CNRA’s Wellness Digest — Wednesday, April 14, 2021

New Look & Naming Contest!

Wait a second, why does this email look different than usual?

As you may recall the “Coping Amidst COVID: Wellness Digest from the Natural Resources Agency” was created a year ago at the start of the COVID pandemic to share helpful, positive information and resources to support our employees as we navigated the unprecedented challenge. As we transition with a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, we’re taking this opportunity to institutionalize the Wellness Digest beyond COVID. We have given it an updated look but will continue to use this platform to share community and wellness content to the entire agency.

The wellness digest is also part of our broader Thrive@Resources initiative CNRA recently launched. Thrive@Resources is a movement (and website!) aimed at helping us grow as agency employees and people to innovate, diversify, and empower one another. Through Thrive@Resources, we will be providing resources to transform our workplace and support our workforce, enabling individuals to be successful, and build dynamic teams that work together to advance our public mission.

Thrive@Resources focuses on three core objectives:

Strengthen Community & Employee Wellness – Create a culture that is accepting and flexible. Provide support to mental and physical health and wellbeing.
Increase Recruitment and Improve Hiring Practices – Improve access to employment opportunities for new and current employees.
Boost External Engagement – Expand access to our work and communicate it effectively, meeting Californians where they are at, promoting a welcoming and safe space.

Visit thrive.cnra.ca.gov to stay up to date on this movement, the new Natural Resources Headquarters building, and the workplace transformation.

Naming Contest – Creative Minds Needed!

As we institutionalize the wellness digest, we will be shifting away from the name “Coping Amidst COVID.” We are calling upon the creative minds from all across the agency to send in name submissions to rename the wellness digest. Please send in your name idea no later than COB, Friday, April 30 to Elizabeth.Williamson@resources.ca.gov. We will announce the new name in an upcoming digest and share who submitted the winning name.

COVID Updates & Information

Check out this video message from California’s Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.

How can I get vaccinated?

Vaccination is open to all and free. If you live or work in California, regardless of immigration status, it’s your right to get vaccinated. Here’s how to get started:

Check if it’s your turn
Vaccinations are prioritized by who’s at the highest risk. Vaccination is open for all Californians aged 50 and up April 1st, and 16 and up April 15th. Schedule an appointment at myturn.ca.gov.
Check your eligibility

Book your appointment
Find an appointment that suits your schedule. If it is your turn to be vaccinated, and you need more appointment options near you, check VaccineFinder.
Book my appointment

Earth Day

Join CNRA all week long for a series of Earth Day virtual activities and events from April 19-23. Register for all the events and check out our Earth Day Website!

CEC: A Town Hall Conversation on Anti-Asian Violence with California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu

Please join California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild and Commissioner Siva Gunda on April 15 for a conversation on anti-Asian violence with Justice Goodwin Liu.

Justice Goodwin Liu is an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. Nominated by Governor Jerry Brown, Justice Liu was unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments and sworn into office on September 1, 2011. He was retained by the electorate in 2014. Before joining the state’s highest court, Justice Liu was Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the UC Berkeley School of Law. His primary areas of expertise are constitutional law, education law and policy, and diversity in the legal profession.

The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Justice Liu grew up in Sacramento, where he attended public schools. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University in 1991. He attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship and earned a master’s degree in philosophy and physiology. Upon returning to the United States, he went to Washington, D.C. to help launch the AmeriCorps national service program and worked for two years as a senior program officer at the Corporation for National Service.

Justice Liu graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, becoming the first in his family to earn a law degree.

Please click the link below to join the webinar on April 15 at 9 AM:
https://energy.zoom.us/j/91533983159?pwd=WEY0alF4RjlJd2FLWVRmNGhvZkdYQT09
Password: webinar@9
Webinar ID: 915 3398 3159

Or iPhone one-tap:
US: +16692192599,,91533983159# or +12133388477,,91533983159#

Silver Linings

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy and Tahoe Conservancy, along with partners in the Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative (TCSI), released the Framework for Resilience last month. This was the result of a large interagency/interdisciplinary effort that spanned more than two years, and yet persisted and succeeded despite COVID and the end of in-person opportunities to collaborate.

One of the cornerstones of TCSI is taking a consistent science-based approach to restoration. The Framework is the first part of the TCSI Science Foundation that includes:

Framework for Resilience
Resource Assessment of Current and Future Conditions
Blueprint for Restoration Tool

The Framework development was started in 2018 with a workshop that brought together land managers and scientists from across the Sierra Nevada to develop a conceptual framework for landscape resilience that is both place-based and values-driven.

The Framework identifies what we want to see on the landscape. It introduces the concept of resilience for TCSI, defines what a resilient landscape looks like, and identifies social and ecological values that make up that landscape. These values are described by ten pillars that represent the desired outcomes of landscape resilience. The Framework provides a structure for assessing landscape conditions, setting objectives, designing projects, and measuring progress towards social-ecological resilience.

State, federal, and non-governmental partners have developed the Framework for the 2.4-million-acre TCSI landscape – but restoration teams could easily apply the same framework to fire-adapted landscapes across California and beyond.

The Framework is already being used in the Tahoe Science Advisory Committee Upland Ecosystem Science to Action Plan, North Yuba Forest Partnership project planning, Sierra Nevada Conservancy’s Roadmap to Resilience, and was references in the Forest Management Task Force’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan.

More information about TCSI can be found here.

Throughout this time of COVID, we’ve had to adapt and evolve how we typically do things. In certain instances, this had brought forward creative solutions and improvements. With this section titled “Silver Linings,” we will share some of these new, innovative changes we’re seeing from our departments and partners.

If you’ve seen or developed a silver lining that you’d like to share, please email Elizabeth.Williamson@resources.ca.gov.

Hero Chronicles

If you know of a person or group stepping up in an extraordinary, unexpected way, we want to feature them. Please share uplifting and inspiring things you’ve witnessed – sharing, giving, sacrificing, etc. Please email information to Elizabeth.Williamson@resources.ca.gov.

Featured Photo – Scenic California

Photos were taken by Jill Bennetts, Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Boating and Waterways. The first photo captures Fallen Leaf Lake up by South Lake Tahoe. The second photo is one of Jill’s favorites, a butterfly in flight that she took at the Mendocino Coast.

If you would like to submit a photo you’ve taken to be shared in the wellness digest, please email Elizabeth.Williamson@resources.ca.gov with a brief description.

Virtual Water Cooler

Tweet of the Day

Telework Tip

Visit telework.govops.ca.gov for best practices and tips to help make telework successful for every employee and the Californians we serve.

Featured Activities

30×30 Regional Workshops

https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Expanding-Nature-Based-Solutions