My love for the outdoors is tied, inherently, to my childhood: growing up in the greater New York metropolitan area, I spent a lot of time playing sports outside with my friends, going for walks with my dog, and helping my mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother in the garden. I was very much into wildlife, and was always reading and watching shows about big cats, wolves, chimps, and so many other wild critters.
I looked up to people like Steve Irwin and Jane Goodall, who had helped foster not just curiosity for the wild world, but also love and compassion for its inhabitants. These conservationists taught many young minds, like my own at the time, that we should be doing our best to protect mother earth and all of the plants and animals that call this world home. They inspired me to want to work with animals, and so I made that my dream.
I’ve thankfully been able to make a career out of working in the environmental field, which is a blessing in and of itself. Throughout the various positions I’ve held and workplaces I’ve found myself in, I noticed a glaring lack of diversity in the environmental/outdoor/conservation world. As a mixed-race Latino of Puerto Rican descent, it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized how truly underrepresented our people are in the greater conversation about conservationism and environmentalism. Which explains why popular environmental figures never looked, acted, or spoke like us.
As a mixed-race Latino of Puerto Rican descent, it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized how truly underrepresented our people are in the greater conversation about conservationism and environmentalism.
After spending many years bouncing around environmental careers; from education to policy, outdoor recreation, and back into education, I was finally able to make my dream a reality. I started working at the Wolf Conservation Center in early 2022, and just like that my childhood dream to work with animals had come true! It took a lot of time, energy, and effort to make it this far, but perseverance and sense of purpose goes a long way.
At the Wolf Conservation Center, I get to work with wolves on a daily basis and teach programs that discuss the history of wolves throughout North America, the ecological role they play in their habitats, in addition to the human role in protecting their future. We’re currently home to 32 wolves, 30 of whom are critically endangered species who belong to a federally managed wild-release program (we’re a nonprofit who help facilitate and administer the program). The other 2 wolves are our Ambassador wolves, who are essentially wolf teachers and allow folks to experience what it’s like to see and be around wolves.
A lot of the work that we do, not just in terms of education and advocacy, but also through conservation efforts, helps change the negative stigmas and stereotypes about wolves. Like people, wolves live in family units (or packs) and they care deeply for their pack members. They are intelligent, beautiful, and emotional beings, and have every right to exist on this earth as we do. I’m incredibly thankful that my work not only allows me to change the perception of Latinos in the environmental field, but also change how people perceive wolves. While I’m getting to live out this childhood dream, I haven’t lost sight of the ambition that took me to this point, and will use it help make learning about wolves more accessible to disenfranchised and underrepresented communities.
Sean Seary is a 30-year-old environmental educator from the NY metro area who loves spending as much time as he possibly can outdoors. Whether it’s reading, running, hiking, or gardening, you can often find him outside living his best life. Currently, he is a Program Educator II at the Wolf Conservation Center, where he teaches about wolves and the human role in protecting their future.
My uncle came to this country in the bed of a truck. He crossed the desert hidden and hot; nature was not separate and he was connected. To the outdoor industry that I have become part of my uncles’ story is not the typical idea of an experience that builds one’s connection to nature. And though it was not a positive connection, it was potent to his relationship to the desert and to himself as part of nature.
He and many people who don’t have access to interacting with nature as a leisure activity deserve to have moments in nature that are not in passing nor fear. Moments that are not plummeted in the history of the wild and dark being used as a place for violence against themselves and their ancestors, for trauma, or seen as dirty for being in it—but as a place of positive connection, for growth, for home and exploration, a place that can be a refuge.
I was a kid, sitting in a red plastic chair with the words Coca-Cola written on the top, in the heat of Guatemala City. The chair stuck to me no matter how I sat in it. A small parrot cooed. There was no distance between the outside and the inside; I was inside looking up at the sky heavy with weather. The hallway lead from the “patio” to the kitchen, no doors in between and when it rained you would get wet going from the bathroom to the kitchen. The kitchen would be filled with the smell of wet pavement and flowers bobbing under the weight of the midday shower. I was part of nature deeply, the mix of concrete and potted plants was the beginning of my understanding that there is no right way to be the part of nature that you are.
