Council Promotes Regional Leadership

The California Biodiversity Council is sponsoring Regional Leadership Forums around the state to promote effective coordination among local, state, and federal resource managers, planners, and policy makers.

Leadership forums are being arranged in cooperation with regional leaders and will focus on issues of local concern that are raised at the Council's quarterly meetings.

"The Council is serving as a catalyst to help get people to organize the forums and focus together on issues of general concern," said Al Wright, associate state director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and chair of the Council's executive committee, which helps administer and follow up on Council business and issues.

"We have a tremendous number of success stories in California where agencies are working together to accomplish many projects," Wright said. "We want to encourage regional leaders to expand this approach across broader regions, working closely with local communities and stakeholders."

Council members have long recognized value in promoting coordination and communication among local and regional leaders in natural resources. The Council sponsored its first regional leadership forum two years ago in Redding and held another in Placerville in April with regional managers from the Sierra Nevada. A third forum is planned in Visalia in July to follow up on issues and ideas raised at the March Council meeting there. Other forums will be planned as the Council meets in new areas of the state.

Regional leaders include county supervisors and planning directors, and area and regional managers from state and federal agencies such as the California Departments of Fish and Game and Forestry and Fire Protection, the U.S. Forest Service, BLM, and the University of California.