Our Mission
THE WATERSHED RESEARCH AND TRAINING CENTER IS A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION LOCATED IN THE HEART OF TRINITY COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. WE CONDUCT THE FULL GAMUT OF LAND AND WATERSHED MANAGEMENT SERVICES, LEAD STATE BIOMASS AND FIRE RESILIENCE PARTNERSHIPS, AND THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS WITH COMMUNITIES, ORGANIZATIONS, AND PUBLIC AGENCIES WE STEWARD OUR LANDSCAPE, CREATE AND SUSTAIN QUALITY JOBS, AND CONNECT PEOPLE TO THE LAND AND EACH OTHER.
Our Impact
What started in the early 1990s as a local project to re-train displaced loggers and millworkers is now a vibrant nonprofit organization that serves our local community and leads statewide and national initiatives. Local stewardship jobs remains a core focus of our work and every year we employ Trinity County residents to conduct the full array of natural resource management services. Our programs and expertise have grown exponentially.
We’ve recognized that this model of local stewardship is powerful and impactful, and we’ve learned a great deal from over twenty years of successes and failures. Our statewide and national work is aimed at sharing what we’ve learned, building the capacity of other communities, and spreading the ethics of community-based land management across the country.
To learn more about our impact in Trinity County, across California, and at the national level, check out our programs and services.
“One of our guiding questions is how do we manage the forest to get the fire we want? What is the scale of fire we prefer? What are the fire patterns in the landscape we find acceptable? What is the frequency we can live with?…We have to deal with wildfire as a fact of life, to treat fire with respect.”
— Nick Goulette, Watershed Center Executive Director