Twenty-eight years ago, our organization started with a focus on planting trees. 

But since our founding, we’ve seen the need to attend to a whole context – forests aren’t sustained without people, and people aren’t sustained without opportunities for work, a connection to their culture, and a voice in the decisions that affect them.

Earlier this month, in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, TWP hosted the third annual Stewards of the Southwest Summit. 

Although this event is only in its third year, we’re amazed to see the relationships that have already grown. Attendees are returning to see familiar faces and continue where conversations left off, year after year.

Fencing isn’t often the first thing to come to mind when we think about conservation.

But working from the local level continues to teach us that different places need different things. Some may need connectivity, some may need protection.

As federal investments in public lands and natural resources continue to be challenged, TWP is collaborating with local groups to ensure Tribal leadership remains central in land management across the Southwest.

Our Mesoamerica program has seen great change over the past 2 years, taking on a new country, a new name, and an increasingly complex set of regional challenges. 

But we’re always reminded why we do what we do. Our growth has meant new relationships and new impact, and we’ve seen both through completion of a pilot project with our first partner in Mexico, Red MOCAF.

This spring, members of the TWP team had the honor of attending an annual blessing for the local bison herd of Soapstone Prairie. Led by elders and spiritual leaders from various Tribes, the blessing was part of honoring land, reaffirming culture, and recognizing the crucial role of bison in both.

Before the Spanish conquest, many Indigenous communities throughout Mesoamerica maintained communal structures of land ownership and management, some of which inspired Mexico’s contemporary ejidos. Though ejidos were outlawed in the 19th century, land reform reinstated the system, resulting in the return of significant land areas to Indigenous communities throughout Mexico in the 1970s.

On Wednesday June 4th, following the eruption of Volcán de Fuego, 163 families from the community of la Nueva Trinidad were once again forced to flee their homes to seek shelter. 

On March 4-6, within the ancestral homelands of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, Trees, Water & People had the privilege of co-hosting the 2025 New Mexico Tribal Forest & Fire Summit.

As our Indigenous Lands Program Content Creator, Treston Chee unites his background, his love of the outdoors, and his talent for film and photography to connect the stories of our partners and supporters.

We’ve partnered with the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) and Coordinadora de Mujeres Líderes Territoriales de Mesoamérica (CMLT) over the past two years to support community-based organizations in strengthening their institutional capacity.

On March 4-6, within the ancestral homelands of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, we had the privilege of co-hosting the 2025 New Mexico Tribal Forest & Fire Summit. The gathering brought together nearly 200 Tribal foresters, natural resource experts, hydrologists, community leaders, and representatives from NGOs, state and federal agencies, academic institutions, and conservation businesses to focus on successes, futures, and associated challenges for Indigenous-led conservation.

Indigenous lands are ancestral lands. Ancestral lands are all lands.

This is an echo of the survival and resiliency of our ancestral lineage from the elders to the youth. In New Mexico there are twenty three sovereign Tribal nations that steward the land for preservation, restoration, protection, education and peace. These are the same beliefs our ancestors upheld and passed on through generations.

The Association of Agroecological Promoters of Jalapa (ASOPROAJ), an indigenous organization of the Xinca people in Guatemala, represents a light of hope in the country's Dry Corridor, especially in the municipality of San Carlos Alzatate. Since its legal constitution in 2022, ASOPROAJ has grown to 80 promoters between men and women distributed throughout the region, there are currently 15 active members in leadership positions.

From five thousand to ten thousand feet in elevation the landscape changes rapidly with every plant species and types of soil. Hundreds of sagebrush and cottonwoods sweep over the lower elevations, while ponderosa pines and douglas fir reach for the skies as they seem to blanket the mountainside.

It’s true that April showers bring May flowers. My April was filled with exciting travels and attending in-person conferences. These travels showered newly planted seeds of partnerships and innovative ideas that have now begun to sprout this month.

It is satisfying to know that people around the world are intrigued with Indigenous Peoples and support the feats being endured. Working with Trees, Water & People (TWP), I have learned that this is one of our best and strongest virtues. We bring like-minded people to the table and our organization to move our mission and virtues forward.

Originating from Pueblo-led forest restoration projects in New Mexico, the collaboration of Trees, Water & People and The Nature Conservancy was developed to share vision, experience, determination, and our Pueblo connections, in order to further the efforts of stewarding valuable Tribal forests.

Santa Ana - In a groundbreaking gathering from January 29th - February 1st, 2024, the inaugural Tribal Forest and Fire Summit convened at Santa Ana Pueblo, NM uniting over 175 participants from 22 pueblos, tribes, and native nations. This catalyzing event also welcomed a broad spectrum of agencies and nonprofits from across the state, fostering a vibrant forum for exchanging ideas on land management, conservation, and forest fire mitigation.

In November 2023, I had the opportunity to participate in the Gathering of Agroecological Promoters, titled "Land, Water, and Seeds: Millenary Heritage for Good Living." The event was collectively developed by a diverse group of 80 promoters representing approximately 13 indigenous communities.