Through her years of stewardship and community work, Lisa Brush noticed that many professionals in these fields were working with their “heads down.” They were putting in the effort, but their impact was limited by a lack of connection with potential collaborators. This realization eventually lead to the creation of the Huron River Watershed Volunteer Stewardship Network in 1998. What began as small collective of influencers, activists, and stewards laid the foundation for the creation of The Stewardship Network in 2004, inspired by a vision to increase collaboration among communities engaged in ecological stewardship.
Grassroots local efforts, partnerships, and stakeholder involvement in program design blossomed into our flagship leadership model, TSN Member Communities. Based in an ethic of holistic, cooperative ecological responsiveness, these diverse collectives have real impact, working together to protect the land and water where they live and sharing the lessons of their efforts across boundaries like never before. Now twenty years in practice, the model has had proven successes in a wide variety of communities and geographies, thanks in part to The Stewardship Network’s robust and individualized support systems that let Member Communities spend less time behind a desk and more time in the field doing whatever collaborative stewardship activities their local ecosystems need.
Today, The Stewardship Network facilitates countless relationships between individuals and organizations, including community groups, government entities, non-profits, and businesses. At all levels, TSN is breaking down walls and building new lines of engagement that unite us in our common cause and leave behind the silos of the past. By creating channels to share knowledge, stories, and resources, The Stewardship Network is the dream of our founder made real and a wealth of emerging solutions to some of our world’s most significant ecological challenges. We invite you to be a part of this, to join us and our Member Communities as we stand “TOGETHER FOR NATURE.”
TSN Wall of Memories
Honors and Awards
Winner: Carl N. Becker Stewardship Award (2015)
Awarded by: The Natural Areas Association
Notes: A national honor “in recognition of excellence and achievement in managing the natural resources of reserves, parks, wilderness, and other protected areas.”
Winner: Science and Practice of Ecology and Society Award (2013)
Awarded by: Foundation for Scientific Symbiosis
Notes: An international honor “given annually to the individual or organization that is the most effective in bringing transdisciplinary science of the interactions of ecology and society into practice.”