Fall 2021 Newsletter
Letter from Interim Executive Director
Winds of Change
Hello!
Wiew from a recent field visit to AMLT’s project sites in Awaswas territory. Photo credit Reed Holderman.
A lot has happened since we last spoke. In fact, a lot has happened since we started AMLT in 2014, when Sempervirens Fund served as our fiscal sponsor and helped us to become the effective tribal land trust we are today.
In the early years, AMLT was a $10,000 a year organization focused inward. Today, AMLT is a $2 million a year organization with 2 conservation easements, several land transactions underway, 5 signed memorandums of understandings with State Parks, Mid-Pen, BLM, Pinnacles National Park, Pie Ranch and UCSC Arboretum, and numerous contracts for fuel reduction and land restoration and stewardship work. We are engaged in cultural burning with Cal Fire and State Parks, train our stewards in fire fighting, work on dam removal projects, conduct archeological surveys, collaborate with other tribes and universities on coastal and ocean stewardship, and more. The winds of change have been good to us, despite Covid, the CZU Fire, and all the other disruptions we experienced last year. We continue to protect sacred sites, to conserve, restore, and steward the earth, and to share our research and knowledge. We have carried on--as you expected we would.
Obviously, we have not done this alone, and we know that. We are extremely grateful to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and its members, to our donors, friends, and volunteers, and to our public agency, foundation, nonprofit, and university partners who have made our success possible. Thank you!
Native plants growing in the field for native seed cultivation. Photo credit Reed Holderman.
One recent activity I am particularly proud is our plant propagation work at Cascade Ranch. The California Natural Resources Agency gave us a very significant grant to construct a greenhouse and grow native plants, from locally collected seeds, for restoration projects at Cascade Ranch and at the Quiroste Valley Cultural Preserve (QVCP). We had deadlines, but our Native Stewardship Corps was already committed to other projects (they are booked through June 2022!). So our program director, Rob Cuthrell, asked for help. 140 people responded. We selected 35 volunteers and they made all the difference in the world. Over 45,000 new plants have been planted at Cascade Ranch and 30,000 at QVCP. This is amazing! We owe these volunteers a huge debt of gratitude for their time and hard work. We needed help and our community responded. We are humbled by their commitment to our work and their tremendous generosity.
But as the prevailing winds blow across Amah Mutsun territory, we have had our challenges too, especially with staff transitions. Several people have come and gone, like they do at all organizations. Fortunately, our amazing staff has stepped into these vacancies and provided leadership when we needed it the most. Rob Cuthrell and Adam French both took on the Director of Programs duties when our previous director left, in additional to performing their other jobs. Similarly, Marcella Luna and Gabriel Pineida, two of our native stewards, took on the role of leading and managing the NSC when the field supervisor left. And Sara French and I have both served as interim executive director when our previous directors moved on.
Lisa Carrier, AMLT’s new Office Manager.
The silver lining in all this is we have found exceptional talent in filling our open positions, and I firmly believe this trend will continue. Lisa Carrier joined our staff as our Office Manager last summer and has kept the “trains running,” while making significant upgrades to our “back office” systems and functions. Lisa previously held executive-level positions in operations management at a large private companies. Lisa also is a Mutsun tribal member and serves on both the Amah Mutsun Tribal Council and the Council’s Humunya Foundation Board. One of AMLT’s priorities is to support the mutual goals of all three organizations. Lisa undoubtedly will play a pivotal role in making this happen so we can all do more.
We know we are not alone in our journey to protect Mother Earth. We also know we have much more to do. People are counting on us! We have been blessed with tremendous support and we thank you for that. The winds of change are definitely upon us and we know, with your continued support, they will take us to a better place.
Reed Holderman
Interim Executive Director