Today, Monumental SHIFT and the Center for American Progress released a timely paper highlighting the lack of equity in the land conservation dialogue. In the latest paper release, “National Monuments Are a Missing Piece in President Biden’s Equitable Conservation Agenda,” we find alarming data highlighting the gap between ethnically diverse communities having recreational accessibility and the historical inequity of national monument designation.

El Paso, Texas is commonly referred to as the Sun City and sits right next to Ciudad Juarez. The Franklin Mountains, a beautiful backdrop to the two cities, is full of life and culture. Due to its close proximity to Mexico, it makes sense that Latinos make up 83 percent of the El Paso community. But for Brenda Gallegos, El Paso is her home. It’s where she grew to love and appreciate the outdoors. Brenda always longed for the outdoors, but her family wanted her to focus on her education and find what they perceived a “steady career”, as a doctor or a teacher. However, Brenda always felt the inclination to some day turn being in the outdoors into a career.

A coalition of community organizations teamed up in Oregon to force a chronic polluter out of business, and bring environmental justice to a nearby neighborhood. 

A delegation representing the Castner Range Coalition traveled from El Paso to Washington DC last month to meet with federal officials and make the case for declaring Castner Range a national monument.

Today, The House of Representatives passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes huge investments in climate action, clean energy, environmental justice and more, sending the bill to President Biden to sign. The final bill was the result of months of congressional negotiations, which concluded following Latino Conservation Week. In response to the bill signing, Maite Arce, president and CEO of Hispanic Access Foundation, released the following statement.

Juan Rosas’ many titles include being a: father, husband, pastor and conservationist. He takes pride in being a servant to his community and family. However, this didn’t happen overnight.

Since the start of the pandemic, more members of the public than ever have visited and recreated on our public lands, coasts and waterways. But for Latinos and many other communities of color, barriers to enjoying the outdoors remain.

The Santa Monica Mountains Visitor Center welcomed members of the Latinx community to its Las Montañas event on July 16. 

The event hosted by the National Park Service kicked off Latino Conservation Week in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Latino Conservation Week came to an end at a crucial time when environmental justice and conservation are more needed than ever. The chance for Congress to pass significant climate justice legislation that will help address and mitigate climate change appears further away at a time when congressional action on climate change has stalled.

Community leaders urged Gov. Ron Desantis Monday to declare a state of climate emergency immediately in Florida citing a recent report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that mentioned Florida is under significant threat.