CNNCTS 2025 Snapshot

In this blog, CNNCTS shares our 2025 Snapshot, full of highlights and snippets reflecting on the work done in the second year of CNNCTS.

The Collaborative of Native Nations for Climate Transformation and Stewardship (CNNCTS) is excited to share our 2025 Snapshot! Last year, we shared the 2024 Snapshot, which highlighted our efforts during the first full year of the project. One year later, this blog continues that story by sharing key highlights of progress and action from the second year of CNNCTS. 

CNNCTS is committed to a community-centered approach to advance a model of Indigenous-led land stewardship that facilitates climate resilience and adaptation. Our accomplishments over the last year reflect this commitment. This work spans coastal resilience, cultural and prescribed fire, climate-informed restoration, and land rematriation that re-centers community priorities and relationships with the land.

Take a look at the 2025 Snapshot infographic below! 

Collaborative Visioning

24 Community events and listening sessions

As part of our ongoing collaborative visioning, CNNCTS hosted and partnered on a wide range of events across our five focus areas. One such event was a five-part Community Conversations webinar series held between 2024-2025. Each session highlighted a CNNCTS focus area: Advance Science-Informed Climate Action, Translate Knowledges to Practice, Put Adaptation Into Action, Expand Landscape Stewardship Pathways, and Support Social Entrepreneurship. Throughout the series, our partners shared their completed and ongoing research, workshops, trainings, projects, and accomplishments connected to one or more focus areas of the CNNCTS initiative. Many partners also reflected on their experiences collaborating together within the CNNCTS network, what the collaborative has meant to them and their work, and their visions for future partnerships.

In collaboration with Great Basin Tribal Alliance (GBTA) at the Desert Research Institute (DRI), Public Health Alliance of Southern California, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP), and Climate Science Alliance (CSA), CNNCTS also hosted a three-part webinar series on Extreme Heat Adaptation in Indigenous Communities. Each session focused on a different scale - Household, Community, and Regional - which highlighted actionable strategies for addressing extreme heat across the Southwestern region. Find the adaptation resource handouts and webinar recordings from this series here.

In addition to these webinar series, CNNCTS partners hosted and participated in numerous conferences, workshops, and listening sessions across all five focus areas. Such events include a listening session with UC Riverside partners and Mapuche collaborators, Inter Tribal Long Term Recovery Foundation’s (ITLTRF) Rise & Shine Resilience Breakfast, and Pala’s Atáxam Pemtew’náan’a (Pala People's Garden) Grand Opening. 

Many partners also spoke in panels, sharing their knowledges, experiences, and work with a larger collective. At the Getty Museums Pacific Standard Time (PST) Art “Art & Science Collide” exhibition series, CNNCTS partners Fire Chief Wesley Ruise, Jr., Joelene Tamm, and Dr. Megan Jennings were part of the panel discussion "How Do We Regenerate a Forest? Thinking with the Harrisons" where they shared their experiences and involvement in restoration efforts and fire stewardship. 

Furthermore, CNNCTS held a roundtable panel discussion at the San Diego State University (SDSU) Native Resource Center’s (NRC) Native & Indigenous Research & Arts Symposium (NIRAS). CNNCTS partners Theresa Gregor, Johnny Bear Contreras, Henry Najera, and Cliff Devers joined Dr. Jennings in a discussion on “Connecting Indigenous Stewardship and Ecological Knowledges Across Communities”. Several people in attendance expressed heartfelt gratitude and inspiration from the impactful projects and commitment to community work by our partners.

12 Community-led Indigenous stewardship projects

Over the past year, CNNCTS partners led multiple community-driven stewardship projects that built upon efforts from the previous year. One example is the third annual Santa Barbara Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX), hosted in November 2024 at the Sedgwick Reserve by the UC Santa Barbara Natural Reserve System (UCSB NRS) in collaboration with CNNCTS, GBTA, and the Native Coast Action Network (NCAN). 

The burn aimed to reduce fuels near structures, support Indigenous cultural practices, and study the ecological effects of fire. The event brought together 12 incident command staff, 44 trainees, and a 56-member contingency crew to burn 16 acres of coastal sage scrub and oak woodland habitat. Ten Indigenous trainees shared traditional knowledge and perspectives, inspiring additional educational sessions on cultural burning and a follow-up field trip to the Lake Fire burn scar led by NCAN, reflecting broader interest in good fire. 

Learn more about TREX 2024 here.

17 Field site visits including campus connections and Living labs

Much of our collaborative visioning brought to fruition field site visits that provided students, partners, collaborators, and other participants with opportunities to visit CNNCTS partner sites. These visits highlighted work advancing land rematriation, good fire practices, research, and other ways of reconnecting Indigenous communities with their lands.

