What We Believe

Connect people, discover common purpose, and overcome stewardship barriers together.

In 2016, these ideas inspired six landscape-scale collaboratives, from sunny Irvine to the misty North Coast’s redwoods, to form the California Landscape Stewardship Network. Since then, we have grown to represent a diverse range of partnerships and organizations from across the state that have come together to increase the scale and quality of collaborative landscape stewardship.

Our Vision

We envision a California where everyone sees and embraces their role in caring for and sustaining the landscapes that are vital to our collective well-being; where we seek deep understanding and bold collaboration; and where we think, plan, and act beyond our individual boundaries to work at a pace and scale that meets and even exceeds our most pressing challenges.

We can do more when working across boundaries of all kinds.

Find out how!

Strengthening Partnerships & Inclusion

Over its first decade of activity, the Network has grown to engage with a wide range of place-based collaboratives, sister networks, agencies, Tribes, organizations, community-led groups, and individuals.  

We understand that stewardship approaches must continually evolve. They must be more inclusive and support the leadership of under-resourced people and communities of color. They must include those who have long cared for the land and those who have been denied access to it.  

By working together we can better care for the places we love, enjoy, and depend upon, and continue to renew and sustain these places for current and future generations. 

Supporting the Stewardship Movement 

While Network participants come from different places, we all share a deep commitment to the growing stewardship movement.  

Landscape stewardship has no bounds; it encompasses all human-nature connections. Working collaboratively with diverse partners means that we can help advance and amplify this work in the many places and ways it's expressed —from preserving biodiversity in city parks, to protecting working lands, to creating more resilient forests.  

Our Core Values

We Are All Connected

We work beyond our individual boundaries and push on systemic barriers to create opportunities for deep collaboration and resource sharing that meet the multiple scales of the needs we must address together.

Listening, Understanding, and Adapting

Given the rapid rate of change across natural and human systems, we value science, adaptability, cultural connection, and agility to respond to our ever-evolving understanding of land management and community needs—and actively seek to support and amplify the voices and leadership of BIPOC communities in this work.

Innovation, Invention, and Creative Problem Solving

Embracing inspired problem-solving and innovative ways of thinking, we overcome institutional barriers, deepen our partnerships, reimagine our roles, and explore cutting-edge technologies and paradigms.

Environmental Health Equals Community Health

Recognizing that human wellbeing and ecological health are intertwined, we work across geographical, jurisdictional, and social lines to holistically and collaboratively secure thriving landscapes and resilient ecosystems.

Sense of Place and Belonging

We seek to understand the complex historical and emotional connections that bind individuals and communities with their environments, offering ways to help care for these places and listening to a diversity of communities and partners about how best to do that.

Inclusivity, Relevance, and Empowerment

By encouraging diverse perspectives on common challenges, we strive to empower stakeholders from all backgrounds to actively engage in the movement and derive a shared sense of hope and belonging, listening deeply to historically marginalized voices so that we can build a more just stewardship movement together. 

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

While respecting and building on the efforts of those who came before us, we focus a keen eye on the future by crafting solutions that are smart, cost-effective, and sustainable for generations to come.