On February 28, multiple Districts, State Parks CRD HQ staff and partners gathered on Awaswas lands in the Santa Cruz District (SCD) to learn more about the innovative partnership developed between the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT) and SCD. The groups visited Quiroste Valley Cultural Reserve and AMLT’s Native Plant Nursery. Parks CA coordinated this event as a part of our Career Pathways peer learning program.
Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman Lopez opened the day by grounding us all in the history of these lands, our shared purpose to ensure they are ‘sustainable until the last sunrise,’ and called on us to find ways to center Indigenous-led stewardship. AMLT and SCD staff then shared how their partnership evolved and key lessons along the way. Through the day’s activities, staff from CSP’s Cultural Resource Division, Northern Buttes District, and Monterey District learned more about this co-management model and AMLT’s Native Stewardship Corps to bring home insights to local tribal partnerships.
Mohini Narasimhan, AMLT Development and Communications Manager, captured why this partnership has thrived when she wrote, “From the archeology research beginning in 2006, to vegetation management in 2015, to now experimental plant propagation, trust has been built and continues to build through every meeting, conversation, and project together. It is strengthened by the many instances of pursuing shared funding, of reaffirming a shared goal to restore Mother Earth, and of course, by spending many hours together on the land.”
Read more about our day together in Quiroste Valley in Mohini’s in-depth account here. You can also sign up for the AMLT mailing list to stay connected on this and other developments.