“I was part of nature deeply, the mix of concrete and potted plants was the beginning of my understanding that there is no right way to be the part of nature that you are.”
Jasmin Antonia Estrada
The young people on the trips that I now lead are from wood and concrete structures. They know the taste of tap water and they feel the pollution in their lungs, they are connected. I found my place in connecting them to the trails and the mountains. They knew about the bus stops and the weeds that have the profound ability to break concrete. I wanted them to also see the rivers and the unadulterated morning light. To hear the birds.
We were in the White Mountains at our campsite on the fourth day of two weeks on the trail with a group of majority youth of color we were debriefing the day late into the night, sitting in a circle recalling the success and learning moments. I remember this night is when we discovered that “together as a team, when we are on the same page, we can do anything.” The revelation of success. These young people who have never been backpacking before deciding that their group was a home they could have, that nature was a house they could thrive in. The rest of us didn’t notice it, but when it was Michael’s time to share he was silent. This look of awe and fear fell on his face, “Is that the moon?” the question fell out of his mouth so loudly as if forced out by his brain. We all looked towards the dark silhouetted mountains. The red sliver of the rising moon was sparkling over the peaks. “Yes, that’s the moon.” Miles responded slowly. We sat there in a contracted silence. Ten minutes passed. “I have never seen anything like this.” Michael had tears in his eyes, Miles put his arm around him, and we sat there, all slowly sharing the moon we all knew.
I have many narratives of myself in the wilderness. My history as a mixed person, as colonized and colonizer, my experiences as a child being mesmerized by ants, my time as an educator coming to the understanding that there is no “right” way to be in nature. I have exhausted and am exhausted by the way I have presented my narrative to be part of white institutions, to express a difference yet a similarity that they are comfortable with.
I can see that moon burned into my eyes, that moon for me is the positive connection that we all deserve. Not just the sunny days in a park, but the part of nature that reminds you that you are nature and that that is a beautiful thing. He deserved this. There is no number of glossy photos or gear that can make you more or less part of it, it is in your blood, and it belongs to you, and that moon, it was Michael’s.
From the U.S. Capital to Public Lands Across the Nation
Por Latino Outdoors
This summer, Latino Outdoors traveled to Washington, D.C., joining GreenLatinos and partners for a Congressional Hispanic Caucus briefing honoring America’s 250th anniversary. The gathering offered an opportunity to celebrate Latino contributions to our nation’s parks and public lands, while confronting the challenges shaping their future.
Public lands are lands and waters managed by federal, state, and local governments for the public, including many of the national parks, monuments, forests, wildlife refuges, and other outdoor spaces. These places hold stories of celebration and loss, including slavery, migration, genocide, stewardship, familia, leadership, cultura, recreation, opportunity, and belonging. The people, ecosystems, wildlife, origin stories, native plants, and histories connected to these landscapes all contribute to their meaning.
The Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., USA.
For Latino communities, access to the outdoors also means seeing our gente reflected in the places we visit and in the stories our country chooses to tell. What is happening in communities across the United States, including on our public lands, raises concerns about whitewashing, manipulated power, and attempts at erasure, or rewriting parts of our shared history. We recognize there is privilege in being able to speak up and speak out, but many of us can hold a united front to protect others and hold public servants accountable. Policies and enforcement should not be controlled by the few at the cost of the many. The connection between place, people, and belonging remains especially important as changes unfold across our public spaces.
