Author: <span>Danny Lapin</span>

The Double Edged Sword of Citizen Engagement

A recent academic paper I read off-handedly mentions that trying to establish a collaborative water management group in California has a chance of success equivalent to a bunch of blindfolded people trying to find an elephant. After five months working for the Sierra Nevada Alliance.  I optimistically disagree. Recently, there …

It Shouldn’t Take a Fire for Us to Realize that Land Use and Water Planning are Connected

Just a few weeks ago, a friend of mine called me in a state of panic saying that San Francisco was recently placed under a state of emergency due to the Rim Fire threatening the city’s water supply. This particular fire burned hundreds of thousands of acres in and around …

The Gordian Knot of the Sierras

The legend of the Gordian Knot is often used as a metaphor to describe an how an intractable problem can be solved by thinking “outside the box.” After my first month at the Sierra Nevada Alliance (Alliance), I realized that it will take some unconventional thinking to address environmental issues …