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California Open Lands
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Preserves
  • ITEK Cultural Stewardship
  • Nature-Based Therapy
  • Contact Us

Restoring Land and Community in California

Restoring Land and Community in CaliforniaRestoring Land and Community in CaliforniaRestoring Land and Community in California

with community-based cultural stewardship rooted in Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Restoring Land and Community in California

Restoring Land and Community in CaliforniaRestoring Land and Community in CaliforniaRestoring Land and Community in California

with community-based cultural stewardship rooted in Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge

A Message from the Executive Director

Indigenous Knowledge & Leadership at the Forefront of Conservation

There is no greater endeavor than to work collectively as a community to strive for healing, land restoration, and a thriving economy. Native California Tribes have historically maintained sustainable economies and ways of living based off the outcomes of ecosystem stewardship and large-scale ecological land management. Our Tribal Nations have traditional knowledge and the ability to work together for the greater good of local communities, which is the saving grace we especially need today. Native and non-native communities in California affected by the impacts of climate change are in a position to protect our land, water, native plants and wildlife, and work together as a whole to expand our capacity to manage our ecosystems. 


Together we aim to restore the communities’ relationship with the environment with shared knowledge from Tribes and local community members. The people of this land for generations have received prosperity, peace, health and love from their connection to this place and that will never change. Every single soul in California is part of this truth today, and we must recognize our ability to rise to the occasion and restore resilient ecosystems and thriving communities based on our collective efforts.


Wassa Honi Mep!  (Keep your heart's intentions good!)


Ali Meders-Knight

Mechoopda Tribal Member, Master TEK practitioner, and 

Executive Director of California Open Lands

Ali Meders-Knight, California Open Lands Executive Director, basketweaver, and ITEK practitioner

Our Mission and Purpose

California Open Lands' core mission is to enhance and preserve natural resources in the conservation of Northern California's flora and fauna on open lands in perpetuity, including the restoration and cultivation of California native plants utilizing principles of Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) for food, fiber, and medicine; and to foster opportunities for people to connect with and learn about the natural resources and open lands of their neighborhood and region.

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Programs & Activities

Strategic Resilience Planning & Land Acquisitions

Community Cultural Stewardship & Indigenous Knowledge

Community Cultural Stewardship & Indigenous Knowledge

We hold and manage easements for the purpose of protecting wetlands, sensitive resources and endangered species habitat, and specialize in the stewardship of habitats in close proximity to urban centers. We utilize a strategic approach to land acquisition via landscape-scale resilience planning and consultation with Tribal communities and conservation agencies, with an emphasis on: climate change adaptation; ecosystem restoration to support cultural keystone species for food, fiber and medicine; forest and watershed health; and wildfire mitigation.

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Community Cultural Stewardship & Indigenous Knowledge

Community Cultural Stewardship & Indigenous Knowledge

Community Cultural Stewardship & Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) refers to the place-based science developed by Indigenous peoples over thousands of years of observation, experimentation, and maintenance of native plants for food, fiber, and medicine on ancestral lands. Human stewardship is an essential part of California ecosystems, and re-introducing this element via an ITEK-certified workforce is the key to social, cultural, and ecological resilience. We work with Tribal practitioners and Indigenous-led community initiatives for cultural stewardship of our reserves using ITEK.

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Nature-Based Therapy & Community Trauma Recovery

Community Cultural Stewardship & Indigenous Knowledge

Nature-Based Therapy & Community Trauma Recovery

Nature therapy and community trauma recovery is mutually supportive with ITEK. A new way of embodying how we tend the land requires a new paradigm in how we attend to our own inner life and soul processes. Community trauma is tied to how we treat the land, and learning to heal internally as individuals and a community is integral to envisioning ways that we caretake the earth, learning how to tend instead of neglect and abuse our open spaces. We explore ways to utilize outdoor spaces for somatic-based trauma recovery and public health through community partnerships.

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Contact Us

Contact Us

California Open Lands

P.O. Box 4440

Chico, CA 95927


(530) 872-7281

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