In Washington, D.C., changes to nationally significant places, such as the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, have raised questions about how historic public spaces are altered without public input, clear funding sources, or transparent management practices. But the concerns extend beyond physical infrastructure to what people can learn while visiting public lands. The Center for American Progress analysis documented efforts affecting the interpretation and representation of Black history, Indigenous history, immigration, women, labor, LGBTQ+ history, and science. When signs, images, language, exhibits, and interpretation are removed or rewritten, communities can lose opportunities to see themselves represented in places that belong to all of us.
Protecting these places also requires defending the laws that make conservation possible. The Antiquities Act of 1906 has long been one of the nation’s most important tools for safeguarding places of cultural, historical, ecological, and scientific significance. For 120 years, presidents from both parties have used the Act to establish national monuments and protect significant federal lands. Defending the Antiquities Act is about more than policy in Washington; it is about ensuring that significant landscapes, histories, and cultures endure for future generations.
The urgency is clear at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah, where efforts to reduce protections threaten much more than acreage on a map. Bears Ears is a living cultural landscape shaped by generations of Indigenous stewardship, with sacred places, cultural resources, and histories deeply connected to Tribal Nations today. Grand Staircase-Escalante likewise protects significant cultural, ecological, paleontological, and scientific resources. Latino Outdoors recently joined more than 300 Tribal and Indigenous entities, organizations, businesses, faith communities, veterans, scientists, and conservation partners in opposing reductions through the Monuments for All effort. Standing with Tribal Nations and communities reflects our shared commitment to protecting these landscapes and the cultural connections they carry.
Big Bend National Park. Photo Credit: Jeanette M. Honermann
More than a thousand miles away, the fight toProtect Big Bend National Park shows why these issues matter beyond any one region. Latino Outdoors has supported efforts to prevent physical barriers and construction from disrupting Big Bend National Park and access to the Rio Grande. The Latino Outdoors short documentaryYo Cuento: Entre Ríos y Desiertos explores this borderland and its connections to ecology, binational history, migration, people, and culture.
“Big Bend isn’t just a place we visit, it’s a place that holds our history. For Latino communities across Texas and beyond, these lands carry the stories of our families, our ancestors, and the generations who called this borderland home long before it was a national park. When we protect Big Bend, we’re protecting more than desert and river and mountain, we’re protecting a sense of belonging. Every child who gets to stand under that big Chihuahuan sky and feel like it’s theirs too, that’s the work. That’s what Latino Outdoors is here for.”
Jeanette M. Honermann, Latino Outdoors Board Member and Texas resident
Big Bend National Park feat. Jeanette M. Honermann
Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Big Bend may be separated by state lines, but the challenges facing them are connected. Weakened monument protections in Utah, physical barriers through a culturally significant landscape in Texas, reductions in the public lands workforce, and the removal of history from national parks all raise a larger question about what we choose to protect and pass on. Latino Outdoors’ commitment to our comunidades and the outdoors stretches across the country. Public lands should remain protected, accessible, and reflective of the people and histories that make up this country.
Now is the time to turn that connection into action.
Help protect Big Bend. Visit Protect Big Bend to learn about threats facing Big Bend and the Rio Grande and how you can speak up, no matter where you live.
Share your story. Our stories build belonging and show the many ways our comunidades connect with the outdoors. Share your experiences and relationship with public lands through Latino Outdoors’ Yo Cuento blog.
A call, an email, an action, or a story can make a difference. Protecting our public lands, their stories, and the people who steward them takes us all.
