Heller helping tribe adapt conservation efforts for climate change
For the Amah Mutsun, an indigenous people of the central coast, the land was never ‘theirs.’ They didn’t think of the land as belonging to anyone. Blessed to live along the central coast and eastward, they belonged to the land. They were tender toward it — and tenders of it.
Now, after centuries of cultural upheaval, they’re learning to recover their roles as the land’s stewards.
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Because of the hotter and drier conditions of climate change, the Amah Mutsun are also seeking to adapt their knowledge. Traditionally, they didn’t move plants from areas where they naturally found them; instead, they coaxed plants to grow where they were — digging bulbs for food, which encourages bulblets to form, or loosening the soil ahead of rhizomes and roots.
But to find better growing conditions faster than plants could adapt on their own, they may have to do experimental planting, Lopez said. In this effort, they’re working with Nicole Heller, climate adaptation scientist and coordinator of the Terrestrial Biodiversity and Climate Change Collaborative in San Francisco.
Heller will be able to help the Amah Mutsun navigate climate model projections of how features such as temperature, precipitation, and fire risk will change in California. By anticipating those changes, the tribe can adapt its conservation efforts to ensure they take root.
