A regional coalition
for climate resilience and equity
We are a champion for the social and environmental changes we need for healthy lands, people, and communities.
Our member organizations come together across our 10-county region to work for a just and equitable society where we live in relationship with the land that sustains us now and will sustain future generations.
Featured Events
Who we are
Climate Risk Reduction: A Showcase of Bay Area Solutions
Tuesdays, October 8, 15 & 22, 12:00–1:00 pm
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Wildfire Data Working Group Session
Tuesday, October 22, 3:00–4:20 pm
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Policy Summit
Thursday, November 14, 10:00 am–5:00 pm
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Our members are local Native tribes and tribal organizations, nonprofits, public agencies, and mission-aligned businesses working in the San Francisco Bay Area.
What we do
Transforming culture & systems for a healthier region.
News & Announcements
Right Relations 2024 Begins!
Announcing the start of our expanded, three-cohort program that supports alliances with local Native American communities through learning, action, and community.
TBA Member Spotlight: Carrington Ranch
WRA, Inc. and Sonoma County Regional Parks are developing a plan that balances public recreation with preservation of cultural heritage, and conservation and management of coastal ecosystems for the new Carrington Coast Ranch Park and Open Space Preserve.
In the Spotlight
TOGETHER Bay Area Open House
Meet the TOGETHER team and hear from fellow members about the many ways to be involved in the coalition.
Right Relations 2024 Begins!
Our Priorities
Our priorities serve as our north stars, and they will require many contributors to be achieved.
Together we will conserve and steward 50% of Bay Area lands by 2050.
Together we will build regional capacity for Native American Tribal alliances.
Together we will secure significant and stable public funding that is equitably accessible and distributed.
Together we will build and nurture a social network of practitioners and professionals.
Guiding Principles
Our principles are what TOGETHER Bay Area stands for as a coalition. They are embedded throughout the organization and guide us in setting and working towards our priorities and five-year objectives.
1
The challenges we are experiencing in the 21st century are multidimensional and we need to create and implement multi-benefit solutions to address them.
2
Relationships have the power to transform how we live together on these lands through culture and systems change and to build a path to resilience in an uncertain future.
3
Justice, equity, and belonging are essential for resilience because the roots of social inequities, the climate crisis, and biodiversity decline are intertwined.
4
People are a part of nature, not apart from nature. Indigenous people have stewarded the lands and waters for thousands of years. And today all people — especially those that have been systemically excluded — are encouraged and invited to participate in the stewardship of the land.
5
All lands — urban, rural, natural, and working — need to be stewarded for biodiversity to thrive, to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis, and for the health of people and communities.
Working towards resilience
We use “climate resilience” to express our coalition’s goals of a) preventing the loss and/or degradation of land, b) supporting ecological functioning, c) connecting people to the land, and d) fostering a network of professionals and practitioners who collaborate to challenges and opportunities. We focus on resilience – an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change (Merriam Webster) – because it is essential in the 21st century.
We include public parks, public lands, working lands like farms and ranches and forests, rural and urban lands, trails, open spaces, preserves, and other similar natural spaces.
We include acquisition, stewardship, maintenance, restoration, preservation, conservation, cultural resources and activities, outdoor recreation, public access to nature, active living as part of public health, and programs that connect people to nature.
Guiding Principles
Everything we do is grounded in these principles:
People have stewarded the land for thousands of years
We acknowledge that these are the ancestral lands of Indigenous People who live here today. We respect that Indigenous People are knowledgeable about land stewardship and have demonstrated tremendous resiliency over the past 400+ years of colonization.
All lands need to be stewarded
In the face of the climate crisis, we need to take care of all lands: public, private, urban, and rural. Our definition of stewardship includes a wide range of activities that prevent destruction of the land, promote ecological function on the land, and connect people to the land. We recognize that there are many ways to have a relationship with the land, and that one way is not absolutely or globally better than another.
All people can be land stewards
Anyone – regardless of race, ethnicity, class, age, gender, or physical ability – can participate in and contribute to the work of stewarding the land upon which human life depends. From community gardens to street trees to major restoration projects, there is a plethora of opportunities for all people to engage and connect to this work.
Together as one region
We believe that building relationships and fostering collaboration from the baylands to the ridgelines are critical to catalyzing change in our region. We are stronger together than we are apart, and we invest in relationships so that we can adapt to change.
Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion
We are committed to creating a more just and equitable world. Our Framework for Justice, Equity, and Belonging guides how the Board, staff, and members of TOGETHER Bay Area participate in the organization’s governance, operations, and programs such that we center equity, work for justice, and ensure that everyone belongs.
Intersectional solutions
We know that the problems we seek to address are multi-disciplinary and intersectional. We cannot look at environmental problems as separate from other issues we face today. We must work across geographies, nonprofits, agencies, and divisions to address the interconnected problems of the 21st century.
Collaboration
We build relationships with people in order to understand our differences, work towards common goals, and support each other when needed. We are open-minded and work towards mutually beneficial solutions.
Accountability and transparency
We will steward this organization’s mission and resources with transparency for our members and funders. The Board and staff will hold themselves accountable to the responsibilities vested in them by the members.
Our History
This coalition stands on the shoulders of the Bay Area Open Space Council. The Council was formed in 1990, helped form the Bay Area Program of the California Coastal Conservancy in 1997, launched the Conservation Lands Network in 2011 and CLN 2.0 in 2019, convened the annual Open Space Conference and dozens of Gatherings, and helped form relationships across the region.