Building Meaningful Connections with Nature: Parks California in Conversation

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

To me, that starts to paint the picture of a park of the future, where all voices are coming together to create a beautiful place that people can enjoy in the way that makes them feel welcome, that makes them feel safe, that ultimately allows them to come together to strengthen the park and inspire the people who are then experiencing this extraordinary place.

Michael Torrance:

Welcome to Sustainability Leaders. I'm Michael Torrance, Chief Sustainability Officer with BMO Financial Group. On this show, we will talk with leading sustainability practitioners from the corporate, investor, academic, and NGO communities to explore how this rapidly-evolving field of sustainability is impacting global investment, business practices, and our world.

Speaker 3:

The views expressed here are those of the participants and not those of Bank of Montreal, its affiliates, or subsidiaries.

Melissa Fifield:

I'm Melissa Fifield, the head of BMO's Climate Institute, and I'm happy to be joined today by Kindley Walsh Lawlor, President and CEO of Parks California, a nonprofit organization focused on strengthening parks throughout the state in a variety of ways. Welcome, Kindley.

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

Thank you so much, Melissa. I am so happy to be here.

Melissa Fifield:

So maybe you can start by giving our listeners an overview of Parks California, why it was established, and how it came to be.

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

Absolutely. Parks California is the statutory nonprofit partner to California State Parks working statewide across California in 280 California state parks. We work at the intersection of equitable access and climate resiliency.

Melissa Fifield:

That sounds really innovative. Tell us a little bit more about what your main objectives are for Parks California and really what does that look like to ensure the success of our state parks?

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

I'll just say it's an absolute joy to work across the state of California if you think about how diverse the state is from a natural standpoint, how diverse the state is from a human standpoint, and then you add in these incredible 280 parks that are urban parks, cultural storytelling, historical storytelling. Really, we have to make sure these parks are welcoming and inclusive while also ensuring that they're climate-resilient, so Parks California at only four-and-a-half years old, we're working on priorities that matter to everyone across the state that are priorities for California State Parks, the Agency of Natural Resources, the Governor's Office, but also to the people here in California.

So really, how this works is Parks California works hand in hand with California State Parks. That's the first and most important part of our relationship. Again, we say we like to work from the inside out. It feels often that we're simply just a part of the California State Parks team and what we do is we work annually to set joint priorities and those priorities fit into three different buckets that are all then interconnected. The first one is equitable access, the second is landscape stewardship and climate, and the third is this broader idea of parks of the future.

Melissa Fifield:

That's fantastic. It really sounds like an innovative partnership between a government agency and the ability to be nimble and help support each of these parks. So in each of those three priority categories, tell us a little bit more about how you select the partners you work with and how you identify organizations that can help you achieve the goals within those buckets of priority focus.

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

So let me illustrate it first by saying our job then with California State Parks as we set these joint priorities is to develop the right approach, so we are designing and developing programs or grants or community engagement strategy, and I thought what I could do is just share a little bit about the partners that work across California State Parks here in California, but also then give you some examples of what we're doing in each of these areas in partnership with others, if that works.

Melissa Fifield:

That's great.

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

So look, partners are integral to state park systems. Here in California, they take many forms, so you may have a statewide nonprofit partner like Parks California, the work we're doing. Sometimes your partners are working with one park unit and they may run a retail store. In another situation, a partner may be regional or district level with multiple parks and they may fund all the school field trips for local schools, or you may have a partner that focuses primarily on advocacy and policy, and so really, you need all of those partners. California State Parks needs all of those partners to have a healthy system and to have healthy relationships as we think about the work that needs to get done.

Equitable access, we have what we call a Route to Parks grant program that's now going into its fourth year, and in that relationship we are working with over 30 community organizations that are focused on going outdoors, creating their own relationship with nature. But we do that in partnership with other partners on the ground, nonprofit community partners, park partners that are welcoming the communities that are coming.

