Cooperative Extension Uses STS Stories for Outreach

Posted by jesikah maria ross

August 22, 2008

Holly George is using Saving The Sierra’s webstories to build interest in doing a digital storytelling project with cattle ranchers in the Sierra Valley, a hundred thousand acre tract of land made up wide-open spaces, meandering creeks, and close-knit communities in the Northern Sierra.      

Holly is the Cooperative Extension Agent for Plumas and Sierra Counties. Her focus is education and applied research, mostly around land use and natural resources.   That means collecting data, reviewing natural resource policies, analyzing how current land use practices play out on the ground and packaging all the information she collects to share with folks who can use it.   

But she's a big fan of enabling rural residents to share their own stories: "I'm really impressed with getting messages out in the words and images of people who are on that land, not in the words of extension agent.  I can facilitate, create and develop a final project. But I think digital storytelling is good way to get messages to policymakers."

Digital storytelling is fairly new approach to generating community-based media. Though a series of workshops, ordinary folks produce short (2-5 minute) videos that combine a narrated piece of personal writing, photographic and other still images, and a musical soundtrack.  Digital storytelling is grounded in the notion that everyone—regardless of technical or creative backgrounds—can produce compelling stories that benefit both the makers and the audiences they are trying to reach.

Why Ranchers’ Stories?
"I'm learning about the need for decisions makers and general public to better understand stewardship practices the landowners are implementing and some of the obstacles and hurdles they are encountering."  

Holly says that ranchers are struggling with how to convey to a larger population base that there are multiple services that are provided through agricultural land:  "It's more than hay and cows. Ag land provides flood attenuation, water filtration, wildlife habitat, and viewsheds.”  These "eco-system services" are benefits that come from land stewardship.  But they are benefits most people don’t link to agriculture, especially cattle ranching.  

“Sometimes when people look at land use issues they separate the people from it, as if you just deal just with the land. But people are vital to the health of the land,” according to Holly.   “I’m trying to get the people component into the mix.  Most of the people I'm working with in agriculture are multi-generational on the land and they are hoping to keep that land in good shape for future generations.”

Holly is also interested in enabling cattle ranchers to represent themselves and their way of life. “Livestock producers have gotten a bad rap. I really don't things guys wake up and say ‘what can we rape and pillage today’. They are in it for the long haul.”

Laying The Groundwork with STS’s Website
To get people interested in the idea of using place-based personal stories to communicate about issues and practices, Holly selected a half a dozen webstories from savingthesierra.org that featured Sierra Valley residents. These stories relate to what ranchers there are grappling with--like encroaching development, conservation easements, and the desire to preserve open space and local economies.   Then she played the stories at a series of public meetings and got people to talk about the content and impact of these short, simple digital pieces. After that, she got the names of those who would be willing to get involved in a digital storytelling project focused on ranching.

She also drummed up support by sending the STS URL to a mix of policymakers and planners, including the board of supervisors, regional water quality control board, California Rangeland Trust staff, and farm advisors.

As Holly puts it, “showing and talking about the stories was the corner stone of generating interest to get folks to participate.”   People were proud to see themselves and the people they know on the big screen.   Ranchers saw it as a great way to show what is happening on their ranch without having people traipsing across their property.   Local government and non-profit groups recognized the power of personal stories to engage audiences around community issues as well as assets.

Sierra Valley Storytelling Project
Now that she’s been able to generate interest as well as trust—ranchers aren’t always keen to work collectively or engage in group process—Holly is working with STS Co-director jesikah maria ross to put together a digital storytelling project that brings together 10-12 Sierra Valley ranchers to  ‘tell their stories’ about agricultural viability and resource stewardship.  In particular, the group will create stories that touch on why they ranch, current hurdles to successful ranching, and promising practices in Ag land stewardship. As a group, the ranchers will decide the messages they want people to walk away with after experiencing the stories.  Holly and the storytellers will then use the final videos as a tool to outreach to decision makers, neighboring landowners, and the general public through community screenings and dialogues as well as via a project website.  And in the process, the ranching community will build communication skills they can use in the future.

The digital stories will augment Holly’s own writing as well as be a handy tool in generating dialogue about the viability of agricultural land today.  Holly thinks the people associated with stewardship practices and particular pieces of land will present a more compelling case on their issues than an objective scientist like herself. “You can capture more in their words and image than in an extension article. The passion that comes out in their voice, you can't get that in the written word.”