Monuments for All. (2026). Over 330 Tribal entities, businesses, faith communities, veterans, science and conservation organizations speak out against evisceration of protections for Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. Monuments for All
Mr. Beat. (2026, July 17). All the “woke” history that Trump is trying to erase [Video]. YouTube. YouTube video
National Park Service. (n.d.). Antiquities Act of 1906. U.S. Department of the Interior. Antiquities Act
National Park Service. (n.d.). Big Bend National Park. U.S. Department of the Interior. Big Bend National Park
National Park Service. (n.d.). Rio Grande. Big Bend National Park, U.S. Department of the Interior. Rio Grande
PBS NewsHour. (2026). Crews are draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool again as part of Trump’s troubled revamp. PBS NewsHour
Por Shelby Bazan, Outings Leader and Jazzari Taylor, Policy Advocate
Earlier this spring, Latino Outdoors New Mexico explored the La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site, located within Caja del Río near Santa Fe on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Home to an estimated 4,000 petroglyphs, the site offers a remarkable window into the region’s cultural history. The 107,000-acre Caja del Río Plateau is one of the Southwest’s most culturally and ecologically significant landscapes, containing thousands of petroglyphs, sacred sites, wildlife corridors, and lands that continue to support the traditions and lifeways of surrounding Tribal Nations and Hispano communities.
What participants expected to be a scenic hike quickly became something much more meaningful as they encountered centuries of stories etched into stone. One participant captured the experience perfectly, saying, “I thought we were going on a hike, but instead we’re in an art gallery!” Through shared discovery and conversation, participants connected with one another while developing a deeper appreciation for a landscape that continues to inspire and educate visitors today.
As participants learned about the cultural and ecological significance of Caja del Río, they also learned about ongoing efforts to protect it. Tribal Nations, local government, community members, and partner organizations like New Mexico Wild, have worked together to advance protections for this treasured landscape. In a powerful example of the connection between place and policy, New Mexico’s congressional delegation introduced the Caja del Río Protection Act in both the House and the Senate just one week after the outing to permanently protect the Caja del Río. By experiencing the landscape firsthand, participants gained a deeper understanding of why conservation matters and how community voices can help shape the future of the places they love.
The outing reflected the power of the *Latino Outdoors Outings Framework, connecting participants to the 4 P’s: People to People, Place, Process, and Policy through a single shared experience. Participants were not only introduced to the remarkable “art gallery” of petroglyphs at La Cieneguilla, but were also invited to consider what it means to protect the landscapes, wildlife, cultural resources, and communities connected to them. One participant shared that they never would have considered a hike like this before, but left with more confidence and inspired by the experience.
*The Latino Outdoors Outings Framework uses outdoor experiences to strengthen connections between people, place, process, and policy, transforming recreation into opportunities for belonging, stewardship, and advocacy.
As Latino Outdoors continues building community across the country, the Caja del Río outing offers a powerful example of how intentional outdoor experiences can spark curiosity, foster belonging, and empower people to become advocates for the places they love. We invite you to join an outing, learn more about the public lands in your community, and take action to protect them. Take Action to support permanent protections for Caja del Río and defend national monuments like Grand Staircase-Escalante. Our collective voices help shape the future of these treasured landscapes. Every voice matters, and every action helps ensure these places endure for generations to come.
As Jorge’s time on the Latino Outdoors Board comes to a close, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you.
Gracias por todo tu apoyo, tiempo y colaboración durante todos estos años. Whether it was enthusiastically supporting our fundraisers, thoughtfully contributing to LO’s strategic direction, or happily connecting with our volunteers and community members during outings, your leadership, generosity, and vision have helped Latino Outdoors in ways that will reverberate for years to come.
Since joining the LO community in 2017 and serving on the National Advisory Board since 2019, Jorge has helped guide our organization through tremendous growth while always keeping comunidad at the center. He has left a lasting mark on our community.
Congratulations on an incredible term of service, Jorge. While we will miss you on the LO Board, we’re so happy that you’re planning to stay involved as a compañero and champion for Latino Outdoors. Once part of the LO familia, always part of the familia.
¡Nos vemos en los senderos!
-Latino Outdoors
As I finish my term on the Latino Outdoors (LO) National Advisory Board this summer of 2026, after serving since September 2019, I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude y con mucho orgullo for everything we have built together. I am not going anywhere. I am still in the Bay Area and you will continue to find me outdoors. Como dice LO: once part of the LO familia, always part of the familia.
