California Housing Secretaries Visit Tahoe-Truckee to Explore Rural Housing and Forest Resilience Solutions – Part 2

Tags: Achievable Housing, Alpenglow Timber, Biochar, Biomass, Collaborations, Community Resilience, Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), Economic Opportunity, Fire-Resistant Construction, Home Hardening, Martis Fund, Mass Timber, North Tahoe Biomass Task Force, Northstar Energy Facility, Partnerships, Regenerative Economy, Renewable Energy, Sierra Institute for Community and Environment, Sustainability, Sustainable Housing Solutions, Wildfire Resilience, Wood Innovations

Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation (TTCF) recently had the honor of hosting Secretary Tomiquia Moss of the California Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency (BCHS), for a two-day tour spotlighting Tahoe-Truckee’s innovative approaches to rural housing and forest resilience. She was joined by Sasha Wisotsky Kergan, Deputy Secretary of Housing and Consumer Relations, and Anastasia Carney, Deputy Secretary of External Affairs. Together, we explored how community-rooted solutions in our region could help shape more equitable and scalable strategies for California’s rural and forested communities.

In collaboration with the League of California Community Foundations, this visit was part of a state-wide series of visits by BCHS to identify the unique needs of our region, explore the community-driven strategies addressing those needs, and assess how these approaches can be scaled to inform solutions across California.

Day Two: From Housing Innovation to Forest Health

The second day of the secretary housing tour shifted focus to TTCF’s Forest Futures initiative—a long-term strategy that frames forest health not just as an environmental imperative, but as an economic opportunity. In a region increasingly vulnerable to wildfires, this approach recognizes that sustainable forest management can also support housing development, local jobs, and rural vitality.

The day began at Meadowview Place, a 56-unit affordable workforce housing development that exemplifies creative capital solutions in action. Built to support households at or below the 50-60% of Area Median Income (AMI), this project provides stable, affordable homes for essential workers and local families—many of whom would otherwise be priced out of the region. The site served as a grounding example of what’s possible when community vision, philanthropy, and private development align.

President/CEO of the Sierra Business Council Steve Frisch along with Amy Kelley, Program Coordinator for Martis Fund, joined the conversation to share the behind-the-scenes realities of building in rural California. From navigating complex financing layers to overcoming permitting delays and infrastructure constraints, their insights helped the secretaries appreciate the real-world barriers that local builders face—especially when attempting to balance environmental responsibility with urgent housing needs.

This is a challenging place to build housing due to our high elevation climate, snow load, and energy burdens, but with the support of partnerships like the ones the Mountain Housing Council has developed we have a brain trust focused on getting good stuff done.

– Steve Frisch, President/CEO, Sierra Business Council

This stop helped frame the day’s broader theme: that rural communities like Tahoe-Truckee are uniquely positioned to pilot integrated solutions—where housing and forest health are not competing priorities, but complementary ones. It also laid the groundwork for the upcoming presentations on cross-laminated timber (CLT), biomass energy, and other innovative forest-to-housing strategies that TTCF has been advancing through Forest Futures.

From Forest to Foundation: Lightning Talks at the CLT Building

Following the morning housing tour, the secretary team and TTCF partners gathered at the Martis Valley Educational Foundation’s CLT Building for a series of Forest Futures Lightning Talks. This 90-minute session showcased the innovative, multi-sector strategies emerging from our region at the intersection of forest stewardship and housing resilience.

Framed by the very materials it aimed to spotlight, the session unfolded inside a building constructed with CLT — a living example of sustainable design in action. Keith Franke, Project Manager for the CLT Building at the Martis Valley Educational Foundation, welcomed attendees and introduced the structure’s innovative features. He described how the building exemplifies the promise of mass timber as a renewable, locally sourced material—demonstrating what’s possible when forest stewardship, architectural ingenuity, and educational purpose converge. Positioned as both a hub for learning and a symbol of forest-based solutions, the venue itself underscored the morning’s theme: a collaborative, systems-level approach to forest innovation spanning public agencies, utilities, nonprofits, and private industry. Franke’s remarks were followed by an introduction from Secretary Tomiquia Moss, who underscored the State’s interest in scalable rural models. 

