Sierra Streams Institute

Sierra Streams Institute is a watershed monitoring, research, and restoration group based in Nevada City, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Our mission is to link water, science and people for the benefit of human and environmental health. Founded in 1995 as Friends of Deer Creek, SSI has grown to become an important voice in the regional scientific community—but we are still proud to call Deer Creek our home watershed.

Sierra Streams Institute is dedicated to increasing watershed stewardship capacity throughout the Sierra Nevada region and beyond. We work with local, state, and federal agencies as well as universities and community groups to find solutions to the problems that afflict Deer Creek, Bear River and other watersheds throughout the region that share the challenges resulting from a century and a half of gold mining, development, and agriculture. SSI’s emphasis on rigorous science and consistent data collection provides the basis for restoration decisions that are made on behalf of watersheds, and makes us an especially valuable partner of local, state and federal government agencies who lack the funding and capacity to gather their own data.

From experience we have learned that in addition to conducting research, it is imperative to impart an understanding of the issues we are studying to the public and include them in working closely with local government entities to solve local problems. This is essential in order to enable the public to contribute an educated guiding voice to the governing process. As an organization we have chosen to accomplish this task through education and involvement rather than political means