diminished, their curiosity and excitement
after a positive experience seem magni>ed.
The best thing anyone ever taught
me: Appreciation for sound expands nature
and social awareness while reducing your
own footprint.
One thing I learned working here
that surprised me: An urban wildland
can contain all the peace, solitude, and
wonder of the more remote places I’ve
worked, if you put your heart into it.
The weirdest thing in my office:
Rubber scat.
Totem animal: Raccoon.
Most influential book: The Island
Within, by Richard Nelson.
BETONY JONES directs program development at the fourteen-year-old Sierra Business
Council ( sbcouncil.org) in the Truckee River
watershed. With thirteen staff and a $1.3 million budget, SBC is devoted to “pioneering
innovative projects and approaches that foster community vitality, environmental quality, economic prosperity, and social justice in
the Sierra Nevada.”
What’s changed in my organization’s
work or mission over time: We are now
more bold about the social justice part of
our mission.
My organization’s biggest success:
Helping create the Sierra Nevada Conservancy—a new state agency dedicated to
improving the environmental, economic,
and social well-being of a region comprised of 20 million acres and twenty-two counties.
Its biggest failure: A program called
Natural Heritage 2020, a planning program for Nevada County, one of the
fastest growing counties in California. It
weathered bomb threats and other forms
of community contention, revealing a
deep division that ultimately had to be
accepted rather than overcome.
One tool or resource that makes my
job easier: Flip charts.
The best thing anyone ever taught
me: First >nd common ground.
One thing I learned working here
that surprised me: I like living and work-
ing in rural communities, and the urban-rural divide is very wide and very real.
One political shift that would make
a big difference for my organization:
If humankind shifted from >ghting
against what we don’t like to a culture of
synergy and partnership to create the
world we want.
The Orion Grassroots Network provides
services and support to grassroots organizations engaged in ecological, social, and
cultural change. For more information
visit oriongrassroots.org.
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