On September 20th, the Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT) and the Trust for Public Land (TPL) celebrated the protection of 540 acres of wildlife habitat and ranchland adjacent to San Juan Bautista, and the return of indigenous land access and stewardship within the Mutsun ancestral lands. The gathering brought a large coalition of conservation and tribal advocacy organizations together to celebrate and envision the future of collaboration between indigenous groups and land trusts in the region and across the state.

The property was purchased by TPL in 2021 from the Nyland family who have been ranching in the area for four generations. TPL then worked with a coalition of partnering land trusts, the AMLT, San Benito Agricultural Land Trust (SBALT), and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County (LTSCC), to create a holistic management plan for the property. Each of the land trusts brought their own strengths to the project to ensure the enduring protection of the property’s agricultural, wildlife habitat connectivity, and cultural values.

The project is unique in its incorporation of a cultural easement for local indigenous people which allows the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band members to return to their lands under a perpetual legal agreement. The cultural easement provides the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band access rights to the property for cultural, spiritual, and ceremonial traditions, as well as the right to conduct restoration and stewardship of the lands and waters using traditional and contemporary Indigenous knowledge and methods. This easement is the first legal right that the Mutsun people have secured to access lands in the Mutsun territory since they were forcibly removed from their lands over 225 years ago.

To protect and steward the agricultural and wildlife habitat values, SBALT will hold title to the property as the owner and lead land manager of the property’s infrastructure and sustainable cattle operation while LTSCC will hold the perpetual conservation easement and monitor the property’s wildlife habitat values.

The property is part of a narrow and vital wildlife corridor hemmed in by agricultural lands and rural estate parcels between San Juan Bautista and the towns of Aromas and Prunedale, providing a refuge for raptors, grassland birds, and waterfowl along with mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats and various reptiles. LTSCC will ensure the integrity of the extremely fragile wildlife linkage connecting the Santa Cruz Mountains with the Gabilan Range. The property shares almost two miles of road frontage with Highway 156 and is home to several culverts that, if properly maintained, can provide safe passage for wildlife between the property and open grasslands to the north.

At the gathering, AMLT acknowledged the partners in the project, providing medicine pouches containing local native plants to Lynn Overtree, Executive Director of SBALT, Guillermo Rodriguez, TPL’s California State Director, and Sarah Newkirk, LTSCC Executive Director. The AMLT also announced the new Mutsun-language name for the property, "tarenmak numan awniciminmak komeypuyni", which translates to "springs where the turtles come to rest", a tribute to the numerous springs on the property and the healthy population of western pond turtles living in the property’s ponds.