On October 28, Latino environmental leaders, advocates, and community partners gathered at the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) in Sacramento for Tierra Sagrada, a celebration of generations of Latino leadership in conservation, environmental justice, and outdoor equity. Hosted by Resources Legacy Fund, GreenLatinos, Trust for Public Land, Azul, and Latino Outdoors, in community with CNRA, the event honored past and emerging leaders. During a Fireside Charla, panelists reflected on how experiences with extreme heat, pollution, and limited green spaces shaped their advocacy, reinforcing Latino Outdoors three advocacy priorities: equitable access to parks and public lands, environmental justice, and community leadership in decision-making.
These priorities reflect decades of collaboration among advocates, state agencies, and coalitions. Latino Outdoors has worked alongside CNRA, California State Parks, Parks Now, the California Conservation Equity Partnership (CCEP), and community partners to expand outdoor access. A major milestone came on September 29, 2026, when Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Outdoors for All Act (SB 1268), codifying California’s Outdoors for All initiative at CNRA. As Rue Mapp, Founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, shared, “So incredible – and a generational benefit of so much hard work!” This achievement reflects years of collective effort to make outdoor access and belonging a lasting state commitment.
California is also advancing these goals through the Outdoor Equity Grants Program (OEP) and Statewide Park Program (SPP), which expand outdoor experiences and parks in underserved communities. OEP’s first funding round connected more than 250,000 youth with nature. Another recent win, Assembly Bill 2734 (Hart), signed on September 20, 2026, established a funding mechanism that directs 20% of specified 49ers Foundation license plate revenues to OEP, subject to legislative appropriation. In the new year, Latino Outdoors will work with leaders and organizational partners to monitor implementation and advocate for these resources to reach their intended purpose. Each victory, large or small, brings us closer to lasting outdoor equity.
With the November 3rd Midterm Elections approaching, Tierra Sagrada highlighted how civic participation shapes decisions affecting parks, public lands, conservation, and community health. California’s progress offers a model for advancing outdoor equity nationwide, but sustaining that progress requires continued engagement. Make your voice heard: learn about the issues, research candidates and ballot measures, and make a plan to vote.
Visit Voto Latino for voter education and participation resources. Beyond Election Day, stay involved in your community and support efforts to make the outdoors a place where everyone can access, enjoy, and belong.
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
Most of my memories feel like a dream, shaped by flawless white sand beaches edged with black lava rock, turquoise waters stretching endlessly into the horizon, and a landscape alive with endemic plants and animals. Much of it happened barefoot, in a place many consider the world’s most ideal natural laboratory. For me, it was simply home.
I grew up on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos Archipelago. The Galápagos is world renowned for its role in shaping Darwin’s theory of evolution, but as a child, I did not think about scientific legacy. I thought about wonder. I played with wildflowers, hunted lizards, shared my ice cream with sea lions, and chased iguanas along dusty paths. I collected insects in jars, inventing names for them and carefully cataloging them in a makeshift basement inventory. I spent nearly every day at the beach, snorkeling in crystal clear water and investigating what lived beneath the surface. I brought home hermit crabs and pencil sea urchins, not to keep, but to observe, study, and better understand.
Without realizing it, I was practicing science. More importantly, I was forming a deep, intuitive relationship with the outdoors, one rooted in curiosity, respect, and daily interaction rather than formal recreation. The outdoors was not something I visited. It was something I belonged to.
Paying with baby sea lions as a child in the Galapagos Islands.
Becoming a Biologist and Learning About Barriers
As I grew older, observation became second nature, and with time came clarity. I wanted to be a biologist. My first internship took place at the Charles Darwin Foundation, where I worked as an assistant on the Galápagos green turtle monitoring program. I spent days on Isabela Island observing nesting behavior and watching these ancient animals haul themselves across the sand to ensure the survival of their species.
It was there that I saw myself reflected in the turtles’ journey. Baby sea turtles face overwhelming odds, predators, distance, and harsh conditions, just to reach the ocean. Even after that, they navigate powerful currents to someday return to the same stretch of beach where they were born. I understood then that my own path would require navigating obstacles as well. Access to higher education, moving away from home, and navigating academic systems not designed with people like me in mind were real barriers, even if they were not always visible.
Still, that internship solidified my purpose. I knew I wanted to work in research, conservation, and eventually return to island and coastal communities like the one that raised me. To do that, I had to leave home and expand my world through education. This is why I personally funded my Biology degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and my Environmental Management degree at Cornell University, through a lot of hard work, multiple jobs, and the support of many generous angels along the way.
Working as a biologist in the Galapagos Islands! Showing a dolphin skull.
Redefining Outdoor Engagement
Today, outdoor engagement means something broader to me than traditional recreation narratives often suggest. It is not just about summiting peaks or logging miles. It is about listening, observing, contributing, and caring. It is about community science, stewardship, and making conservation accessible to people who already have deep relationships with place, even if they do not label them as outdoorsy.
Southern Resident killer whales are critically endangered, with only about 74 individuals remaining. While much attention is paid to their presence in Washington waters, far less is known about their movements along the Oregon coast. This project invites coastal hikers, surfers, kayakers, sailors, and ocean explorers to collect observation data during activities they are already doing, whether or not whales are seen.
That detail matters. It reframes science as something people can participate in, not just observe from a distance.
In partnership with Oregon Shores, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and NOAA, volunteers complete a short training, use a simple survey app, and record environmental and observational data from shore or water. Importantly, the training, protocols, and survey app are fully translated into Spanish, an intentional choice I advocated for as a Latina to ensure that more people could access and participate in this work in their primary language. The result is valuable information that supports research and conservation, powered by community members.
Volunteers and Adventure Scientist team member, Gianna Haro Vallazza, Searching for Killer Whales in the Oregon Coast.
My Role and Why Representation Matters
In my role at Adventure Scientists, I support the project management team by leading cross functional planning, coordinating collaboration among diverse stakeholders, and translating complex ideas into actionable, community centered solutions. My background in biology, environmental management, GIS, and bioacoustics allows me to bridge science with lived experience.
But just as important as my technical background is where I come from.
As a Latina conservationist from the Galápagos, I know how powerful it is to see yourself reflected in conservation spaces. Representation matters not just for inspiration, but for effectiveness. When diverse communities are welcomed into environmental work, the solutions become more inclusive, resilient, and grounded in real relationships with land and water.
For many communities, barriers to outdoor engagement are not about interest. They are about access, language, time, safety, and whether spaces feel welcoming. Community science projects like Searching for Killer Whales help lower those barriers by meeting people where they are and honoring the ways they already connect with nature.
Guiding in Alaska, the only Latina in the crew.
An Outdoors for All of Us
My journey, from chasing iguanas in the Galápagos to supporting killer whale conservation along the Oregon coast, has taught me that the outdoors is not a luxury. It is a shared responsibility and a shared inheritance.
When we expand the definition of outdoor engagement, we make room for more stories, more voices, and more solutions. We build an outdoors that reflects the diversity of the people who depend on it and care for it.
The ocean raised me. Science gave me a language to protect it. Community centered conservation gives me hope that we can do this work together, equitably, inclusively, and with joy.
Searching for Killer Whales volunteer group picture, during our November field day event in Oregon.
