Letter from the Executive Director

By Noelle Chambers, AMLT Executive Director

Dear friends,

Happy Fall Equinox and 10 years of AMLT! September 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of AMLT’s incorporation as a non-profit organization. We are profoundly grateful for all the support we have received along the way, and are especially moved by our community, which has been with us since the beginning.

It feels particularly poignant that we get to celebrate one decade of revitalizing Indigenous stewardship by achieving a significant milestone: the acquisition of land. We are deeply humbled and excited to share that AMLT will be acquiring a 50-acre property near the intersection of Hwys 129 and 101 in San Juan Bautista. To be completed by the end of 2025, this acquisition will mark the first time that the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band (AMTB) has gained full access rights to land in traditional Mutsun territory since the Amah Mutsun were forcibly removed from these lands over 225 years ago. The Naming Committee of AMTB has identified a Mutsun name for the property of “tooromakma hinse nii” which translates to “bobcats wander here” in honor of the importance of this property for wildlife movement. tooromakma hinse nii was protected through a strong partnership with the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County and Trust for Public Land, along with additional support from Peninsula Open Space Trust, Wildlife Conservation Network, and Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. For more information, please read our press release.

For the team at AMLT, this Fall Equinox is a time to appreciate what has been a productive and joy-filled summer. As you’ll read in this newsletter, our annual summer programs returned with resounding success. We welcomed a group of 16 Tribal members to complete an internship in field training about the stewardship and study of Tribal resources on the land and ocean. We also welcomed 32 youth campers for our annual AMLT Youth Stewardship Summer Camp. Finally, this summer also brought the long-awaited relaunch of our Native Stewardship Corps program. At the beginning of August 2025, a cohort of eight Native Stewards moved into AMLT’s Sunlit House to start a two-year program focused on work training, cultural relearning, and Tribal stewardship.

Welcome to our 2025 cohort of Native Stewards!

Annaliz Rodriguez
Anthony Trevino
Esak Ordonez
Gabriel Pineida
Ian Girouard
Sabella Cordova
Sophia Cordova
Zechariah Ordonez

You can read about their adventures and experiences in our newsletter article.

On the back end, the AMLT team is working hard to strengthen our organization to ensure our organization is sustainable and to support the implementation of our new strategic framework. Please join me in welcoming our new AMLT staff from the past few months:

Casey Estorga, Director of Finance and Operations
Jaynee Venegas (Tribal Member), Community Engagement Lead
Emily Sanchez, Executive Assistant
Cameron Garcia, Interim Cultural Resources Technician
Jennifer Webster, Staff Accountant
Catherine Luna Rodriguez (Tribal Member), Sunlit House Cook/Housekeeper
Michael Pratt (Tribal Member), Cultural Monitor

AMLT is hiring for three additional positions: Lands Project Manager, Controller, and Accounting Assistant. If you are interested in joining the wonderful team at AMLT, please check out our jobs page to view open positions.

As AMLT continues to grow, we remain grounded in the fact that everything we accomplish is made possible by our incredible community. I hope you enjoy reading this issue of our newsletter; we’ve achieved many milestones together, and we’re so excited to share them with you.

With gratitude,

Noelle Chambers

Executive Director, Amah Mutsun Land Trust

To learn more about our 2025 Youth Stewardship Summer Camp, click here.

To learn more about our 2025 Youth Internship program, click here.

To read more about the relaunch of our Native Stewardship Corps Program, click here.

To stay updated on AMLT programs, please subscribe to our mailing list.

To view available job opportunities with AMLT, please visit our jobs page here.