WCCA is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
OUR VISION
A free-flowing clean creek and a healthy, bio-diverse watershed for the benefit of present and future generations.
OUR MISSION
To protect, preserve, and restore the Wolf Creek Watershed by increasing knowledge, appreciation, stewardship, and public access to the creek.
OUR GOALS
- Engender community stewardship of Wolf Creek and its watershed.
- Preserve and protect the integrity of the watershed.
- Restore Wolf Creek to a condition of optimal health and integrity.
- Monitor the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of Wolf Creek.
- Increase public access to the creek along trails, in parks, and preserves.
- Thrive as an organization and thereby have a long-lasting presence and effect in the watershed.
- To raise the status of Wolf Creek to that of (or equal to) personhood (rights of nature).
Board of Directors
Jonathan Keehn
Director at large
One of the founders of Wolf Creek Community Alliance (2002); Secretary-Treasurer of the Board 2004-2008, and President until 2022.. He is a licensed General Contractor, and the owner of Keehn Construction, doing residential construction in Nevada County 1970-present. Jonathan spent many childhood summers in a canoe on a lake in Connecticut, and his love of lakes, creeks, and rivers came with him when he moved to California in 1970. He earned a BA degree from Antioch College in Ohio in 1971. He has also been an active water quality monitor since 2004.
Gordon Baker
Treasurer
One of the founding members of Wolf Creek Community Alliance. He has been a board member since inception in 2002 and a water quality monitor since 2004. He also owns and lives on property near the Wolf Creek headwaters. In the Alliance Gordon has joined with his friends and fellow conservation enthusiasts to help preserve and protect the Wolf Creek riparian zone, improve the water quality, and increase community awareness. The WCCA is the most politically efficacious and personally satisfying expression of his moral commitment to live lightly on the land and advocate for the best possible world to be left to the generations that will follow us and live with the legacy we leave for them.
Barbara (BJ) Schmitt
Secretary
Lives in Grass Valley with family and friends, and spends time in Wisconsin in the summer. She has worked as an energy engineer and watershed scientist. BJ started the WCCA monitoring program in 2004 and ran it for the first 8 years. In her spare time, she loves to swim, bike, ski (cross-country), hike, cook, listen to music, travel, snorkel, and read. Any time spent at Wolf Creek is treasured.
Gary Griffith
Board President
Has lived in the Wolf Creek Watershed for more than 21 years, on a ridge just above the South Fork of Wolf Creek, where he has been a stream monitor for 17 of those years. A retired educator of 31 years, most of that at the Nevada City School of the Arts, Gary is an avid botanist, birder, naturalist, and backpacker. Currently, Gary volunteers with SYRCL on their River Education Committee and with SSI, as a Forest Investigation Advisor for teachers and students. He is honored and excited to join the WCCA board and further its vision.
Jane Pelton
Director at large
Moved to Grass Valley with her husband in 2007, following her retirement from Stanford University where she worked as a research grants administrator. While getting to know Grass Valley, she was drawn to the energetic conservation community and its grassroots efforts to preserve and enhance the natural beauty of our region. She volunteered with several non-profits. In particular, the Wolf Creek Community Alliance (WCCA) attracts volunteers for a wide range of beneficial projects including water monitoring, watershed stewardship, education/outreach, and trails. In 2009 Jane began helping with fundraising and outreach, and in 2012, she joined the Board of Directors. She is currently serving as WCCA Treasurer.
Staff
Kristen Hein Strohm
Programs Director
Comes to us with a wealth of expertise and 25 years of professional experience in field biology, habitat restoration, grant writing, program management, education, and watershed planning, including leading development of the community-based Bear River Watershed Restoration Plan, of which Wolf Creek restoration is a part. Most importantly, she knows our watershed well, its landscape, its concerns, and its people. She brings an enthusiasm and vision that is contagious.
Partners, Collaborators, & Affiliates
WCCA has established collaborative working relationships and engages in collective action regarding regional watershed issues with a wide range of local and regional organizations, governments and agencies including Sierra Streams Institute, South Yuba River Citizens League, Bear Yuba Land Trust, Bear River Stakeholders Group, American Rivers, The Sierra Fund, Community Environmental Advocates, City of Grass Valley, the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County, and the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe.
WCCA is a member of the Sierra Nevada Alliance, the Yuba-Bear Watershed Council, and the Center for Non-Profit Leadership.
Volunteers
The work of our watershed organization is only made possible through the dedicated involvement and support of our many volunteers. Thank you!
