Fall 2021 Newsletter 

Notes from the Native Stewardship Corps - 2021 Summer Internship Program

By Hannah Moreno, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band member and 2021 summer intern

Each year in the summer, AMLT expands its Native Stewardship Corps program to include high school and college-aged Amah Mutsun youth whose school schedules prevent them from participating in the full year-round program. This year, 5 interns between the ages of 16 - 31 joined the AMLT Native Stewards for 5 weeks of cultural learning and Indigenous stewardship work. While working alongside the Native Stewards, interns connect with the lands and practices of their ancestors, plus learn valuable life and vocational skills. In this article, intern Hannah Moreno describes her experience as a Native Stewardship Corps summer intern.

The AMLT Native Stewardship Corps Summer Internship Program is supported by grants from Justice Outside, the San Francisco Foundation, and generous contributions from our individual donors. We are grateful for your support!

My name is Hannah Moreno, and this was my first summer working as a Native Stewardship Corps Summer Intern. I would like to share some of my experiences with you to help you see how special this program really is and what it brings to our Tribe.

I remember the first day of my internship hearing Native Stewards Gabriel and Nataile Pineda say that being out on the land and in the Native Stewardship Corps has changed their life. As I thought about this, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what they truly meant. However, I can honestly say being out there for four weeks this summer has not only changed me, but it has forever made a lasting impression on me and my spirit.

We packed a lot of work and learning into a short period of time during this internship. I enjoyed getting to know everyone and learning about native plants and our culture the most. I learned about propagating native plants in our greenhouse, from collecting seeds to transplanting seedlings and everything in between from Rob Cuthrell, one of our AMLT consultants. I learned how to identify native plants and invasive plants, and it was also great to learn about the variety of native plants and their uses in the Mutsun garden at Pie Ranch. During the last week we learned about fuel reduction and worked to cut down encroaching doug fir trees and then create burn piles.

We did a lot of learning around both coastal and freshwater stewardship. I had the opportunity to learn how to take field notes, conduct coastal monitoring, and explore the coast with Mike Grone (AMLT consultant) and Steven Pratt (former AMLT Native Steward and Mutsun scholar) who both shared their extensive coastal knowledge. We saw a tree frog while we were visiting culturally significant coastal sites at Elkhorn Slough. Michael and Moses, two Native Stewards, taught the interns and stewards about elderberry, clapper sticks, and songs. They even made an elderberry tea which was delicious. We all had the opportunity to fish for the day which was awesome, however no one caught anything, just seaweed. Mike Grone explained many parts of coastal habitats and started to get us thinking about ‘reading the beach’. While we were doing coastal monitoring we saw a peregrine falcon devouring a gull on the beach. It was like National Geographic live!

On another day, two professors from UCLA and five PhD students came out to Pie Ranch and we all went to Davenport where Mill Creek enters the ocean. We took eDNA (Environmental DNA) water samples all along the creek as part of an effort to monitor how salmonids will respond to the planned dam removal on Mill Creek. We followed the creek up into the hills where only four wheel drive vehicles are able to travel on the road. It was an adventure to get up there and it was absolutely breathtaking being in the woods just up from the ocean.

In addition to completing field work and research, we had several cultural days which were awesome opportunities to learn about my culture and then apply it. Beading was one of my favorite cultural activities. I enjoyed learning from Tribal Elder Eleanor Castro how to bead and I appreciated the time it took to make a necklace. Also, we all created soaproot brushes which was a fun process and resulted in an awesome brush after it was completed. One day we were able to make a salve using the plants from the Mutsun garden at Pie Ranch. We also spent a cultural day at Rocks Ranch, near San Juan Bautista, which was a special place for our Tribe. We discussed future projects at this Land Trust of Santa Cruz County property and started to form relationships with professors from UC Santa Cruz and professionals in the environmental field.

If I wasn’t participating in the AMLT internship I probably would have been at home relaxing and trying not to plan for the next school year. I am a second grade teacher during the school-year. I can’t wait to apply what I’ve learned during my summer internship to my classroom. I plan on teaching my class outside more when weather permits, and teaching about California habitats including native plants and animals. I am sad this school year we are not allowed to have in person field trips because it would have been great to take my class to Pie Ranch to see our Mutsun garden.

It’s amazing to have this opportunity as a tribal member to experience our lands and culture. I wish these internships were available when I was younger because I feel like it could have influenced what I studied in college. I am so happy our youth can participate in the AMLT internships and summer camps so they can connect to nature and their culture. I fell completely in love with being out there in nature and would love to have the opportunity to participate in another summer internship in the future.