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
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.
