A Home for All – HLN Pastor Opens His Congregation As An Evacuation Center
By the end of September, millions of acres had burned in America’s West Coast, killing at least 35 people and causing extreme air pollution that threatened the health of millions of residents. In Oregon, two of the most vulnerable communities to the wildfire crisis were in Medword, where 3,200 structures and homes were in harm’s way and residents were immediately evacuated.
Faith Leaders: The Ocean Is God’s Beautiful Creation, and Ours to Protect
This summer was a lesson for us all. We felt the need to endure, to be resilient, and to take more care than ever to keep our neighbors and communities safe. In some ways, I found that the most difficult lesson of all was finding meaning in a world that had seemingly spiraled out of control.
BUNEKE MAGAZINE: Passionate Latinos Believe they have a Moral Obligation to Nature
Seventh Annual Latino Conservation Week breaks down barriers to the outdoors and inspires tomorrow's stewards.
Communities throughout the country enjoyed and connected with the great outdoors during the 7th Annual Latino Conservation Week, in July 2020. While this year leaned more toward virtual activities like online expeditions, roundtable discussions, Q&A sessions, scavenger hunts, film screenings and the like, nearly 100 events were celebrated nationwide.
“Latino communities are passionate about the outdoors and hold a strong belief that we have a moral obligation to be good stewards,” said Maite Arce, President and CEO of Hispanic Access Foundation, which launched LCW in 2014. “Latino Conservation Week helps break down barriers for Latino communities to access public lands and waters, encourages new opportunities for engagement and inspires the next generation of environmental stewards.”
Latinos are the largest minority group in America, with more than 52 million people making up 16.7% of the nation’s population and are projected to become nearly one-third of the population by 2050. By 2020, half of all youth in America will be of color and by 2043, a majority of our country’s residents will be people of color. Yet a 2018 Outdoor Industry Association report found that only 10% of Latinos were engaged in outdoor recreation activities. In simple terms, the future of public lands depends on engaging and welcoming our diverse youth and Latino communities that already deeply care about our environment and feel a moral obligation to take care of it.
"At a time when Latinos are disproportionately suffering from COVID-19, we need nature and the benefits it provides, now more than ever,” said Shanna Edberg, Hispanic Access Foundation’s director of conservation programs. “While the pandemic revealed and exacerbated deep inequities in access to green space, Latino Conservation Week events — from the virtual conversations and activities to on-the-ground hikes, birdwatching, picnics and neighborhood cleanups — are bringing this issue to the forefront and helping to bridge that gap.”
This year the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and National Wildlife Refuge System joined forces with Hispanic Access Foundation’s MANO Project to provide programming virtually and at sites throughout the nation.
More than 200 parks, organizations and community groups have joined Latino Conservation Week as partners and sponsors. Event partners include Continental Divide Trail Coalition, Corazon Latino, Denver Aquarium, Defenders of Wildlife, Frontera Land Alliance, HECHO, Inland Empire Resource Conservation District, LA Nature for All, Latino Heritage Internship Program, Latino Outdoors, National Parks Conservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Wilderness Workshop, and numerous Audubon Society chapters.
Additionally, those joining in person events were encouraged to follow the principles presented in the #RecreateResponsiblycampaign. These include
1) Know before you go;
2) Plan ahead;
3) Explore locally;
4) Practice physical distancing;
5) Play it safe; 6) Leave no trace; and
7) Build an inclusive outdoors.
Learn more about this initiative!
Hispanic Access Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, connects Latinos with partners and opportunities to improve lives and create an equitable society. Our vision is that one day every Hispanic individual in America enjoyed good physical health and a healthy natural environment, a quality education, economic success, and civic engagement in their communities with the sum of improving the future of America. For more information visit www.hispanicaccess.org.
Las comunidades de todo el país disfrutarán y se conectarán con la vida al aire libre durante la séptima edición de Latino Conservation Week, que comienza el 18 de julio y termina el 26 del mismo mes. Si bien este año estará más enfocada hacia actividades virtuales como expediciones online, mesas redondas, sesiones de preguntas y respuestas, búsquedas del tesoro, proyecciones de películas y similares, se celebran casi 100 eventos en todo el país.
"Las comunidades latinas son apasionadas de las actividades al aire libre y creen firmemente que tenemos la obligación moral de ser buenos administradores", dijo Maite Arce, Presidenta y CEO de Hispanic Access Foundation, que lanzó LCW en 2014. "Latino Conservation Week ayuda a derribar las barreras para que las comunidades latinas puedan acceder a las tierras y aguas públicas, fomenta nuevas oportunidades de participación e inspira a la próxima generación de protectores ambientales”.
