Nonprofits, Government Agencies, and Strategic Relationships
This section documents Emergence's long-standing relationships with regional organizations across government, nonprofit, tribal, academic, and private sectors.
Federal Agencies
- USFS Plumas National Forest / Feather River Ranger District (Loren Everest, District Ranger; Zach Wood, Timber Management Assistant; Jamie Rae Serra, Contracting Officer; Eric Murphy, Timber Management Assistant; Elaine Vercruysse)
- USFS Lassen National Forest (1.2-million-acre national forest in northeastern California with active hazardous-fuels reduction and biomass-removal programs; adjacent feedstock geography to the Plumas effort; letter of support available upon request)
- USFS El Dorado National Forest (Andrew Mishler, Jecobie Waters)
- USDA Forest Service (broader relationship; Jim Dipasquale, Wood & Biomass Utilization Program Manager)
- NRCS, Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA; soil health, watershed, and forestry technical assistance to landowners; Darren Pinnegar, Ecological Site Specialist; Brad Rust, Area 1 Resource Soil Scientist)
State Agencies
- CalFire (Jeff Hoag, Assistant Chief, Fire Behavior Analysis; Jason Finney)
- ARB.ca.gov (Air Resources Board, Nature-Based Solutions team)
- Air Quality Management District, Butte County (Riley Peacock, Air Quality Engineer II; Ursula Parker)
- California State Parks, Northern Buttes District (letter of support available upon request; Matt Cunningham; Caitlin Dalby; Rosie Blackburn, State Ecologist)
- Office of Wildfire Preparedness and Resilience (Tanya Harlow, Program Manager)
- CDFA, California Department of Food and Agriculture (Healthy Soils Program; Emergence is a certified supplier; Minal Patel, Environmental Scientist & Fertilizer Lab Coordinator; Elizabeth Hessom, Sr. Environmental Scientist, Healthy Soils Program)
- California Climate Investments (Cap and Trade Dollars at Work; state funding program for GHG reduction projects)
Local Government
- Town of Paradise (Susan Hartman, Community Development Director)
- Butte County (Paula Daneluk, Director; Will Firth, Principal Management Analyst)
- Nevada County / Grass Valley
- Yuba Water Agency (Willie Whittlesey)
- El Dorado County Department of Transportation (David Marino)
- El Dorado Irrigation District (Dan Corcoran)
- El Dorado Fire (Jacob Poganski)
- El Dorado County Office of Emergency Services (Blake Braafladt)
- SMUD, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (community-owned electric utility targeting zero-carbon power by 2030; engaged in forest-biomass utilization through regional bioenergy and carbon-sequestration initiatives)
Fire Safe Councils
- Butte County Fire Safe Council (letter of support available upon request; Taylor Nilsson, Executive Director; Lauren de Terra, Director of Community Engagement; Sarah Jo McDowell, Timber and Biomass Project Manager; Calli-Jane West, Community Partner Liaison)
- El Dorado County Fire Safe Council (Ken Pimlott, Chair; Tamara Johnston, Grants Manager)
- Placerville Fire Safe Council (David Zelinsky)
Tribal Nations
- Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria (letter of support available upon request; Brandy Wilks, Tribal Administrator; Olivia Wiemann; Patrick Spielman)
- Berry Creek Rancheria of Tyme Maidu Indians (Oroville, CA; 5 Tyme Way, Oroville, CA 95966; Gavin Antone III; Magan Herrera)
Nonprofits and Foundations
- America the Beautiful Foundation (ATBF) (Emily Weeks, CEO; Johann Lockard, EVP Natural Assets; David Osusan)
- American Forests (Hilary Franz, President and CEO; Brian Kittler; Charlie Truettner; Sarah Vansot, Special Assistant to the President & CEO)
- National Forest Foundation (Ivy Kostick; Sumner Cornacchia, Northern Sierra Project Coordinator)
- CalPBA, Prescribed Burn Association (Morgan Galliano)
- Tehama County Resource Conservation District (Seronica Biggs)
- Butte County Resource Conservation District (letter of support available upon request, USDA partner; Wolfy Rougle, Planning and Watershed Program Manager; David Mitchell, Prescribed Burn Association Coordinator; Dallas Koller; Thad Walker)
- El Dorado County Resource Conservation District (Mark Egbert)
- Project 2030 (Deepika Nagabhushan, Senior Policy Researcher)
- Avada Conservancy
- WICE (Emily Weeks)
- Blue Forest Conservation (pioneer of the Forest Resilience Bond; private capital for forest restoration on federal lands; key contacts: Luke Carpenter, Director of Investments; Brandon Jirō Hayashi, Director of Beneficiary Partnerships; Ben Steele; Micah Elias)
- North Coast Soil Hub (collaborative network of 7 Northern California RCDs; soil health education, carbon farm planning)
