This publication presents a case study of the first two years of an emergent landscape conservation initiative the Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network – the obstacles that were encountered and overcome, the lessons learned, and the challenges ahead. Interwoven throughout the case study are frameworks, tools, and insights that are broadly applicable across all contexts.

Rather than forming the network around a clearly-defined purpose and a set of measurable objectives, the the Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network followed a network formation process from 2014 to 2016 that allowed outcomes to emerge from a process that emphasized cultivating strong trust-based relationships between participants, facilitating the right conversations, and implementing necessary leadership, organizational structures, and decision-making processes as the network evolves. The result has been the emergence of The Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network as a collaboration of nineteen federal, state, and county agencies, land trusts, nonprofits, research institutes, a Native American tribal band, and a timber company, that works to improve land stewardship in the Santa Cruz Mountains region south of San Francisco.