From a climate perspective, we have an example where we're working at Big Basin, a beautiful Redwoods park that burned in a lightning fire almost three years ago, and that focus on the climate side has not been on rebuilding the park as it was, but rather to reimagine and rebuild a climate-resilient park of the future. In that situation, we're working again, district-level nonprofit partners, acquisition partners. So really, how do you reimagine, how do you bring the full network into this conversation?

And as we think about Parks of the Future, if you're really working to envision the future of these places, it's actually about bringing community voice and nonprofit voice to the table as you are doing park planning efforts, integrating new technologies, piloting innovative solutions that address climate change and managing increased visitation. So all along the way, it really is about California state parks leveraging this unique set of partners that exist across the state.

Melissa Fifield:

It sounds like diverse collaborations are really important to the mission of Parks California. Maybe you can speak a little bit more about the impact of those diverse collaborations. What have been some important insights or outcomes as a result of having those diverse partners at the table?

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

Yeah. Look, ultimately we're here because we want people to find their place in parks. We want people to come back over and over again and to know they play a key role in keeping these places healthy and relevant. So that means you have to partner more broadly. You have to look at the state of California and develop parks that are truly reflective of these communities, again, that inspire people to become the next generation of park stewards, so that's why all voices are so important on this journey.

It's over two-thirds, I think, of California's population that actually likely had their first experience with nature in an urban park, and so as you look at urban populations increasing and the need for equitable park access becoming more critical, we want to hear from voices. I think some of these grant programs that we have, like Route to Parks that is about helping people get to the places to personalize what their journey looks like when they arrive to help them come back and continue building relationship with parks, with teams in the parks, then we know it will ultimately contribute to the health and wellbeing of California's communities. But we want voices at the table to understand what's important to community, to tribes as we think more broadly about the state of California and the parks system.

Melissa Fifield:

I think you make a really good point there. People protect the things they love and creating that pipeline of people who love our parks makes it more likely that we'll protect them and that's an important element for all of our communities and the health of our state overall. I want to switch gears, a little bit related question, but to talk about youth job development. Can you tell our listeners a little bit more about how Parks California is supporting that?

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

Yeah, and I think it's the perfect segue as we think about people creating their own magic in these parks. We launched a grant program called Career Pathways, so you can have the magic as you're out there recreating or sitting under a tree or doing whatever it is that brings you joy, but there's also an opportunity to create a pathway towards a great job that allows future park stewards to take roles that are representative of our diverse population here in California.

One of the examples is working closely with the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, which is a work training and cultural relearning program that reconnects the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to ancestral lands. This is about active engagement with land that contributes to more diverse, resilient, and meaningful landscapes, and it's about building a native stewardship core that advances resource conservation projects, in this case in the Santa Cruz mountains and at Quiroste Valley Cultural Preserve, which is within Año Nuevo State Park, and the native stewards are conducting plant propagation work in support of coastal prairie restoration, they're doing prescribed burns for the health of the valley specifically, and they're also growing native seeds that they're putting back onto the land. So state parks is learning how to work with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is learning how to work with state parks, and in the end, what we hope is happening is again, this pathway towards a great job in this space in places that are very meaningful.

Melissa Fifield:

Kindley, can you talk about some of the ways that climate resilience factors into the work of Parks California and that of your partners?

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

I think sitting at the intersection of access and climate is such a beautiful space to be in. We feel so fortunate that we are not doing land conservation over here and social justice work over here, we're really saying there is this beautiful intersection of bringing people onto a space, people and parks and parks and people, so it's about connecting the people to the future of healthy places, healthy parks, and public lands.

I mentioned the Big Basin example earlier where it really is about taking a terrible fire in a place like Big Basin and really turning it into an opportunity, again, not to rebuild in a footprint of exactly what this place looked like before, but engaging community to talk about what it should look like, could look like from a community perspective, to work with scientists to say, "What does the future of a climate and fire resilient park look like? What tools and trainings need to be developed? What partners need to be brought into the conversation? What land may need to be added to this park to really think about, again, climate resiliency in the parks of the future?"