Starting in DC!
My story with LO began in 2017 when I started attending LO events with the Washington, DC/DMV chapter. I was working as a carbon scientist with an NGO (non-governmental organization), but on weekends I was searching for something else. There were enough networking events in DC, but where were the Latinos who would enjoy being outdoors, hiking, sharing food? I remember meeting Albert Arevalo at an event and then helping clean banks of the Potomac River with the LO chapter and future friends. On those weekend outings outside of working hours, I was Jorge, the norteño kid from Juarez, chatting in Spanish, English, Spanglish about the music I liked, laughing, and building comunidad with others. For the next years, we shared tamales, empanadas with Patricio, dinners at home with Jesse, listened to Chavela Vargas with Alejandro, and more.
I did not know it at the time, but that community taught me the foundation for my future as an advisory board member of LO and shaped my career path. One of the most important parts of conservation happens when we center community and create space for everyone to see themselves caring for each other, including nature.
Invitation to Join the National Advisory Board
In September 2019, just four months after moving to California and starting at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (‘Ootchamin ‘Ooyakma) of Stanford University, I was asked by Richard Rojas, the chair of the board at the time, to join LO’s National Advisory Board. Since then, we’ve guided the organization through the pandemic, tremendous growth in programming and staff, celebrated our 10-year anniversary in 2023, and in 2025 developed our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan refresher ensuring that Vamos Outdoors, Crecemos Outdoors, and Yo Cuento Outdoors remain strong and responsive to the LO community.
Meeting Bryan, Jennifer, and Esmeralda
When I think about what LO in California meant to me as I started my service, I immediately think of Bryan Rodriguez, Jennifer Adams, and Esmeralda Cabrera. When I moved to California and started my new job in fall 2019, they made me feel at home in a place that was new and unfamiliar. I particularly remember the hike where we got snowed in at Mt. Umunhum in November 2019 and we had chocolate caliente, tamales, and pan dulce up there. After that, Bryan and Esmeralda opened their homes to me, welcoming me to their dinner tables where we shared meals, stories, laughter, and music. In those moments, I found my little Mexico in the Bay Area and the warmth of la comunidad.
Bryan, Esmeralda, and Jennifer introduced me to more people, and I got to explore more of the Bay Area with Aurora Cortés leading many of the hikes. I invited all of them to Jasper Ridge for a hike where we were all amazed by the seeds of the Mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides). With Aurora, we organized an event in March 2022 that focused on building a network of outdoor careers. In one day, we hosted more than 50 people from SACNAS, Genentech, USFWS, UC Berkeley, SJSU, and Stanford at Jasper Ridge, connecting young professionals with career pathways in conservation.
I kept organizing these activities, always keeping in mind the volunteers and how to expand their networks as they were seeking careers in the outdoors, while also pushing outdoor employers to recognize that young diverse people were here and ready to apply for jobs. I did this as an advisory board member and I will continue doing this.
This is what LO really is: a community that practices hospitalidad, that understands welcoming someone means inviting them into your community. Bryan, Jennifer, and Esmeralda saw someone who was new and they extended their comunidad in the most personal way, helping me build a life in the Bay Area. When people ask me about LO, I tell them this story first.
National Campouts and Meeting Toda la Familia
The adventures continued. In August 2021, I floated the Sacramento River with the LO community and our founder José González. It was my first time floating a river in California, what an adventure that was! That same year, I attended the national campout at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in Northern California, surrounded by those ancient redwood giants and so many national volunteers, the familia that keeps LO alive. On that same trip, we visited the Redwood Rising project, a project with multiple co-benefits. The laughter and sense of belonging reinforced what I had learned with LO: this movement is about creating a support network, in our terms, a familia. I still remember that it was from this campout that volunteers asked us, the advisory board, to add a volunteer voice to the board. We listened and welcomed André Sanchez.
