Shared Commitment, Stronger Coasts

To support a growing community of practice, the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association (NERRA) has launched a new page on NERRA.org dedicated to Reserve engagement with Indigenous Nations, organizations, and communities. It offers stories, guidance, and tools that reflect lessons learned and encourage new partnerships.

“These partnerships are so important to the future of our coastal communities and their economies,” said Rebecca Roth, executive director of NERRA. “We’re proud to create a space for sharing lessons and resources as these relationships multiply and deepen across the Reserve System.”

The new page reflects work catalyzed by a grant from the NERRS Science Collaborative. With this support, Reserves in Hawai‘i, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Wisconsin partnered with Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture to explore cultural connections through shared migratory species, and elevating the role of Indigenous Knowledge in estuary stewardship and conservation.

In 2024, the project team convened Reserve staff, Tribal leaders, and community partners from across the Pacific region and Lake Superior at Hawai‘i’s He‘eia Reserve. The gathering was a moment of recognition, connection, and renewal. 

The team gathered key takeaways in a project report, with reflections from the technical lead and director of the He’eia Reserve, Kawika Winter: “Indigenous communities have long recognized that people, water, birds, and plants are connected, that they cannot be separated as they are so often in conventional scientific practice. There are some things that need to be unlearned and new things for all of us to learn.” 

“This gathering was the catalyst for stronger partnerships between Reserves and their Indigenous partners across the Pacific, which will in turn influence how the rest of the System functions in the future. In the end, every single person left with a renewed sense of hope for the future.”

That spirit of commitment traveled home with the workshop’s participants. Since then, Reserves have been working with Indigenous partners to document stewardship practices, invest in new pathways for youth leadership, and expand dialogues that connect equity, community voices, and ecological health. These efforts are not only about protecting habitats, they are also about sustaining the cultural, subsistence, and economic benefits that coasts provide.

The project underscored a simple truth: effective stewardship begins with trust. “Being part of this project revealed how much stronger our programs can be when we start initiatives with a foundation of local wisdom, and Indigenous partners are collaborators from the beginning,” said Syverine Bentz, training and engagement coordinator at the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve. “It reinforced that NERRs are a place-based platform with long-term programs where we can move at the speed of trust, through shared work and mutual respect.”

Drawing on the biocultural approach to habitat restoration pioneered at He‘eia Reserve, and on what they are learning from Indigenous partners, other Reserves are learning to weave Western science and Indigenous Knowledge together to help people and ecosystems thrive as one.