Lesson #3: Stewards respond
to disturbance and foster
social-ecological resilience
Stewardship groups engage in regular practices
that demonstrate and strengthen social resil-
ience at the community level. During times of
crisis, stewards contribute to all stages of the
recovery cycle—from short-term responses to
long-term recovery to adaptation—through acts
of environmental care and community orga-
nizing. For example, stewards play an important
role in the climate adaptation arena and iden-
tify climate change as a key motivating driver.
This role encompasses a range of tactics and
practices, including shaping physical spaces, bro-
kering partnerships, disrupting the status quo,
building civic capacity, and envisioning new
futures. Further, stewards can use their net-
works to react nimbly to crises. For example,
in NYC, stewards relied on their networks to
combat food insecurity during the COVID-19 pan-
demic, a novel way for this network to support
their communities. Increasingly, decision-makers
working on local disturbances, such as Rapid
'Ōhi'a Death in Hawaiʻi and wildland fire in the
Bridger-Teton National Forest, rely on stewardship
data to identify key brokers ready to dissemi-
nate information and foster collaborations. >>
Volunteers planting trees in Stillmeadow Peace Park, Baltimore.
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