A foundation that began in a borrowed pickup truck.
A decade of climate work, built one watershed at a time. Here’s how we got here, what we believe, and who is doing it.
PNW restoration crew, Spring 2014. Photo by Maya Tenkiller.
It started where most things start: a question nobody could answer.
In the spring of 2014, six volunteers — a botanist, two teachers, a salmon biologist, a tribal forester, and a journalism student with a borrowed truck — kept showing up at the same disused logging road outside Coos Bay, Oregon.
They had been told the watershed couldn’t be restored. The question they couldn’t shake: by whose timeline?
Twelve years later, that watershed is the longest-running riparian recovery site in the lower 48. The journalism student became our co-founder. The pickup truck still runs. And the original question has become our operating principle: timelines are political. Trust the people who have been waiting longest.
Five principles, written in soil.
Lead from the land
The communities tending the land — through generations of care, ceremony, and sometimes resistance — are the ones holding the soil together. Our job is to follow their lead. Not to set agendas, not to “build capacity,” not to graduate them off our funding. To listen, to fund, and to step out of the way.
Fund without strings
Three quarters of every dollar moves directly to community-led projects. No application longer than three pages. No reporting requirements that take more time than the work itself. We publish our entire grant portfolio every spring — wins, losses, and the things we got wrong.
Center Indigenous science
Indigenous land managers have stewarded watersheds for thousands of years. Their knowledge is not a “complement” to Western ecology — it is its own complete and rigorous tradition. We hire from it, fund it, teach it, and try, slowly, to learn from it.
Slow is fast
A watershed runs on geological time. We plan in 30-year arcs. Restoration that lasts is restoration that does not need us. We measure by the year a project survives without our funding — not the year we cut a ribbon.
Tell the failures
Our 2024 Annual Report contained a 14-page section titled “What Didn’t Work.” Our 2025 report will be longer. Climate work has a transparency problem; we are trying to be a small part of the fix.
Twelve years, in twelve moments.
Founded in Coos Bay, Oregon
Six volunteers, one borrowed pickup truck. First grant: $400 for shovels and saplings.
First Indigenous-led partnership
Yurok Tribe and Living Roots co-design the Klamath beaver reintroduction pilot.
IRS 501(c)(3) status awarded
First-year operating budget: $640,000. First three full-time staff hired (all from partner communities).
Pandemic-era emergency response
Redirected $2.1M in flexible funds to partner communities during COVID-19. No applications required.
Climate Education Network launched
Free, open-source K-12 curriculum centering Indigenous science. 1,200 educators in year one.
First international cohort
Talamanca cocoa cooperative joins as our 64th community grantee.
Year 12 — and counting
Most ambitious annual budget yet, but the team still drinks bad coffee from the original mugs.
A small team, mostly in the field.
Most of our team comes from partner communities. We pay everyone — including board members. Our salary range is published.
Maya Tenkiller
Co-founder, Field DirectorCherokee descent. Botanist. Started Living Roots with a clipboard and a question.
Jacob Reed
Co-founder, Executive DirectorFormer journalism student. Still writes our annual report longhand.
Naima Wabasha
Director of ProgramsAnishinaabe Land Defenders alum. Leads our community grants portfolio.
Theodore Adler
Director of Climate EducationBuilt the curriculum that 4,200 educators are now teaching.
Lucia Ruiz
Senior Field ScientistSalmon biologist, riparian specialist, dryland recovery.
Kenji Park
Director of OperationsMade our books pass three audits in a row. Loves a spreadsheet.
Aisha Banda
Director of PolicyLawyer turned organizer. Drafts our coalition briefs.
Roberto Delgado
Talamanca Field LeadBribri elder, cocoa farmer, our first international hire.
Things we get asked.
Where does my donation actually go?
Roughly 75¢ of every dollar moves directly to community-led projects. The rest covers field staff, partner travel, and our annual audit. Our 2024 financial report is open-source and includes an itemized breakdown.
Are you really volunteer-run?
No — and we don’t want to be. We pay everyone, including our board. We believe unpaid labor in non-profits is its own kind of extraction. Our salary band is published in the Annual Report.
What’s your relationship to LandBack?
We are members of the LandBack coalition. Several of our staff and most of our grant decisions are shaped by movement leaders. We are not a LandBack organization, but we work in support of LandBack goals.
Can I volunteer or intern?
Sometimes — but we are very deliberate about who we ask to work for free. Open positions (paid) are listed on our Careers page. We do not accept unsolicited intern applications.
How do you measure impact?
Largely qualitatively, in collaboration with partner communities. We do publish quantitative metrics (acres restored, communities served), but we treat them with skepticism. Restoration work resists clean numbers — and that’s OK.
Want to work with us, fund us, or have us speak?
Drop us a line. We answer everything within one business day.