FAQ

How to Engage with the Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network

The Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network (SCMSN) is a vehicle for land stewardship organizations to work together across property lines, jurisdictions, and organizational boundaries on issues important to the region like fire, forest health, water quality, habitat restoration, climate adaptation, and many others. Our members have significant responsibility for stewarding land in the region. They are land trusts, public agencies, the Amah Mutsun Tribe, water utilities, and universities.

What is the structure of the SCMSN?

The SCMSN has twenty-five member organizations, each of which can send up to two representatives to SCMSN convenings. There is a single staff person, a Network Manager, who organizes convenings and team meetings, and generally creates the conditions for collaboration. The SCMSN is guided by a Core Team of four to seven members that acts something like a Steering Committee. SCMSN members work together by developing  collaborative projects, forming teams around specific topics, designing collective workshops, and sharing information in a variety of ways.

 ———

What area does the SCMSN cover?

The SCMSN covers San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties and the western, forested part of Santa Clara County. However, those boundaries are not rigid, some SCMSN projects extend beyond them.

 ———

How can I become a member of the SCMSN?

New members are accepted into the SCMSN through a unanimous vote by current members. Candidate organizations are asked to fill out a questionnaire to help members understand their stewardship work. Interested organizations should contact Network Manager, Dylan Skybrook at dylan@scmsn.net.

Successful candidates will be organizations that have significant responsibility for stewarding land in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Members also look for whether there are possibilities for collaboration with candidates that will result in improved stewardship of the lands in the region.

 ———

Are there other ways to engage with the SCMSN?

Yes. Below are a few possibilities.

Invitation to Join an SCMSN Team. It is possible for an organization to be invited to join an SCMSN team. The SCMSN currently has multi-organization teams working on trails, fire and forest health, monitoring protocols, dealing with biomass, data, and so on. The SCMSN sometimes invites non-member organizations to join teams when their participation would clearly aid stewardship in the region. Current organizations that are participating in SCMSN teams include, San Francisco Public Utility Commission, National Park Service, Santa Cruz Mountains Trails Stewardship, Bay Area Ridge Trail, PG&E, Coastal Conservancy, and the Santa Cruz County Office of Response, Recovery, and Resilience. If you would like to discuss your organization joining an SCMSN team, contact Network Manager, Dylan Skybrook at dylan@scmsn.net.

Invitation to Join an SCMSN Event. The SCMSN has several workshops and salons per year. Workshop topics are chosen based on whatever work the SCMSN is currently engaging in. Salons are peer learning events based around a specific topic. They may include a speaker or a panel or something similar. 

In many cases, the SCMSN invites non-members to participate in workshops or salons. Invitations tend to be to people or organizations with whom SCMSN organizations already have a relationship. However, the SCMSN is open to suggestions and requests. If an organization in the region sees a possibility for improving relationships or increasing learning by participating in or co-hosting a workshop or salon, the SCMSN would like to consider it.

Spotlight Stewardship. The SCMSN is mostly not public facing. However, the SCMSN does offer a course called Spotlight Stewardship that invites community leaders out on to the land to see stewardship first hand. We’ve had participants who are staff from environmental advocacy organizations, aides to elected officials, law enforcement, staff from regulatory agencies, members of neighborhood groups, and so on. The course consists of six tours over six months to different sites across the Santa Cruz Mountains. Participants hear from experts in the field on what it takes to do fire prevention, forest health, and habitat restoration projects, to balance recreation with biodiversity, what it takes to get permits for projects, and so on. Those interested in participating in this course should go to the Spotlight Stewardship page on the SCMSN.net website. The page will give more information and, when applications open in the spring, provide an opportunity to apply to participate in the course.

Data. The SCMSN has engaged in several data projects, some of which are accessible to everyone. Please see the links page on SCMSN.net to find out how to access these projects.

Conversation. If you are with an organization that may benefit from working with the SCMSN in some way but don’t yet have a relationship with the SCMSN or its members, schedule a conversation with Network Manager, Dylan Skybrook at dylan@scmsn.net to explore possibilities.

 ———

Can individuals become members?

Never say never, but probably not. While it is technically a possibility in the SCMSN bylaws to include individuals, the SCMSN is by nature a network of organizations. Only organizations have ever been or are currently members.

 ———

Of what is the SCMSN in charge?

Nothing! The SCMSN is a collaborative of its member organizations. It only exists to the degree that its member organizations are working together. The SCMSN itself is not an organization, has no jurisdiction, and makes no decisions about how land should be stewarded. Its only power rests in creating the conditions for SCMSN members to work together to increase the pace and scale of land stewardship in the Santa Cruz Mountains.