One such site visit was coordinated in collaboration with the SDSU American Indian Studies department and CSU Long Beach American Indian Studies Programming. College students from various American Indian Studies courses participated in a field trip to the La Jolla Reservation Campground, where they engaged with Elders through storytelling, walked along a newly established trail which featured plant signage with their Luiseño names, and learned about fire ecology using results from La Jolla’s cultural burn in 2024. 

Click through the gallery to view photos.

Building Capacity

24+ Weeks of entrepreneurship and workforce training

This year, CNNCTS continued to support the Entrepreneur Bootcamp Program by providing tuition and travel stipends for Tribal community members interested in starting or growing their businesses. Through partnership with the Innovation Hub at CSU San Marcos, which launched their bootcamp center in 2025, CNNCTS can now offer increased accessibility for participants. 

Learn more or apply to participate in this program here.

Throughout the year, the Stewardship Pathways trainings brought together partners and community members to develop various workforce skills. One of these trainings occurred at the Lake Morena fuel break area, where participants from the Campo Band of Mission Indians and U.S. Forest Service worked alongside each other to gain the knowledge and skills necessary for fuel reduction, fire and plant monitoring, local biodiversity, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. 

Learn more about this training here.

Another Stewardship Pathways training this year occurred at the Sedgwick Reserve, which convened 50 attendees on Sʰamala Chumash homelands. During this visit, attendees learned how prescribed burns and wildland fire play a vital role in shaping the ecology of the land. Firsthand perspectives of prescribed and wildland fire impacts were also illustrated at the reserve’s prescribed burn sites and the Lake Fire burn scar, providing participants with a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the role fire plays in the health of the region’s ecology. 

Learn more about this training here.

24 Cross-enrollment courses highlighted across five California colleges

In Spring of 2025, CNNCTS released an expanded version of the cross-course enrollment list, increasing from 15 to 24 courses listed. This increase reflects our growing partnership with colleges and universities offering relevant coursework including Cuyamaca College, SDSU, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, and CSU Long Beach. Through these expanded offerings, CNNCTS university partners were able to highlight the opportunities for students to explore climate action through Indigenous perspectives at any of the universities, regardless of where they are primarily enrolled. 

Learn more about the course offerings and student enrollment guidance here.

20 Writing for green grant writing course graduates

In partnership with Writing for Green, CNNCTS hosted its first 12-week grant writing training cohort for CNNCTS members, Tribes, and Tribal organizations. Participants completed a series of interactive modules covering key elements of the grant writing process, including understanding Requests for Applications (RFAs), developing and presenting sound budgets, building grant evaluation plans, communicating with funders, and more. 

Learn more about this program here.

Click through the gallery to view photos.

Community Impact

27 Trainings and workshops to advance stewardship skills

Among the various trainings and workshops to strengthen stewardship skills led by CNNCTS partners was Chiipam Hap (Spring Awakening), hosted by Tipey Joa and CSA at Sweetwater Marsh. Attendees learned the Kumeyaay names for many native plants through the Hear Our Names project while walking around the pollinator garden at the marsh to identify native plants with their Kumeyaay, English, and Spanish names. Over 30 participants also joined a restoration training focused on how to plant the seedlings of several native plants and ways to protect them in this rapidly changing climate. 

Learn more about this training here.

Furthermore, CNNCTS partner CSA co-hosted their fourth annual Southwestern Tribal Summit with ITEP titled “Mountains to the Sea”. On the ancestral lands of the Chumash peoples, this summit fostered meaningful engagement with a focus on advancing Tribal and community-led restoration and stewardship across the Southwest. Through panels, talking circles, and art activities, over 170 attendees developed and strengthened understandings of co-stewardship, the coastal nexus of land and water, and the importance of relationships and reciprocity.

Learn more about the summit here.

Click through the gallery to view photos.

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Across our network, CNNCTS engaged with approximately 11,200 people through events, trainings, and initiatives and leveraged $225,000 in regrants to support seven projects. CNNCTS also celebrated two years of collaborative work together!

The CNNCTS team would like to shoutout our partners for their continued efforts, collaboration, and leadership as part of CNNCTS. We also want to thank everyone who has followed along with us, attended or participated in any of our events and trainings, or collaborated with us. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the University of California’s Climate Action Grant for funding our efforts. We look forward to another year of doing this crucial work in community and continuing to advance a vision for Indigenous-led land stewardship!

Learn more about the Collaborative for Native Nations for Climate Transformation and Stewardship (CNNCTS) at cnncts.org.