- Conservation X Labs (technology-focused conservation innovation; Emergence won semi-finalist round; Gabriela Villegas, Open Innovation Manager; Maria Fernanda Larrea, Strategic Communications & Marketing Manager; Caressa Nguyen, Community Outreach Lead, Fire Grand Challenge)
- Forest Business Alliance (CAL FIRE-funded technical assistance and capacity building for forest health and wood products businesses)
- FireUp (community-based wildfire preparedness and defensible space work in Northern California; Shefali Lakhina, Founder & CEO)
- Greater Sierra Forestry Corps (workforce development; trains forestry fuel management technicians for wildfire mitigation)
Strategic Industry Partners
- 3 Degrees (Wyatt Catron, 3Degrees)
- Conservation Carbon (Jeff Waldon, Andy Raines)
- Swinerton Energy (Scott Hill; John Cleland)
- Komatsu (Masatoshi-san Ueno, CTO; working partnership across automation, technology, and equipment strategy; Brian Walter, Regional Manager, California; Marcus Steigerwaldt, Director, Forest Sales & Marketing; Jordan Albarron, Territory Manager)
- Vibrant Planet (GIS partner; Zander Bonorris, Head of Partnerships and Growth)
- Loamist (biomass feedstock data platform; GIS-based mapping of bio-waste and feedstock streams)
- SPG Construction (Kirk Oden)
- TSS Consultants (Frederick Tornatore, Chief Technical Officer)
- Deep Forestry (LiDAR, drone-based forest inventory, digital prescription workflow; partnership in active integration)
- Sustainable Generation (technology partnership, letter of support available upon request; Brad Karst; Scott Woods)
- Tetra Tech (Josh Jimmerfield, Director, Post-Disaster Recovery West Coast; 100+ major disasters across 44 states, managed debris removal of 8,000+ fire-damaged properties and 30,000 standing dead trees from California wildfires, $1.5B in reimbursable costs)
- Camptonville Community Partnership (Forest Biomass Business Center, Yuba County; 30,000 BDT/year feedstock opportunity; active discussions)
- W.L. Gore & Associates (Gore Cover/Gore Tec semi-permeable membrane composting technology; contracted via Sustainable Generation for Earthworm Soil Factory expansion; Mark DeGarbolewski, Market Development, Industrial)
- PG&E, Pacific Gas and Electric (vegetation management, wildfire mitigation, utility wildfire resilience programs; active grant relationship via BCFSC; Robert Flores; Kerah Lee, Wildfire Resilience Partnerships; Derrick Davis, Wildfire Risk Management)
- Plumas Wood Fiber (Plumas County startup converting forest biomass into wood fiber potting substrate as peat moss alternative; pilot completed with Emergence; Jeff Greef)
- Gro-King (soil amendment and biochar products for agricultural producers)
- 3point.xyz (technical platform behind Forest Business Alliance; forest management, conservation finance, and data tools)
- Mule Ears Consulting LLC (Chico-based RPF; biomass supply, forest health, wildfire recovery, grant writing)
- Morrison Consultants (facilitated USDA promotional signage grant for Real Good Soil; Sarah DeForest, Grants Manager)
Academic and Research
- Stanford University, Natural Capital Project (Jeff Brown and Eric Mayer, Nature-Based Solutions; Nathaniel Looker, Postdoctoral Researcher)
- University of California, Davis (Dan Sumner)
- University of Louisiana Lafayette (Mark Zavia, pyrolysis research lab)
- CSU Chico, Center for Regenerative Agriculture (Nicole Johansson, Communications/Outreach Consultant)
- Butte College, Soils Department (Jennifer Charles-Tollerup, Agriculture Production Instructor; Geoffrey Koch, Agricultural Sciences & Environmental Horticulture Instructor)
- Chico State University (Jaycob Arbogast, Director, Center for Excellence in Finance; Dr. Sandrine Matiasek, Earth & Environmental Sciences; Kun Zhang, Associate Professor)
- UC Agriculture and Natural Resources / UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE; county-based technical assistance on forestry, wildfire, soil health, and sustainable agriculture; Cindy Chen, Woody Biomass and Forest Products Advisor)
- Butte-Glenn Community College District (workforce training, SBDC services, economic development for rural Northern California)
Business Support and Economic Development
- ChicoSTART (North State Innovation Hub; Emergence received Tier 2 Innovation Grant, $100K)
- America's SBDC Northern California Finance Center (capital access, loan readiness, no-cost business advising for Northern CA small businesses)
- 3CORE (technical assistance program; provided 160 hours consulting to Real Good Soil)
Emergence maintains active relationships across 72 regional organizations.