Faces of Climate: Sierra Harris and the Art of the Climate Battle

EDITOR’S NOTE: In our ongoing series, Mountain Journal is highlighting good work in Greater Yellowstone. As the climate changes the face of the landscape, these people are changing our approach to it. Through interviews and imagery, these are your “Faces of Climate.”

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that mimicking beaver dams can be an inexpensive solution to slowing river flows, and to clarify the Indigenous tribes that GYC works with for its projects.

Managing a comprehensive climate program across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is complex. Some days it involves grant applications and meeting with politicians. Other times it can take an unpredictable form, like telling a rancher who’s run out of water for his cattle, “We can pretend to be beavers.” 

So says Sierra Harris, water and climate resiliency manager of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a longstanding nonprofit that aims to protect one of the last nearly intact temperate ecosystems on Earth. Harris manages projects to mitigate climate change impacts across the region’s more than 20 million acres, collaborating with Tribal, federal and community groups. It also involves work with private landowners like the aforementioned rancher, who initially claimed to “hate” beavers.

He did, however, allow GYC members to weave willow branches around wooden posts and drive them into his ranchland’s streambeds. “An easy and inexpensive solution,” Harris says, for mimicking a beaver dam by slowing water flow, thus better distributing the precious resource throughout a property.

A year-and-a-half later, actual beavers returned, and the rancher shed tears of relief.

“A huge piece of what I do involves showing up at meetings and public comment sessions and trying to figure out how we can assist, and provide some education,” said Harris. “The idea is never to spread doom and gloom or ‘poke the bear,’ but rather to learn what people are struggling with, meet them where they’re at, and offer solutions that’ll benefit the greater ecosystem.”

Harris’s connection to that ecosystem runs deep. Born in Missoula, Montana and raised in Helena, she spent much of her childhood exploring Yellowstone National Park, thanks to an aunt and uncle who worked there. After college, she “got the heck out of Montana,” only to find herself pining again for public lands. 

She relocated to Bozeman to work on water issues with the Greater Gallatin Watershed Council and The Nature Conservancy before joining GYC. What drew her in most? Abundant opportunity to learn from the many tribes the organization partners with in a network of more than 49 Tribal communities. 

It is this liaising that Harris has found most illuminating. For instance, the Eastern Shoshone Tribal Water Code outlines 15 beneficial uses of water — honoring not only traditional agricultural and domestic needs but also cultural and ceremonial uses — while the state the Tribe’s based in, Wyoming, recognizes only three. 

“The Tribes look at water as a spirit with its own set of rights,” said Harris, whose own ecological understanding has deepened due to this holistic view of water management.

Incorporating TEK, or Traditional Ecological Knowledge, is a crucial priority for the entire GYC. “Every project we work on [for the Wind River Indian Reservation] is tribally led,” Harris said. “We’re there to support however we can,” whether that’s grant writing, or incorporating Indigenous practices into government restoration projects.

One current project focuses on restoring ancestral Shoshone food and gathering practices. Tribal volunteers assess project sites to identify native plants that should be present. “When we go in to revegetate the area, we end up accounting for what should be there for traditional medicines too,” said Harris, explaining that this not only supports ecological health but also honors cultural heritage.

But her vision extends beyond immediate solutions — she labors to convey the importance of resilience and adaptation across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. “We’re at a pivotal moment,” Harris said. “The decisions we make now will shape the future of this incredible place.”

As for what keeps her motivated in this work? “Anytime I can be hiking anywhere in Greater Yellowstone, running around with my dog or family, it makes it all worth it.”