California is one of the most culturally diverse states in the country, and the meaning and connections we have to the land are influenced by our cultures, lived experiences, and histories. Learn about compelling programming that focuses on uplifting these cultural connections, historic factors, and bringing people closer to nature and their culture.
1Latino Outdoors & CalWild, Central California, CA, United States. 2Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA, United States. 3California Native Plant Society South Coast Chapter, CA, United States.
Cris Sarabia is Conservation Director for the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy in southwestern Los Angeles and oversees all conservation projects including land preservation, habitat restoration, endangered species protection, and management of the nature preserves and open spaces on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Cris has a wide history of involvement with ecological and social justice organizations including being the cofounder of the Long Beach cultural community center Flora y Tierra, as a leader within the California Native Plant Society, an ecologist with the Los Cerritos Wetland Stewards, an Explore the Coast grant Advisory Board Member, and an Advisory Board Member with the Conservation Corp of Long Beach. On his free time, Cris advocates for habitat restoration and multi-lingual nature based programs throughout the urban areas of Los Angeles.
4.1 California Ethnobotany History
Julisa Soto Gutierrez
California Native Plant Society Santa Clara Valley Chapter, Santa Clara Valley, CA, United States
Description or Abstract Ethnobotany offers an analytical framework to understand the relationships between diverse Indigenous communities and ecology. Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge reflects highly developed methods of food processing, medicinal uses, dyes, tools, and ecological knowledge that shaped entire cultures long before colonial disruption. By examining ethnobotany across California’s major historical eras, we can gain an understanding of the successive migrations that shaped both landscapes and cultural relationships to plants.
California Native Plant Society Santa Clara Valley Chapter
Julisa Soto Gutierrez is an ethnobotany and history enthusiast who enjoys learning about how diverse Indigenous communities use plants as cultural resources. She identifies as Indigenous American from the Purepecha people and Mexican-American from the San Luis Obispo County. She was born and raised on the central coast filled with gorgeous native plants near Pismo Beach's Monarch Butterfly Grove, Oceano Dunes State Recreation Area, Oso Flaco Lake's estuary, and many other natural preserves. She moved to the Bay Area to study Business Management at San Jose State University and is now a small business owner in Sunnyvale. Julisa volunteers on the board of the California Pioneers of Santa Clara County as the grants manager. She is also a docent at the Roberto Adobe & Sunol House in San Jose, where she is managing a museum garden project with a focus on California Ethnobotany History from the Santa Clara Valley.
4.2 Ethnopharmacology and Phytochemistry of California Native Plants: Lessons for Justice and Conservation
Amitha A Inturi1, Dr. Joe R McBride2
1Presentation High School, San Jose, CA, United States. 2Professor Emeritus, Department of Environmental Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
Description or Abstract The objective of this study was to combine phytochemical and ethnopharmacological information to establish the medicinal efficacy of the use of California native plant species by Indigenous people in California. Case studies were used to establish the efficacy. Studies indicate that 25% of clinical pharmaceuticals are either directly or indirectly sourced from plant-derived natural products, although Native Americans have utilized these medicinal species long before they entered medicinal literature. For example, extracts of Rhamnus californica, used by Costanoan, Kawaiisu, and Yokia peoples for dermatological ailments and the flu, have proved anti-MRSA activity via MIC assays and demonstrates potential for natural antibiotics. Umbellularia californica, known to the Ohlone as Sokóote, possesses secondary metabolites responsible for driving its antibacterial activity. The harpagoside found throughout the genus Scrophularia, used by the Ohlone to lessen dermatological inflammation, is not only responsible for the plant’s medicinal potential, but also may correlate to its key ability to attract pollinators. Although native species are essential to California ecosystems, they often face ongoing threats from hybridization and introduction of pathogens via illegal commercial trade. Medicinal plant species used by Indigenous people have been reduced in number and sometimes eradicated, as seen through the history of the Mission Period and more recently by land management at locations like the Hanford site. Solutions to the stewardship of California native flora plants are proposed.
Presenter Bios
Amitha A Inturi
Presentation High School
Amitha is a student fascinated with the ethnopharmacology and phytochemistry of California native medicinal plant species. She works to investigate the chemical compounds of flora while advocating for Indigenous justice and the preservation of native plants and pollinators.
4.3 Growing Relationality: Rethinking Education Through Land-Based Learning
Dr. Kalani Heinz
California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA, United States
Description or Abstract This presentation showcases how integrating Native ways of knowing into different undergraduate courses can lead to more accessible and equitable teaching practices regardless of the discipline. In doing this, it pushes back again the idea that land-based learning is only applicable to the sciences and extends land-based learning to ethnic studies and history courses. Specifically, it suggests that integrating land-based learning into coursework in other disciplines has the potential to not only make courses more relevant to students, but to get them to care more about their local environments. It introduces the Indigenous concept of relationality, which views land and non-human beings as ancestors and educators rather than static commodities to be acted upon, imploring students to think about their responsibility to land. This concept is reinforced through various activities centering Native plants including observational journals, gelatinization labs, plant location activities, mapping, and water rights discussions. This presentation not only details these activities at length, but provides insight on the limitations and triumphs of each based on student feedback. It concludes with a brief discussion of the preliminary development of a Native Plant Sciences laboratory at California State University, Northridge to further articulate how place and plants can be viewed more holistically in research an education. Because land-based education is still relatively novel, this presentation aims to serve as a model that other educators can use in their classrooms.
