Por Latino Outdoors
Yo cuento because our stories, our communities, and our connections to the outdoors belong in the future of conservation.
Last month, Latino Outdoors joined communities across the country in celebrating Latino Conservation Week (LCW), an initiative of Hispanic Access Foundation that highlights Latino leadership in conservation and the outdoors. LCW affirms something our comunidades already know: Latinos have long been part of loving and caring for the outdoors. The week also creates opportunities for our communities to be heard in decisions affecting the places where we live, gather, and recreate.
Across the Latino Outdoors network, LCW took many forms. In Ventura County, young people explored the Santa Clara River close to home, many for the first time. In the San Francisco Bay Area, comunidad walked among the redwoods at Muir Woods with Spanish-language interpretation and searched for tarantulas at Sunol Wilderness Preserve. On California’s Central Coast, participants visited a habitat restoration site shaped by community members and local students. San Diego brought conservation and cultura together through kayaking, music, and stewardship. Our Austin, Texas, partners gathered for tree planting, environmental education, and ancestral practices. Together, these events showed the many ways recreation, culture, learning, and stewardship can bring people closer to the outdoors.
In Los Angeles, nearly 300 community members gathered for the Latino Conservation Week Community Pachanga: Comunidades, Parks, y Public Lands at Metabolic Studio, an arts and community garden space near Los Angeles State Historic Park and Chinatown. Metabolic Studio, Hispanic Access Foundation, Sierra Club – Angeles Chapter, and the Audubon Center at Debs Park helped lead and organize the gathering alongside Latino Outdoors and partners, including the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), GreenLatinos, California State Parks, TreePeople, LA Compost, Nature for All, and Community Nature Connection. Throughout the Pachanga, partners connected conservation with issues affecting our communities, including extreme heat, access to green space, wildfire resilience, food systems, environmental justice, and safe outdoor spaces.
Latino Outdoors also joined the 30×30 y Nuestra Comunidad: A Conversation for the Future panel, organized with Hispanic Access Foundation and GreenLatinos. Alongside fellow panelists, we explored the CA 30×30 Initiative, California’s effort to conserve 30 percent of its lands and coastal waters by 2030, and what it can mean for environmental justice, equitable access, stewardship, and Latino communities.
Community-centered advocacy needs to remain central and extend beyond Latino Conservation Week, as we consider the long-term impacts that changes to public lands and environmental protections can have on communities already experiencing safety concerns, rising costs, and a nature gap. This is at a time when federal actions and private development interests are putting pressure on public lands, Latino Outdoors is working with community partners to provide spaces to share and learn from one another, with the hopes that we can collectively gather to understand how our unified voice can hold the line, push back, and hold decision makers accountable.
One example is the federal proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, or Roadless Rule. The rule limits certain road construction and timber activities across millions of acres of national forest land, helping protect forests, watersheds, wildlife habitat, and recreation areas. The 2026 proposal affects nearly 45 million acres nationwide, including approximately 4.4 million acres in California. The public process also raised concerns about meaningful participation. The Forest Service initially provided roughly one month for public comment before extending the deadline by 15 days, a timeframe conservation groups argued was insufficient for a proposal of this scale. While the general public comment period closed on October 6, consultation with Tribes is expected to continue as part of the federal government’s legal responsibilities. Public engagement is necessary to ensure communities have the information, time, and opportunity to weigh in on decisions that can shape public lands for generations, including all those that depend on them.
Latino Conservation Week (LCW) shows what this work can look like: with LO’s semillitas discovering a local river, families learning beneath redwoods, neighbors restoring habitat, cultura and música filling outdoor spaces, and community members speaking up for places they value. These experiences reflect Latino Outdoors’ commitment to the organization’s mission, values, and advocacy priorities: equitable access, environmental justice, and a conservation movement that reflects the diversity of our communities
Our stories and our voices matter beyond Latino Conservation Week. Stay informed about public lands, conservation, and opportunities to take action by signing up for Yo Cuento: Advocacy Updates. And because advocacy also begins with telling our own stories, we invite you to share your story with Yo Cuento Blog and help broaden the narrative of who belongs, participates, and leads in the outdoors.
References
- California Natural Resources Agency. 30×30 California. California 30×30 Initiative
- California Natural Resources Agency. California pushes back on federal plan to strip protections from 4.4 million acres of the state’s national forests. https://resources.ca.gov/Newsroom/Page-Content/News-List/California-Pushes-Back-Fed-Plan-to-Strip-Protections-from-States-National-Forests
- Conservation Lands Foundation. Public Lands Attack Tracker. https://www.conservationlands.org/public-lands-attack-tracker
- Latino Conservation Week. About Latino Conservation Week. Hispanic Access Foundation. https://latinoconservationweek.com/about-lcw
- Latino Conservation Week. 30×30 y Nuestra Comunidad: A Conversation for the Future [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/v0ir5z1a9rQ?si=XvFGDLxHvNN05UOO&t=1143
- Latino Conservation Week. Latino Conservation Week. Hispanic Access Foundation. https://latinoconservationweek.com/
- Outdoor Alliance. What Are Public Lands? https://www.outdooralliance.org/what-are-public-lands
- Sierra Club. Save the Roadless Rule: Protect Our Forests. Roadless Rule resource
- Zeno, S., Rashid, M., Rowland-Shea, J., Bailey, K., & Payan, R. (2026, February 23). The nature gap: Communities of color and those with low incomes are bearing the brunt of America’s nature loss. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-nature-gap-communities-of-color-and-those-with-low-incomes-are-bearing-the-brunt-of-americas-nature-loss/