Ashley Beck, Director of Communications and Engagement, TTCF, opened the lightning talks with an overview of TTCF’s Forest Futures Impact Strategy—an ambitious, integrated framework built to confront the interwoven challenges of wildfire risk, forest degradation, housing insecurity, and rural economic decline. By reframing the forest as more than an environmental asset—as the backbone of the region’s social and economic resilience—Beck demonstrated how Forest Futures strategically deploys regenerative capital and multi-sector partnerships to achieve three key goals:

1. Stewarding our forests
   
2. Protecting our communities
   
3. Building a forest economy

The lightning talk presentations included trusted partners advancing TTCF’s Forest Futures Impact Strategy on the ground. Each speaker offered a unique perspective on how cross-sector collaborations driving progress towards healthier forests, safer communities, and a more resilient rural economy. Together, their stories reflected the systems-level nature of the world – and the bold, replicable solutions emerging from the Tahoe-Truckee region. 

Chief Kevin McKechnie, Fire Chief, Truckee Fire Protection District

Chief McKechnie discussed the implementation of Measure T, a local parcel tax used to fund wildfire prevention efforts including defensible space inspections, fuels reduction, and evacuation route clearing. He emphasized the importance of partnerships, technology, and coordinated local response in making wildfire defense more scalable and effective.

TTCF partners closely with Truckee Fire Protection District through the Forest Futures program and the North Tahoe-Truckee Biomass Task Force, where both organizations collaborate to align forest health, wildfire prevention, and workforce housing strategies. TTCF has also supported public education and convening efforts around community fire resilience, including defensible space campaigns and shared messaging on forest risk.

Annie Rosenfeld, General Manager, Tahoe Donner Association

Rosenfeld shared how Tahoe Donner Association—one of the largest homeowner’s associations in the country, managing over 7,000 acres—is proactively addressing fire insurance challenges and forest fuels management. She described their layered strategy, which includes parametric fire insurance, robust fuels reduction efforts, and coordinated treatments at the landscape scale in partnership with public agencies and local fire districts. Her presentation highlighted how large HOAs can be both stewards of the land and community risk managers.

Tahoe Donner was a partner of the Mountain Housing Council and an active participant in TTCF’s Forest Futures initiative. Through these shared efforts, TTCF and Tahoe Donner have worked together to explore community risk mitigation, neighborhood-level engagement, and the role of private landowners in regional fire resilience planning.

Eric Martin, Director of Public Works, Northstar Community Services District

Martin presented the Northstar Wood Energy Facility, a biomass-powered thermal energy system that converts hazardous forest fuels into renewable thermal energy. Designed to reduce wildfire risk and greenhouse gas emissions, the facility will provide heat to Northstar Village public buildings—offering a sustainable, local solution to biomass disposal and energy demand. The facility also includes advanced emissions controls and is projected to displace hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide annually.

In 2024, TTCF committed impact investment funding alongside public and private partners to help close capital gaps for the project. TTCF views the facility as a replicable model for how rural communities can align infrastructure, climate goals, and forest stewardship.

David Mercer, Owner, Alpenglow Timber 

Mercer provided a real-world perspective on the challenges of biomass processing and wood product innovation in the Sierra Nevada. He discussed Alpenglow Timber’s work on local projects—including forest thinning and sawmill production—and highlighted the difficulties of turning low-value forest waste into usable materials like cross-laminated timber (CLT) and other mill products. Mercer also emphasized the need for a steady, skilled forestry workforce and reliable material flow to make small-scale wood manufacturing viable and sustainable.

Alpenglow Timber is a local implementation partner within TTCF’s Forest Futures strategy. Mercer’s insights inform TTCF’s strategy to build out a forest-based economy in the Tahoe-Truckee region, particularly around scaling processing infrastructure and developing workforce pathways that connect forest restoration to regional housing material production.

