Trees, Water & People (TWP) is honored to have received the “Transformative Partner” award in recognition of our Indigenous Lands Program’s (ILP) work in New Mexico towards water resilience, multi-stakeholder facilitation and long-term watershed scale restoration planning. 

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. 

Our growing practice of trust-based philanthropy, made possible by our incredible funding partners, keeps this understanding central. In addition to long-term and unrestricted support, trust-based philanthropy encourages reporting processes that reduce burdens upon organizations, ultimately freeing more staff time and resources for direct support to communities. 

This week, Indigenous youth crews from the Ancestral Lands and Southwest Conservation Corps are carrying out TWP-supported efforts in Southwest Colorado to restore degraded areas of the Mancos river. Much of this riparian corridor is managed under conservation easement, and new collaborations with private landowners are facilitating restoration activities within some of the most impacted stretches.

The dry season in Central America, which extends from January to April, presents a high risk of forest fires every year; March and April are usually the most critical months. In 2024, this situation worsened considerably with the presence of the El Niño phenomenon, which raised temperatures to historic levels.

In April, we had an incredible week in Mexico visiting our newest partner, Red Mexicana de Organizaciones Campesinas Forestales (Red MOCAF). Amidst inspiring trips to see their work in action, we also learned more about the incredible people who’ve kept the organization running for nearly 3 decades – amongst them, Gustavo Sánchez Valle, Red MOCAF’s president.

It is hard to keep your head above the rising water these days. Every day, I wake up thinking about the state of the world, humanity, our planet, and the future generations.

More than 25 years ago, Paul and Marilyn Thayer received a postcard from Trees, Water & People seeking donations for our clean cookstoves program. What started, in their words, as a “modest contribution” has grown into decades of close relationship and avid support.

La Bendición, “the blessing,” is a rural community in the Guatemalan highlands, formed by more than 80 Maya families. After being displaced from their homes amidst Guatemala’s Civil War, these families came together in 2000 to purchase a communal land base and rebuild their livelihoods.

Nearly 2,500 Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir seedlings have a new home in the greenhouse at Santa Fe Indian School (SFIS), owned and operated by the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico. The SFIS Community Based Education (CBE) department has integrated the seedlings in efforts to create hands-on learning opportunities with Native students.

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.

We appreciate all of our supporters who joined us on April 4th for the first of our quarterly webinars, The Path Forward – we’re always so inspired by the incredible group of people behind us.

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.

Beyond the Grant: The Power of Funding with Presence and Purpose A Testament to Indigenous Leadership in Fire and Forest Stewardship
Written by Juliana Rodríguez—Conservation Social Scientist, M.S. Global Conservation Leadership & MEng. Environmental Management

In 2024, Trees, Water, and People (TWP) provided scholarships to four CSU students, all Indigenous women, working towards careers in natural sciences and conservation. Scholarships sustained three students’ work with the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd, and supported one, Lizzy Osterhoudt, in leading research that honors her experience as a Pueblo woman.

Gender equity has been at the center of TWP’s work since the early days of our clean cookstoves program, more than 27 years ago. At that time, we followed the guidance of local women to design the Justa stove – named after Doña Justa Nuñez, who led the process in Honduras – and develop a stove program that prioritized women’s health, protected forests, and created local economic opportunity.

La Colectiva is a feminist consultancy formed by four Indigenous women, born from challenges they faced within other organizations. As many women within community organizations still encounter an ingrained machismo culture and majority male leadership, La Colectiva seeks to re-empower at the personal and grassroots level.

Maria Magdalena Ixquiactap Tuc – “Magda” – has been a key leader in a collaboration between TWP and Coordinadora de Mujeres Líderes Territoriales de Mesoamérica (CMLT). As part of the regional initiative, Magdalena facilitates capacity building and knowledge exchange amongst community-based organizations in Guatemala.