Los latinos son el grupo minoritario más grande de Estados Unidos, con más de 52 millones de personas que representan el 16,7 por ciento de la población del país, y se proyecta que se conviertan en casi un tercio de la población para 2050. En 2020, la mitad de todos los jóvenes en Estados Unidos serán de color y para 2043, la mayoría de los residentes de nuestro país serán personas de color. Sin embargo, un informe de la Asociación de la Industria de Actividades Aire Libre de 2018 halló que solo el 10 por ciento de los latinos se dedicaba a actividades recreativas al aire libre. En términos simples, el futuro de las tierras públicas depende de involucrar y dar la bienvenida a nuestras diversas comunidades juveniles y latinas que ya se preocupan profundamente por nuestro medio ambiente y sienten la obligación moral de cuidarlo.
"En un momento en que los latinos sufren desproporcionadamente de COVID-19, necesitamos la naturaleza y los beneficios que proporciona, ahora más que nunca", dijo Shanna Edberg, directora de Programas de Conservación de Hispanic Access Foundation. "Si bien la pandemia reveló y exacerbó profundas inequidades en el acceso a espacios verdes, los eventos de Latino Conservation Week, desde las conversaciones y actividades virtuales hasta las caminatas por el terreno, la observación de aves, los picnics y la limpieza de vecindarios, están poniendo este tema en primer plano y ayudando a cerrar esa brecha".
Este año, el Servicio de Parques Nacionales, el Servicio de Pesca y Vida Silvestre de los EE. UU., el Servicio Forestal de los EE. UU., la Administración Nacional Oceánica y Atmosférica y el Sistema Nacional de Refugios de Vida Silvestre unen fuerzas con el Proyecto MANO de Hispanic Access Foundation para proporcionar programación virtualmente y en localizaciones en todo el país. 200 parques, organizaciones y grupos comunitarios se han unido a Latino Conservation Week como socios y patrocinadores. Los socios del evento incluyen Continental Divide Trail Coalition, Corazon Latino, Denver Aquarium, Defenders of Wildlife, Frontera Land Alliance, HECHO, Inland Empire Resource Conservation District, LA Nature for All, Latino Heritage Internship Program, Latino Outdoors, National Parks Conservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Wilderness Workshop, y numerosos capítulos de la Sociedad Audubon.
De forma adicional, se aconseja a los que se unen en personas a seguir los principios presentados en la campaña #RecreateResponsibly. Estos incluyen
1) informarse antes de acudir;
2) Planificar con anticipación;
3) Explorar localmente;
4) Practicar el distanciamiento físico;
5) Particpar de forma segura ;
6) No dejar rastros; y
7) Construir un exterior inclusivo.
Para obtener más detalles sobre esta iniciativa.
Las actividades abarcan varios estados y una lista completa de eventos está disponible en www.LatinoConservationWeek.com.
Hispanic Access Foundation, una organización sin fines de lucro 501 (c) (3), conecta a los latinos con socios y oportunidades para mejorar vidas y crear una sociedad equitativa. Nuestra visión es que algún día cada persona hispana en los Estados Unidos disfrute de una buena salud física y un ambiente natural saludable, una educación de calidad, éxito económico y compromiso cívico en sus comunidades con el fin de mejorar el futuro de los Estados Unidos. Para más información visite www.hispanicaccess.org.
INVERSE: 7 YEARS STRONG, LATINO CONSERVATION WEEK SPOTLIGHTS OVERLOOKED NATURE STEWARDS
Refugio Mariscal has always felt a deep interest in the natural world.
Mariscal grew up in Lake County, Illinois, and spent his childhood playing in a creek near his parents’ home. He spent pretty much all day outside, Mariscal tells Inverse.
“From a young age, I felt that curiosity about nature,” he recalls.
That is why Mariscal is a champion of Latino Conservation Week (LCW), an annual event currently celebrating its seventh year, from July 18 to 26.
This week is attached to a handful of goals. First and foremost: Getting people outdoors, and inspiring them to protect nature.
WHAT PART OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC DO YOU THINK CAUSES THE MOST CONFUSION? WE WANT TO KNOW. TAKE THE INVERSE READER SURVEY
Another ambition is to make policymakers, as well as the public, aware of the role Latino communities play in conservation, says Jessica Godinez. Godinez is the conservation program associate at the Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF). The HAF also partners with local and national organizations to plan activities for Latino families throughout the week.
“More than anything, we want our community to be seen in the outdoors as recreationalists and an integral part of environmental and ocean conservation,” Godinez tells Inverse.
BREAKING BARRIERS — For Mariscal, breaking into conservation work wasn’t a matter of interest, but accessibility.
He graduated from college with a degree in geography and a focus in environmental science. It was the middle of the economic recession in the United States, and the job market was unstable. Many jobs in the environmental field required volunteer experience — creating a barrier to entry for those who can’t afford to work for free.
Mariscal began teaching middle school science and social studies, and worked part-time with Audubon’s Wild Indigo Nature Explorations, a community engagement program that focuses on connecting urban communities of color with their local natural areas. That position led to his current job as a conservation data coordinator for Audubon Great Lakes.