Bridging LO with Jasper Ridge and Greater Networks
When I became Executive Director at Jasper Ridge in October 2022, though I was busier than usual, I kept bringing everything I had learned from LO with me. At Jasper Ridge, we serve more than 5,000 educational visits each year, and every program I develop reflects similar values to LO. I developed a resources page for students that intentionally included links to LO, OutdoorAfro, ESA SEEDS, SACNAS, and other organizations supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds. I wanted to make sure that students knew that academic research and culture don’t have to be two separate choices or pathways.
One of the most meaningful moments came at the 2021 ESA virtual Annual Meeting when Bryan, Jennifer, Esmeralda, and I co-presented on bridging community organizations and academic institutions. Three incredible LO volunteers shared the stage with an academic from Stanford, demonstrating that community knowledge and academic knowledge are interconnected. I also invited them to present at Jasper Ridge’s community lecture series.
Throughout my tenure, I’ve lifted up LO in every space I enter, from national organizations like ESA, SEEDS, SACNAS, and OBFS to regional programs at UC campuses, the NSF SOAR Network, Save the Redwoods League, and community networks throughout the Bay Area. I’ve shared how LO creates welcoming spaces and provides pathways for students to see themselves in outdoor careers. I always emphasize that the mentorship that matters most often happens outside the classroom: on trails, around campfires, floating rivers, and around those picnic tables full of delicious food. That’s where transformation happens.
2026 National Campout: More Familia and New Momentum
In 2026, I attended the national LO campout at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico with all of the LO familia. It was so refreshing to meet so many new volunteers since my last national campout. Sometimes we joke that you invite one Latino and they show up with all of their primos and primas. Well, this time it was not a joke, it was true and it was an amazing gathering! Being in the landscape with so much Indigenous and Pueblo knowledge, engaging respectfully through local Tribes, and weaving that knowledge with various activities around ecology, conservation, and advocacy led by the volunteers, reminded me once again why building collective voice with them matters. These national campouts are truly the best fiestas, celebrations of who we are and where we come from, with so much momentum building for the activities this year. Similar to 2021, I noticed the passion and momentum that the LO community has for a new initiative focused on advocacy. Keep your eyes open, LO is showing up in more ways in the outdoor space!
Gracias!
My term is ending, and I am grateful for the opportunity to make space for new voices that will strengthen this movement. If you feel called to serve, I encourage you to consider joining as a participant, volunteer, supporter, or advisory board member. Being involved with LO is deeply rewarding, and LO needs everyone’s perspective, passion, and commitment. You will continue seeing me with LO!
To every volunteer, board member, and staff person, gracias. To Albert, Jesse, Alejandro, Bryan, Jennifer, Esmeralda, Vero, Carlos, Miguel, Aurora, and every volunteer who welcomed me into your comunidad. To José, our founder, and Luis, our Executive Director, you created something that changed many lives. To Richard, Claudia, the current board, and every supporter of LO, gracias!
Nearly a decade ago, I showed up as a volunteer in DC, and LO welcomed me. A few years later, I arrived in the Bay Area alone, and LO welcomed me. I will continue to bring up LO in every conservation space and open doors for volunteers at Jasper Ridge and beyond. To anyone considering getting involved: Do it! ¡Sí se puede! You might find your comunidad, like I found my little Mexico. To the LO familia, keep going and I wish you all the best for more campouts, trails, and picnic tables full of pan dulce!
Gracias por todo, Latino Outdoors. Como dice el Chicharito: “Imaginemos cosas chingonas carajo.”
Dr. Jorge Ramos is Executive Director of Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (‘Ootchamin ‘Ooyakma) at Stanford University. Originally from Juárez, México, he served on Latino Outdoors’ National Advisory Board (2019-2026) after volunteering since 2017. An ESA Eugene P. Odum Award recipient and California Academy of Sciences Fellow, Jorge champions research, education and conservation-centered stewardship in outdoor spaces.
