After nine years of hard work to help restore resiliency to the Sierra Nevada headwaters region on behalf of The Sierra Fund, long-time staff member Kerry Morse has announced that she is ready to return to her home state of Montana.
Kerry began her service at The Sierra Fund (TSF) in 2007 shortly after graduating from St. Johns College in Annapolis. Brought on as a part-time office assistant, Kerry helped lay the groundwork for TSF’s mining program, including serving as the primary editor of the unprecedented report “Mining’s Toxic Legacy” published in 2008. This document comprehensively outlined for the first time the lasting cultural, environmental and human health impacts of the 19th century rush for gold in California and particularly those impacts on Sierra Nevada rivers, forests and meadows. She later helped coordinate the 2010 “Mining Summit”, the first conference to ever focus on the public policy and scientific challenges facing proper reclamation of the gold country from the ecological devastation of the Gold Rush.
Later, as Program Director, Kerry helped create and direct program activities such as writing grants and organizing the rollout of the first major pilot project to assess the Humbug Creek watershed, devastated by the hydraulic mining activities in North Bloomfield. She trained and managed three AmeriCorps Service Members that were stationed at The Sierra Fund to support the outreach and scientific activities of TSF’s mining program.
Over the nine years of her tenure TSF grew from three staff members (two were part-time) to a total of eight staff today. Over that time she served as the editor and designer of TSF’s many publications, all of which can be viewed and downloaded for free on our Publications Page, including:
Humbug Creek Watershed Assessment and Management Recommendations (2015)
Environmental Health Outreach Program Report (2014)
Gold Country Angler Survey (2011)
The Sierra Fund’s 10-Year Organization Report (2011)
Assessing Environmental Health Risks from Abandoned Mines in the Sierra Nevada (2011)
Gold Country Recreational Trails and Abandoned Mines Assessment Report (2010)
TSF salutes Kerry Morse for her important contributions and wishes her well on her next journey.
