Interview a Land Manager: Hands on the Land
Author: Rebecca Nelson
Hands on the Land is a student organization that focuses on place-based restoration work in California. The current leadership team includes UC Davis graduate students Alana Luzzio, Sophia Simon, Margot Flynn, Dylan Moore, Brooke Wainwright, and Rebecca Nelson.
Can you tell me a little bit about Hands on the Land and how it started?
Our group, Hands on the Land (HOTL), seeks to foster the reconnection between people, place, and plants and engage in diverse ways of knowing and multidisciplinarity is at our core. Our group seeks to bring students, interdisciplinary faculty, artists, educators, land-managers, and members of the local community to the University of California Davis McLaughlin Reserve to engage in place-based restoration work. We are a student organization at the University of California, Davis, founded by ecology graduate students Alana Luzzio, Sophia Simon, and Margot Flynn.
What restoration goals does Hands on the Lands have?
Our mission as an organization is to engage diverse groups of people in developing an intimate, long term relationship between people and the ecological communities which surround them. Focused at the McLaughlin Natural Reserve, in the California inner Coast Range, we aim to do climate-resilient restoration work that centers land renewal and place-based learning. We are currently working on using fire and hand-pulling invasive species to restore a California oak woodland understory. We hope to cultivate a paradigm shift in restoration toward interdisciplinary, social-ecological systems thinking.
Through working with the land managers at McLaughlin, we’ve found that the most successful restoration efforts – the ones that result in the most diverse native communities – are those that are long-term and re-visited every year. Our goal is to expand that successful restoration footprint by including more people in restoration and re-establishing our human connection to our local landscape.
"Our mission as an organization is to engage diverse groups of people in developing an intimate, long term relationship between people and the ecological communities which surround them." -Hands on the Land Leadership Team
What sorts of work does Hands on the Land do with community engagement?
We further aim to make restoration a more accessible and inclusive space by covering field trip costs for participants, sharing outdoor gear, and engaging undergraduates with information about career opportunities in restoration.
As a one-year-old organization, we plan to create place-based learning opportunities for the local Lake County community (the county in which McLaughlin is situated) as well as partner with Lake County groups that are doing related work. Currently, we partner with other student organizations (SEEDS, KiDs, Rewilding) to expose more people to our Hands on the Land experiences.
What advice do you have for people who would like to get more involved with place-based approaches to restoration?
Our advice would be to start being present and mindful about the world around you. We believe that successful restoration inevitably comes from paying attention to and appreciating the world around you. Find ways to learn about the natural history of the place you’re in. California Native Plant Society, their Bloom! Initiative, and local chapters are great places to start. If you’re in Northern California, come with us on a trip!
"We believe that successful restoration inevitably comes from paying attention to and appreciating the world around you." -Hands on the Land Leadership Team
In light of climate change, how do you maintain a positive outlook as an organization?
We are very inspired by McLaughlin Reserve Director Cathy Koehler who emphasizes in her philosophy as land steward that restoration can create a positive, substantial change at local scales. Along with Reserve Research Director Paul Aigner and a team of interns, she transformed an invaded serpentine grassland into a biodiverse meadow. These restoration efforts increased the amount of native wildflowers and pollinators present and have been essential to research and education at the reserve.