Jonathan Cook-Fisher, Truckee District Ranger, United States Forest Service (USFS) 

Cook-Fisher emphasized the urgent need for housing for wildland fire crews and forest workers, particularly hotshot teams who often lack stable housing near their duty stations. He highlighted how housing insecurity directly affects workforce retention, safety, and response effectiveness. Cook-Fisher shared a vision for integrated forest stewardship that includes affordable, local housing for federal land managers, connections to mass timber innovation, and support for the long-term sustainability of the workforce critical to maintaining healthy forests.

TTCF collaborates closely with the U.S. Forest Service Truckee Ranger District through its Forest Futures initiative, particularly around addressing shared challenges at the intersection of housing, wildfire resilience, and workforce capacity. The need for housing for wildland fire crews has been a recurring theme in TTCF’s convenings and strategy development, and the organization views this issue as essential to building a resilient regional forest management system.

Dr. Jonathan Kusel, Executive Director, Sierra Institute for Community & Environment

Dr. Kusel concluded the lightning talks with a powerful reflection on the long-term impacts of catastrophic wildfire—particularly the 2021 Dixie Fire, which burned nearly 1 million acres and destroyed the downtown of Greenville, CA. He emphasized how fire-impacted rural communities are in urgent need of economic revitalization and housing recovery. As part of the Sierra Institute’s response, he shared plans for a cross-laminated timber (CLT) manufacturing facility that will support a forest-based economy while helping transform hazardous fuels into regenerative building materials. This facility is designed to provide both economic opportunity and resilience infrastructure to communities facing increased fire risk.

The Sierra Institute is a strategic peer partner in TTCF’s Forest Futures Impact Strategy. In 2024, TTCF awarded a landmark $1 million grant to Sierra Institute and its Mosaic Timber initiative to support the development of a CLT facility in Northern California. This partnership is essential to driving systems-level change across wildfire recovery, workforce housing, rural economic development, and forest stewardship.

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Each talk offered a snapshot into the systems-level thinking that defines TTCF’s cross-sectional work: that housing, forest health, and rural economies are interconnected—and must be addressed together to build lasting resilience.

In rural regions like Tahoe-Truckee, housing and forest health are deeply interconnected. The pressures of climate change, limited land availability, rising construction costs, and workforce shortages demand holistic solutions. TTCF and our partners are not only building those solutions—they’re modeling them for the rest of the state.

Caldwell notes,

The Secretary and her team were eager to talk about the nuances of our local housing work and multi-sector collaboration, as well as the forest-to-housing portfolio we have been building for years at TTCF.

Community Capital in Action: Truckee Artists Lofts

The final portion of the secretary housing tour took place at the Truckee Artist Lofts, where community leaders gathered with the secretaries to explore how creative capital stacking and shared community vision can bring transformative housing projects to life. 

Set in the heart of downtown Truckee, the Artist Lofts represent a 20-year dream realized through community determination and innovative funding. In 2019, TTCF made a catalytic impact investment to help bring this vision to fruition, supporting a project designed to retain local artists, house low-income families, and anchor inclusive growth in our town center. TTCF’s early commitment signaled powerful community support and helped attract other philanthropic and private sector partners to the table.

While the residential portion has provided much-needed affordable housing, the commercial and retail components experienced setbacks. In a renewed chapter of this story, TTCF has received approval—and a generous donation—to relocate our headquarters to the Truckee Artist Lofts. Soon, our team will be embedded in the very community we serve, working from a space that exemplifies creative capital and shared values.

Gratitude For Collective Impact

We are proud that TTCF was selected to host this important visit and that our collective work can serve as a blueprint for resilient, place-based strategies across California.

To our statewide partners at the League of California Community Foundations, thank you for helping bring this visit—and this collaborative vision—to life.

TTCF extends deep appreciation to all the individuals and organizations who made this tour meaningful. Together, we are proving that small, connected communities can lead big, systemic change.

Day Two Forest Futures Tour Partners:

• Alpenglow Timber
• CFY Development
• Martis Fund
• Martis Valley Educational Foundation
• MWA Architecture
• Northstar Community Services District
• Sierra Business Council
• Sierra Institute for Community and Environment
• Tahoe Donner Association
• TAL Management
• Truckee Fire Protection District
• United States Forest Service (USFS)

Read Part 1