ASU students learn from the land
Through the Rob Walton School of Conservation Futures, students study biocultural conservation on California coast
Jules Cooch, site supervisor and interpretive program manager at Muir Woods National Monument gives an overview of the Redwood Park to students. Photo by Chandlee Begay
A group of Arizona State University students spent spring break 2026 not on vacation, but on a weeklong field expedition to the Northern California coast. It was the first student expedition offered through ASU’s Rob Walton School of Conservation Futures, and for those who went, it was unlike any classroom experience they had encountered before.
The prior course sessions, designed and led by the instructor, Melissa K. Nelson, a professor of Indigenous sustainability in the School of Sustainability and soon-to-be professor at the Rob Walton School of Conservation Futures, had built a foundation of shared knowledge and camaraderie. However, Sharon J. Hall, co-lead of the trip, said the week in the field changed the dynamic entirely. Hall and Sara El-Sayed, an assistant research professor at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, both participated as co-leads and support on the weeklong expedition.
"What the immersive experience brought was a much deepened sense of trust, vulnerability and emotion as students explored the interconnectedness of people with the land and the complexity of navigating conservation through the lenses of science, culture, history and human rights," said Hall, a President's Professor in the School of Life Sciences.
The expedition was the focal point of a semester-long course by Nelson, based on her 30 years of experience working with the lands and peoples encountered on the trip. Students spent weeks before the trip studying the ecological and cultural landscape they would encounter, and returned to campus with weeks of guided reflection still ahead.
“They were aware that they were entering a complex cultural landscape with layers of Native American and colonial history and recent well-funded efforts toward urban ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation,” Nelson said.
“This preparation helped them ask great questions of our guest teachers, explore the sites with curiosity and care, and grapple with the challenges of conservation in highly impacted and populated areas.”
The California Floristic Province is one of the world’s 36 recognized biodiversity hot spots, stretching from southern Oregon to Baja California, it is home to thousands of plant species found nowhere else on Earth. Students moved through a range of ecosystems over the course of the week, including coastal marine habitats, riparian zones and inland terrestrial areas.
A central focus of the expedition was learning directly from the Indigenous communities who have stewarded the Central and Northern California coast for generations. Students engaged with Ohlone, Coast Miwok, Pomo and other inter-tribal communities, exploring what the course calls “biocultural diversity,” the idea that biological and cultural diversity are deeply connected and cannot be separated in conservation work.
“For too long, conservation has excluded people and culture from the work,” Nelson said. “For true conservation of biodiversity to succeed, people and culture need to be an integral part of the process, and local human communities must also benefit from the conservation efforts.”
The trip also took students to organic teaching farms, where they examined how sustainable agriculture connects to broader conservation goals. The concepts of agroecology and agrobiodiversity, which examine how farming practices can protect both wild and cultivated plant diversity, were central to those visits.
“A deep relationship with nature can start with growing food, because you need to know what other beings live in your ecosystem in order to succeed, adapt and coexist,” Hall said.
Both faculty leads described the trip as an opportunity for students to engage with conservation in ways that go beyond what any syllabus can offer. Students described the expedition as a turning point in how they approach conservation.
“The biocultural conservation course got so many things right,” Hall said. “It intermingled different types of learners from different majors, life stages and from across the country. It explored planetary health challenges from a range of disciplinary angles and showcased bright spots and pathways to positive conservation outcomes while embracing the complicated and long sociopolitical journey to get there.”
Kayla Baker, who holds a sustainability degree from ASU and is pursuing a master's of public administration, pointed to a visit to the Gill Tract Farm in Albany, California, as the experience that stayed with her most.
At the site, she and her classmates learned how a community resistance movement in 2012 prevented a corporate grocery chain from building on the farmland, securing it instead as a community-driven space focused on ecological farming and food justice.
“There, at the farm, I found an old sign still spray painted with the words ‘Don’t give up, don’t sell out,’” Baker said.
For many students, the week surfaced new questions about their own professional paths. Baker said the trip broadened her sense of what conservation work could look like.
“Rather than narrow down a professional path, my eyes were opened to the wide range of possibilities in the realm of conservation,” Baker said. “I was introduced to a whole new world of land trusts, community-driven groups and advocacy, and teaching centers. It made me realize that there is still so much to explore.”
The Northern California expedition was the Rob Walton School of Conservation Futures first immersive learning program, and it surely will not be the last.
“I hope this program becomes an annual offering of (the school) so that we can truly deepen our reciprocity and mutual learning through ongoing collaborations and community-engaged research projects,” Nelson said.