‘Manure gets into your veins’: Navigating plural valuation among rural landowners upstream from a Tribe‐led restoration project

Abstract Ecological restoration projects with diverse interest groups face the continual challenge of engaging values, goals and cultures that may vary greatly among partners. As part of an eco‐cultural, riparian restoration project led by the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, our research examines the instrumental, relational and intrinsic values held by non‐Tribal, rural landowners engaged in agricultural production upstream from the NWBSN restoration site. Via semi‐structured interviews with rural producers, we identify key values and disvalues shaping landowner perceptions of self, community, land and Tribe‐led restoration. Our research highlights the importance of understanding not only values but also dis values shaping human–nature relationships, with the implication that plural valuation efforts should expand to assess disvalues. More sustainable land use policies and practices ought to acknowledge, integrate, and balance instrumental, relational, and intrinsic values and disvalues. Identifying cross‐cultural, human‐to‐human relational values and disvalues clarifies opportunities and constraints for restoration‐related communication and collaboration. We conclude with suggestions for conservation practitioners navigating complex relational contexts in working landscapes. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.