Melissa Fifield:

So Kindley, it sounds like the work of Parks California is really doing an incredible job of connecting the dots between youth, job development, climate resiliency, but there's also a social impact I know to the work, so maybe you can talk a little bit about how you integrate social impact into the design of your programs and partnerships and maybe some of the impacts that you've seen.

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

Social impact is not always then for us to decide as we think about our relationship across the state with community, as we think about our relationship across the state with tribes.

We actually just returned, we were very fortunate to be hosted by the Yurok Tribe last week for an event and board meeting. One of our board members is the tribal heritage preservation officer for the Yurok Tribe and really spending that time to listen, to be a part of community in the North Coast, sitting on ancestral lands of the Yurok tribe at Sue-meg State Park, which has an incredible renaming story and history that just happened in the last year or so, where there's a ceremonial village that actually was closing as we were leaving the park to host the flower ceremony, an actual modern ceremony that's still happening today, heading up north to Stone Lagoon Visitor Center that sits in a sacred lagoon, and meeting one of the native elders whose family grew up on this lagoon whose village was in this space, and that visitor center is now co-managed by the Yurok Tribe and California State Parks.

And really, starting to understand what it means to form a partnership that takes years to establish trust, that takes many, many meetings to understand who the human beings are sitting at that table together to determine the trust and what progress ultimately looks like. That's why we're here. We're here to listen, we're here to learn, and then we're here to take action. A lot of what Parks California has the opportunity to do is to look at these beautiful partnerships, these innovative approaches, tools, examples, relationships, and scale them.

Melissa Fifield:

That's great. I'm wondering if maybe you can paint a picture of what a park of the future looks like for our listeners.

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

Ah, I would love to do that. I'm going to use an example actually of where I'm working this week. I'm sitting in the Central Valley of California here in Modesto and the newest California State Park opening soon is called Dos Rios, and it is an absolutely beautiful, beautiful location, very close to the main part of Modesto, former ag land that's been stewarded by another incredible park partner here in the area that have been adding back in native plantings, caring for this space for over a decade, only to hand it off, really as a gift to California State Parks so that people in Modesto and the Central Valley have hundreds of acres to now visit and recreate on, whether you're hiking or floating down one of the rivers. I think this park, as it's being created, as it's being built and stewarded, the incredible opportunity for community to be a voice as they will have a seat at the table to talk about what it is as it's being designed, ultimately can and should be is probably one of the most exciting things.

We're looking at a more climate-resilient approach because of the gift of these two rivers within the park and the access to water. We're looking at a place that has been cared for over a decade and is growing now, these native plants and trees, thereby making it more climate-resilient and fire-resilient. To me, that starts to paint the picture of a park of the future, where all voices are coming together to create a beautiful place that people can enjoy in the way that makes them feel welcome, that makes them feel safe, that ultimately allows them to come together to strengthen the park and inspire the people who are then experiencing this extraordinary place.

Melissa Fifield:

That's incredible. What's next for Parks California?

Kindley Walsh Lawlor:

We continue to visit and learn from communities and tribes across the state, from our board, and our advisory council. But really, every day we're humbled, we're humbled to be working on access and equity, we're humbled to be working on climate resiliency in one of the most beautiful places in the world in these parks, again, that range from cities to rural that are really here to welcome all of us, all of you. We want to hear from you, we want to hear your voices, and we want to know what these places mean to you and what they need to be better.

Michael Torrance:

Thanks for listening to Sustainability Leaders. This podcast is presented by BMO Financial Group. To access all the resources we discussed in today's episode and to see our other podcasts, visit us at bmo.com/sustainabilityleaders. You can listen and subscribe free to our show on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider and we'll greatly appreciate a rating and review and any feedback that you might have. Our show and resources are produced with support from BMO's Marketing Team and Puddle Creative. Until next time, I'm Michael Torrance. Have a great week.

Speaker 3:

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