Amongst the hundreds of diverse grassroots organizations in Mesoamerica we’ve been learning from over the past year, the vast majority face shared challenges. 

In every country and nearly every conversation, the inclusion of youth has been brought forward as one of the most pressing.

Most of the work TWP supports will need to carry on long after we are gone. 

We face multigenerational challenges that require multigenerational responses, and bringing youth into leading them is the core of their continuity. 

We’ve been honored to be a part of that continuity within the Traditional Harvest Project in Southwest Colorado. In collaboration with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT), Montezuma Land Conservancy (MLC), and other partners, the Traditional Harvest Project has supported Tribal members in planting and accessing culturally-significant plants and restoring riparian habitat along the Mancos River.

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.