**Exhibit 31.1 – Certification of Chief Executive Officer (Section302 Certification)**

 

I, James C. Holly, certify that:

 

1.  I have reviewed thisAmendment No. 1 to Annual Report on Form 10-K of Sierra Bancorp (the “Registrant”);

 

2.  Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statementsmade, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered bythis report;

 

3.  Based on my knowledge, the financialstatements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financialcondition, results of operations and cash flows of the Registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

 

4.  The Registrant’s other certifyingofficer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f))for the Registrant and have:

 

(a)      Designedsuch disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision,to ensure that material information relating to the Registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us byothers within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;

 

(b)      Designedsuch internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under oursupervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financialstatements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

 

(c)      Evaluatedthe effectiveness of the Registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusionsabout the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report basedon such evaluation; and

 

(d)      Disclosedin this report any change in the Registrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the Registrant’smost recent fiscal quarter (the Registrant’s fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected,or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the Registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

 

5.  The Registrant’s other certifyingofficer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the Registrant’sauditors and the audit committee of the Registrant’s board of directors:

 

(a)      All significantdeficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonablylikely to adversely affect the Registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

 

(b)      Any fraud,whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the Registrant’s internalcontrol over financial reporting.

 

Date: July 22, 2014