Chumash Earth Day Celebrates, Educates, and Connects

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This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

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At Kitiyepumu’ Park last weekend, more than 250 people gathered to celebrate the 17th annual Chumash Earth Day. Electric vehicles picked up folks at the Tribal Hall parking lot and brought them to the park, where at the entrance, food trucks sold smoky barbeque and pillowy fry bread. Bubbles drifted through the park and people perused tables from 32 organizations working to support different parts of our ecosystem, from our air to our fish. Some organizations were long-term partners, such as the U.S. Forest Service and the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, said Julie Colbert, Environmental Director of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, while others were new partners, like WaterWise S.B.

This year’s theme, “Roots of Our Past, Seeds of Tomorrow,” focused on the connections between generations and the traditional knowledge passed down in stewarding the land, said Colbert.

Chumash Earth Day has grown over the years, since the first event at Jalama Beach, Colbert said, which included a few people, a barbeque and a beach clean-up.

“We’ve had much more collaboration with the tribal government and the different departments within the tribal government,” she said, adding that included the Tribe’s education department, cultural department, fire department, and health clinic.

In recent years, she said, the Chumash Casino Resort has helped through providing electric vehicles to bring people to the park from the Tribal Health parking lot; contributing refreshments, canopies, and tables; and setting up the audio-visual system for the event. Live music performances and raffles alternated throughout the day.

At the event, a giant Earth globe hung at the Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office’s table. Volunteers handed out goodie bags that included things like seeds, stickers, a T-shirt, and a reusable cup. A diorama of the area, complete with “rain clouds” (bottles with rain) demonstrated how stream runoff travels through the community.

Just a few feet down, folks could watch honey bees work in their hive. Nearby, people collected native plants to take home. They studied an air purifier and learned about the Tribe’s air monitoring program, played a “life cycle of a steelhead game” to learn about the region’s resilient fish, and heard about legal efforts to protect the land and waterways. Smokey the Bear, from the U.S. Forest Service even made an appearance.

The Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office, Colbert said, provides several services for the local region in stewarding the land, from a water quality monitoring program, an air quality monitoring program, a tribal plant nursery that provides native plants to the community and habitat restoration along creek riparian areas, a compost and waste removal program, and educational outreach programs.

Environmental organizations and programs across the country have faced pressure from the federal government, as the Trump Administration seeks to lift protections on land and deregulate fossil fuel industries. Colbert says that in the face of these changes, the environmental office will focus on what they can control, and hope to set an example for other communities.

“The Tribe is the original stewards of the land,” she said. “They’ve always taken pride in taking care of the land, taking care of the people. And so even with the new administration and the challenges that are coming, we’re just really just staying together, looking for more opportunities, and really just not straying from what we know is best for the tribe.”