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From changing foundational systems to supporting individuals working on the ground, find out what the CLSN has been doing to increase the pace and scale of collaborative stewardship.

Policy & Funding

Learn more about the state and national policy initiatives and funding programs that shape the work we do.

Landscape Stewardship in Action

Check out how collaboration is supporting landscape-scale species recovery, forest health, fire resilience, and habitat restoration across the state.

Fundamentals of Collaboration

Collaborative stewardship is both an art and a science. Get the tools you need to work better together here.

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Enabling conservation in a rapidly changing world

Winston Churchill Trust, May 2025

Dr. Jody Gunn's report details US/Canada conservation models, finance, and Indigenous-led strategies to scale private land conservation in Australia and combat biodiversity loss.

Details: This report presents the findings from the 2022 Caroline Welsh Churchill Fellowship, undertaken to advance the capacity and impact of private land conservation in Australia. The Fellowship provided an opportunity to explore innovative conservation models, financing strategies, policy mechanisms, and collaboration frameworks across the United States and Canada, with the aim of applying these insights to strengthen conservation efforts in Australia.

Integrating Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Into Local Government Planning

Center for Large Landscape Conservation, September 2025

Aims to provide U.S. towns and counties with strategies, recommendations, and examples for protecting natural systems by incorporating wildlife habitat connectivity into their planning and land use decisions.

Details

This report aims to clearly define habitat connectivity and highlight actionable strategies for integrating it into
local government planning. By incorporating habitat connectivity into policies, plans, and planning tools, local
governments can play a vital role in protecting natural systems and building healthier, more resilient communities,
now and for generations to come.

The document outlines the benefits of habitat connectivity for municipalities and counties, offers practical
recommendations for incorporating ecological connectivity into local government planning and implementation,
and provides examples of plans, policies, reports, case studies, and sample language from around the country that
demonstrate how connectivity can be addressed.

Do more, better, together: Investing in collaborative work to make a difference

2025

Introduces a data-driven model showing how investing in collaborative capacity strengthens performance, trust, and impact—demonstrating that well-resourced collaboratives drive lasting, systemic change.

Details: Collaborative approaches are often applied to today’s most complex challenges and emergent opportunities. This is certainly true for the field of landscape stewardship, the practice of conserving, restoring, and stewarding landscapes and seascapes at scale. Those working in this field recognize the value of collaboration, and while pressing questions persist, the discussion has shifted. Rather than question the value of collaboration, it is more likely to be about why and how to invest in collaborative models. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the larger conversation by introducing the Collaborative Capacity Impact Model™, a data-driven framework based on an interdependent, scalable system of 15 impacts and the process of scaling up, accelerating, and sustaining those impacts. The concept of collaboratives as a special type of organizational model is discussed, along with five key collaborative design elements.

Untrammeling the wilderness: restoring natural conditions through the return of human-ignited fire

Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, August 2024

Details: Historical and contemporary policies and practices, including the suppression of lightning-ignited fires and the removal of intentional fires ignited by Indigenous peoples, have resulted in over a century of fire exclusion across many of the USA’s landscapes. Within many designated wilderness areas, this intentional exclusion of fire has clearly altered ecological processes and thus constitutes a fundamental and ubiquitous act of trammeling. Through a framework that recognizes four orders of trammeling, we demonstrate the substantial, long-term, and negative effects of fire exclusion on the natural conditions of fire-adapted wilderness ecosystems. In order to untrammel more than a century of fire exclusion, the implementation of active programs of intentional burning may be necessary across some wilderness landscapes. We also suggest greater recognition and accommodation of Indigenous cultural burning, a practice which Tribes used to shape and maintain many fire-adapted landscapes for thousands of years before Euro-American colonization, including landscapes today designated as wilderness. Human-ignited fire may be critical to restoring the natural character of fire-adapted wilderness landscapes and can also support ecocultural restoration efforts sought by Indigenous peoples.

Climate resilience through ecocultural stewardship

California State University Chico, July 2024

Indigenous-led ecocultural stewardship — where ecosystem health and Indigenous cultural practices are interwoven — is key for building climate resilience, biodiversity protection, and bridging social-ecological divides.

Details: The climate crisis has exacerbated many ecological and cultural problems including wildfire and drought vulnerability, biodiversity declines, and social justice and equity. While there are many concepts of social and ecological resilience, the exemplar practices of Indigenous stewardship are recognized in having sustained Indigenous peoples and their countries for millennia and past climate change events. California has been at the crossroads of many of these issues, and the historic and current contributions of Indigenous peoples to addressing these provide an excellent study of ecocultural stewardship and leadership by Indigenous peoples to achieve climate resilience.

Integrating Connectivity into State Wildlife Action Plans

Center for Large Landscape Conservation, June 2024

The report reviews how state wildlife plans address ecological connectivity, identifies key threats (e.g., roads, dams, development), and offers a menu of actionable steps for better integration.

Details: State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) are fundamental for advancing connectivity conservation in the United States. To support integrating connectivity into SWAPs, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation reviewed SWAPs from the 2015 revision cycle and interviewed state wildlife planners. The intent of this report is to provide SWAP planners and partners with a comprehensive “menu” of actions and best practices that can advance connectivity conservation in the face of diverse threats.

