am Breakfast

8:30 - 10:00 am Opening Plenary
Setting the stage: The importance of rural and the stewardship economy vision
• Nils Christoffersen, Wallowa Resources
• Mark Haggerty, Center for American Progress

“Political Realities” Panel
• Laurel Harkness, RVCC (moderator)
• Brett Fulcer, Brumidi Group
• Stacy Corless, Sierra Business Council
• Nav Dayanand, The Nature Conservancy

10:00 am - 10:30 am Break

10:30 am - 12:00 pm Concurrent Sessions
1. Putting “all-lands” into practice: In a panel discussion and subsequent breakout table engagement, we’ll dive into how cross-boundary partnerships across the West are undertaking all-lands work in the face of historic federal funding opportunities and large-landscape wildfire risk reduction needs.
• Alyssa Cudmore, Northern Blues Restoration Partnership in northeast Oregon and southeast
Washington
• Esmé Cadiente, the 2 watersheds, 3 rivers, 2 states (2-3-2) Cohesive Strategy Partnership in southern
Colorado and northern New Mexico
• Vernita Ediger, Central Oregon Shared Stewardship Alliance in central Oregon
• Erin Ernst, Tahoe Conservancy, Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative in northern California

2. Equity and the Stewardship Workforce: This session will feature several strategies for fostering local workforce development, including a partnership effort between the Inter-Tribal Council of California and the Sierra Institute for Community & Enviroment and an Oregon State University-led effort to enhance the equity of the forest workforce in the Northern CA and Oregon.
• Irvin Jim, Chair, Inter-Tribal Council of California
• Angela Bolton-Tout and Steve Wilensky, Sierra Institute for Community & Environment
• Manuel Machado, Oregon State University - Hands on the Land
• Carl Wilmsen, Northwest Forest Worker Center
• Kristin York, Sierra Business Council

3. Community-driven Rural Development: From the state and federal level to local and regional scales, this session will explore diverse rural development strategies, including an update on rural community capacity-building in Montana, workforce housing development in Oregon, and community sawmill infrastructure revitalization in California.
• Kara Maplethorpe and Nate Owens, Heart-of-the-Rockies Initiative
• Diane Conradi, Montana Access Project
• Cole Jenson, RVCC
• Thomas Miller, UC Davis Environmental Policy & Management / “California Sawmill Revitalization
Initiative”
• Eric Byous, EPA Region 9
• Nils Christoffersen & Larz Stewart, Wallowa Resources/ Working Homes

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Lunch

1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Break

1:30 pm - 3:00 pm Concurrent Sessions
1. Value-Add Business: How are communities envisioning and creating strong natural resources-based economies in the West? This session will highlight a few approaches, including community-sale, small-diameter wood utilization and regional entrepreneur support programs.
• David Schmidt, Heartwood Biomass
• Andrew Haden, Wisewood Energy
• Georgia Reid, Geo Collective
• Bob Christensen, Sustainable Southeast Partnership

2. Federal Funding Accessibility: Barrier Breaking and Capacity Building: The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act represent unprecedented funding opportunities for conservation, climate, and wildfire resilience. However, accessing this funding continues to be challenging for smaller, community-based organizations and practitioners. This panel will focus on a handful of new federal programs and efforts, and how they’re looking to improve accessibility for historically underserved communities and partners.
• Sarah Di Vittorio and Kerry Morse, National Forest Foundation
• Michelle Medley-Daniel, Watershed Research and Training Center
• Nikola Smith, US Forest Service
• Eric Byous, Environmental Protection Agency

3. Wildfire Resilience in Federal Policy: This session will give a behind-the-scenes look at the work of the federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission and the Wildfire Resilience Coalition, two efforts to develop and support meaningful policy change related to wildfire. We’ll learn about what these groups see as key policy recommendations for the RVCC community, what’s next for advancing them, and how local practitioners can get engaged.
• Andy Fecko, Placer County Water Agency, Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission
• Craig Thomas, The Fire Restoration Group, Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission
• Kacey KC, Nevada Division of Forestry, National Association of State Foresters, Wildland Fire
Mitigation and Management Commission
• Zander Evans, Forest Stewards Guild, Wildfire Resilience Coalition

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Break

3:30 pm - 4:15 pm Concurrent Sessions
1. Emerging Markets, Conservation Finance, and Rural Community Benefit: Panelists immersed in climate markets and conservation finance will speak to the role of these tools for rural land stewardship and community benefit outcomes.
• Dr. Drew Bennett, University of Wyoming
• Nikola Smith, USFS State, Private, and Tribal Forestry
• Brent Davies, Vibrant Planet Data Commons

2. Sustainable and Accessible Recreation: This session will provide an up-close view of two approaches to advance nature-based solutions with multi-benefits inclusive of stewardship and recreation. Presentations will feature the California Joint Strategy for Sustainable Outdoor Recreation & Wildfire Resilience and work by the El Dorado Water Agency & Radbridge to highlight the multifaceted benefits of natural lands within the Upper American River Watershed.
• John Wentworth, Mammoth Lakes Trails & Public Access
• Johnny Mojica, Radbridge
• Rebecca Guo, El Dorado Water Agency

3. Beneficial fire: Policy barriers and opportunities: Hear about some of the most critical and timely policy issues and efforts for expanding the use of beneficial fire, including the EPA’s air quality rulemaking, workforce training and development, liability, and the incorporation of Indigenous practices into federal policy.
• Heidi Huber Stearns, Ecosystem Workforce Program, University of Michigan's Western Forest and
Fire Initiative
• Morgan Varner, Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy
• Jenna Archer, Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm Policy Roundtable

5:30 pm - 6:00 pm Break

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Dinner

7:30 pm - 9:00 pm Optional evening activities / Bonfire social
** Live music - Preacher’s Pickers**

7:30 am - 8:30 am Breakfast

8:30 am - 9:00 am Room check-out (store bags)

9:00 am - 10:15 am Storytelling
Sharing stories of place through the lens of stewardship economy
• Bre Owens of Western Landowners Alliance
• Jen Elliott, Latah Soil and Water Conservation District
• Paul Wilson, Rios to Rivers
• Ken Sandusky, Modoc Nation

10:15 am - 11:30 am Interactive Closing Plenary
• Facilitated by Melanie Parker, Deputy Director, Sonoma County Regional Parks


11:30 am - 12:00 pm Good-byes / collect bags

12:00 pm Sack lunch pickup / Depart for airport

1:00 pm End