Presenter Bios
Kalani Heinz
California State University, Northridge
Kalani Heinz is an assistant professor in American Indian Studies at California State University, Northridge where she focuses on Native plant sciences. Her previous work has focused on using archival documents to reconstruct landscape of Central Maui from the plantation period to modernity.
4.4 Bushy Lake Eco-Cultural Restoration Project: Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) & Western Ecological Knowledge (WEK) Using Cultural Plant Associations and Traditional Fire Management
Dr. Michelle L. Stevens1, Dereck Martinez-Goodwin1,2, Alexandra von Ehrenkrook3
1California State University Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, United States. 2Indigenous Futures Society, Auburn, CA, United States. 3GEI Consultants, Rancho Cordova, CA, United States
Description or Abstract The Bushy Lake Eco-Cultural Restoration Project (lower American River, Sacramento, CA) incorporates Indigenous TEK, WEK and Traditional Resource Management (TRM) of the Nisenan, Miwok and Maidu traditions into the restoration project. The site is a highly disturbed urban riparian habitat. The project promotes using Culturally Significant Plant Alliances based on cultural keystone species into the Bushy Lake eco-cultural conceptual restoration design. We developed the paradigm of Cultural Plant Alliances to complement the CNPS Plant Alliances. Our initial hypothesis was to test the impacts of Traditional Fire Management (TFM) on native plants. In 2021, a wildfire provided an unplanned experiment to document vegetation responses to fire in the pilot restoration. Experimental data demonstrated that cultural plants, adapted to millennia of TFM, were fire resilient and recovered within one year. The main takeaways from this 10-year project are: 1) With the guidance of traditional knowledge holders, we recommend incorporation of TFM to stimulate native plant species and control weedy species as a preferred management tool for future eco-cultural restoration projects. 2) We recommend herbicides and pesticides not be used in these areas. 3) The eco-cultural restoration planting palette provides a planning document to focus on native, fire resilient, and culturally significant species. We acknowledge that all native plants are our relatives and worthy of stewardship and tending. 4) We advocate for implementation of Traditional Fire Management at Bushy Lake. 5) We promote establishing an Indigenous Protected Conservation Area for gathering/ tending areas as well as spaces for additional cultural/ spiritual practices.
Presenter Bios
Dr. Michelle L. Stevens
California State University, Sacramento
Dr. Stevens is a descendent of the Nez Perce Colville Confederated tribe in Eastern Washington. She has written and researched inclusion of Traditional Ecological Restoration in the field of ecological restoration for three decades. She teaches Ethnoecology, Wetlands Ecology and Restoration Ecology as an emeritus professor at California State University, Sacramento.
Dereck Martinez-Goodwin
Indigenous Futures Society
Dereck Goodwin is an environmental scientist and Indigenous cultural practitioner who blends Western ecological science with Traditional Ecological Knowledge. He works closely with Tribal partners to develop cultural ecologies and leads efforts in GIS integration and mapping. With expertise in ornithology, native plant restoration, and Western Pond Turtle conservation, Dereck focuses on habitat resilience and cultural guardianship. He is certified in California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM), wetland delineation, and holds a RED card for wildland firefighting. His work documents the benefits of traditional cultural burning, combining ancestral practices with modern tools such as drone mapping and GIS. As a mentor and educator, he teaches ethnobotany and traditional ecological skills, supporting the next generation of Indigenous land stewards. Through his work, Dereck seeks to restore the deep connections between people, place, and culture in the service of ecological healing
4.5 The Plant Community Recognizes No Borders, Promotes Support among Natural Communities of Living Beings, and Understands Migration as a Natural and Cyclical Movement of Life
Esther A. Fernandez
Theodore Payne Foundation (TPF), Sun Valley, CA, United States
Description or Abstract In California—as in many places around the world—the migrant community is the backbone of horticulture and agriculture. We are the primary workforce behind the cultivation of native plants, fruits, and vegetables. Migrant workers have long carried out essential tasks in cultivation, irrigation, propagation, and garden maintenance. Our labor, combined with ancestral ecological knowledge, is fundamental to sustaining, conserving, and restoring native plants and their habitats.
Yet too often, migrants are excluded from conversations about environmental care and decision-making. This exclusion overlooks the reality that integrating migrant perspectives makes conservation more effective, culturally responsive, and equitable.
Through intentional hiring practices, bilingual education, and partnerships with community organizations, it is important to create pathways for migrant voices to be included and valued. At Theodore Payne our programs honor migrant contributions, expand access to horticultural training, and integrate cultural knowledge into restoration and conservation work. Even in the language we use, we seek to reflect the people who sustain this field and make them visible as leaders.
In Los Angeles, migrant communities already play a vital role in creating and maintaining urban green spaces and community gardens—efforts that increase vegetation, support biodiversity, and strengthen resilience. By centering migrants in our practices, rhetoric, and programs, we build a conservation movement that is stronger, more just, and deeply rooted in community. Migrants are not outsiders to environmental stewardship—we are already part of the solution.
Presenter Bios
Esther Fernandez
Theodore Payne Foundation
Esther Fernandez is a long-time California native plant enthusiast with several years of experience planting and maintaining California native gardens. She joined the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants in 2022.
Thank you to our 2026 sponsors!
Giant Sequoia
Special thanks to Esri, our 3-time Giant Sequoia Sponsor, for making this movement stronger than ever!
The mission of the California Native Plant Society is to protect California’s native plants and their natural habitats, today and into the future, through science, education, stewardship, gardening, and advocacy.
DateThursday, February 5