CLSN Strategic Roadmap 2024 – 2026

California Landscape Stewardship Network, June 2024

From 2024–2026, CLSN will connect practitioners, tackle systemic barriers, and promote equitable landscape stewardship across California.

Details

Enter resource descrFrom 2024 to 2026, the CLSN will focus its efforts on the three areas. These multi-faceted, interrelated, and emergent topics build upon our strengths while allowing us to continue to be nimble and adaptive to opportunities and needs that arise from our community of practice.

Connecting collaborative practitioners in ways that inform, equip, and empower;
Advancing solutions to systemic barriers that limit collaborative stewardship action;
Supporting the landscape stewardship movement that leads with equity, justice, and inclusion

Specific objectives and activities under each focal area are detailed in this report.iption/details here.

Realignment of Federal Environmental Policies to Recognize Fire’s Role

University of California Berkeley, August 2024

Federal environmental laws like the CAA, ESA, and NEPA overlook fire’s ecological role. This paper urges policy reforms to support fire restoration and respect Tribal sovereignty.

Details: Enactment of the Clean Air Act (CAA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), three of the primary federal environmental laws, all coincided with the height of fire suppression and exclusion in the United States. These laws fail to acknowledge or account for the importance of fire in many fire-adapted and fire-dependent ecosystems, particularly in the American west, or the imperative for fire restoration to improve resiliency and reduce wildfire risk as identified by western science and Indigenous knowledge. We review the statutory and regulatory provisions of these federal laws to identify how the existing policy framework misaligns with the unique role of fire in ecosystems and with Tribal sovereignty, identify specific barriers and disincentives to beneficial fire use, and propose specific policy reforms.ion/details here.

An Environmental Regulation Paradigm Shift: The Cutting Green Tape Story

California Landscape Stewardship Network, March 2023

Details a regulatory shift to streamline environmental restoration, highlighting the Cutting Green Tape initiative’s impact.

Details

A paradigm shift is inherently complex and difficult to achieve. It is particularly challenging within a layered, multiagency regulatory environment that has been built over decades. However, it can be done. This case study examines one promising example—Cutting Green Tape (CGT)—that not only aims to increase regulatory and permitting efficiencies, but also to shift our collective thinking about how multibenefit environmental restoration projects in California can happen.

The CGT case study allows us to explore the evolution and current status of a perceived paradigm shift. This case study’s researchoriented lens and consideration of Kuhn’s seminal work on shifting paradigms (1970) reveals CGT’s progression in a way that can be applied by a wide range of professional audiences. Insights are shared with those seeking to create such a shift within regulatory (or similar) contexts.

Findings indicate that a paradigm shift for environmental restoration work in California is indeed underway. CGT is moving into the final phase of a five-phase process (see Five Phases of a Paradigm Shift). Two of the four signs of a true paradigm shift (see Four Signs of a Paradigm Shift) have been fulfilled, and there are initial indicators of progress towards the third sign of change as well. However, while promising, CGT as a new paradigm (i.e., a profound change in approach or underlying assumptions) has yet to be fully realized.

Farm Bill Recommendations for Community-based and Collaborative Capacity

Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition, February 2023

Proposes capacity-building reforms to empower community-based conservation through 2023 Farm Bill programs and authorities.

Details

The reauthorization of the Farm Bill in 2023 presents a prime opportunity to ensure that federal agencies and their partners have the tools and authorities needed to maximize the use, impacts, and effectiveness of recent investments to achieve lasting conservation outcomes.

Recognizing this unique moment in time, the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (RVCC) convened a working group to develop recommendations for the 2023 Farm Bill. Capacity-building quickly rose to the top as our priority topic. In order to ensure the effective use of current investments, there is a need to use the power of Farm Bill programs and authorities to build capacity of community-based and collaborative partners and efforts. This capacity is crucial for developing the sustained social and physical infrastructure and the enabling conditions necessary to effectively and optimally use federal investments. Building community-based capacity in particular has been recognized as a key means of reducing barriers to access and advancing equity within U.S. Department of Agriculture programs. The recommendations below outline various strategies for Farm Bill programs and authorities that would bolster collaborative and community-based partners and efforts, both in terms of internal resources and capabilities and in their ability to use and access Farm Bill programs.

Resources

CLSN Products

Policy & Funding

Landscape Stewardship in Action

Fundamentals of Collaboration

Browse all resources

Enabling conservation in a rapidly changing world

Integrating Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Into Local Government Planning

Do more, better, together: Investing in collaborative work to make a difference

Untrammeling the wilderness: restoring natural conditions through the return of human-ignited fire

Climate resilience through ecocultural stewardship

Integrating Connectivity into State Wildlife Action Plans

CLSN Strategic Roadmap 2024 – 2026

Realignment of Federal Environmental Policies to Recognize Fire’s Role

An Environmental Regulation Paradigm Shift: The Cutting Green Tape Story

Farm Bill Recommendations for Community-based and Collaborative Capacity

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