Having a cohesive event like LCW can help to inspire other budding conservationists, Mariscal says. It’s important for people to have mentors with shared experiences — something that may have benefitted Mariscal when he was first trying to break into the field.
Before working with Wild Indigo, “I had never met a person of color, or a Latino person, that was involved in the environmental field,” Mariscal says. “I studied this stuff but I was pretty close to not even having a career in it.”
LCW aims to increase the representation of Latino people doing conservation work.
“It lets people know that we’re out here,” Mariscal says. “Our viewpoints and our experiences are different than other people’s — our voices matter, they’re important when considering policies.”
EVENT PLANNING MID-PANDEMIC — Like most things scheduled for 2020, this year’s LCW looks different than usual.
“So much of Latino Conservation Week is really defined by sharing space outside with our community,” Godinez says. She's been involved in LCW for three years. Her team was nervous when it became clear that many events would have to relocate.
However, event partners were able to quickly adapt: A list of events on the LCW website includes online webinars, film screenings, and a virtual 5K run and walk where participants run on their own at various locations.
“The creativity that they’ve shown in this regard has been really amazing to watch,” Godinez says.
In a year when people are opening their eyes to long-standing systemic injustices, events like #BlackBirdersWeek, #BlackBotanistsWeek, and #BlackInAstro are helping to amplify people of color working in various spheres of nature and conservation. LCW is similar in its aim.
“Every year people pay a little bit more attention to the issues around conservation, particularly regarding BIPOC communities and Latinx communities,” Godinez says.
This year, perhaps people are also spending more time than usual on social media — and the online presence of LCW is growing, too. HAF has gained at least 1,000 new followers on social media in the past week. In the future it’s likely that LCW will continue to increase online efforts, Godinez says.
“It’s become a way for us to break down even more barriers of access,” Godinez says, including time and geography.
NEXT-GENERATION CONSERVATION — These days, Mariscal is raising his three-year-old daughter to enjoy nature just like her dad.
Mariscal takes his daughter birding and teaches her the names of birds in Spanish. He only recently learned Spanish bird names himself — that inspired him to plan a bilingual bird walk, which will be held online this year because of the pandemic.
So far, she’s super into it. That’s important for Mariscal, who wants to pass down a strong appreciation for nature.
Beyond appreciation, LCW can help shift future narratives surrounding conservation work — a field that, as Godniez puts it, is typically viewed as “white, expensive, and inaccessible."
For young people who want to work in nature, and face economic and structural hurdles, Mariscal wants to help build a path forward.
“It might seem sort of out-of-reach for them,” he says. “And it sort of is. But we’re trying to close that gap.”
ATMOS: Translating a Wildfire Emergency
The firestorms that struck California in 2017 changed everything for Gabriela Orantes. In the early morning hours of October 9, 2017, her phone pinged. The junior college had sent an emergency alert. Alarmed that classes were canceled, Orantes hopped onto Facebook to discover the growing threat of the Sonoma Complex Fires. She wasn’t within an evacuation zone, but much of her Sonoma County community was.
She threw extra chairs, shoes, and blankets into her car and drove to a nearby shelter to help however she could, including translation. Orantes speaks both Spanish and English. Though she had never experienced an active wildfire before, she knew shelters would need this service. More than 26 percent of the county is Latinx, yet translation isn’t always available when disaster unfolds. It’s a necessary tool to calm the anxieties and fears of residents already ostracized by a society that often ignores their native tongue and, consequently, them.
In California, where more than 44 percent of the population speaks a language other than English at home, translating wildfire alerts and updates could quite literally save their lives. Those Sonoma Complex Fires destroyed nearly 5,300 homes across the more than 87,000 acres that burned in the county. For weeks, the region has witnessed a similar horror story unfold as the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, which is largely contained now, burned more than 360,000 acres across five counties, including Sonoma. The current wildfires ravaging the West have given the world a glimpse of what the climate crisis has in store for us all: At least 33 people have died across California, Oregon, and Washington. In California, at least, some households never received evacuation alerts.
For years, local, state, and federal agencies have been trying to improve how they communicate updates in non-English languages, but critics argue they have yet to meet the needs of non-English speaking communities. That’s where people like Orantes come in. As the just recovery fellow at the North Bay Organizing Project (NBOP), a local group campaigning for the rights of marginalized Sonoma County residents, Orantes now focuses much of her work on what she calls “language injustice.”
“The fires of 2017 really laid bare the language gaps that existed,” Orantes said. “NBOP is not a disaster response organization necessarily, but we’ve had to become one in the past three years .”
She still grows emotional recalling that smoky October day. She remembers buses arriving full of elderly people from local care homes. Only a few of them were joined with sons and daughters who came looking for them some hours later, relieved to find their parents safe and alive. She remembers the face masks she picked up to protect survivors from the smoke in the air, as well as the local restaurants that donated meals to provide survivors some comfort. Orantes recalls the lack of signage in Spanish, a simple gesture that may help survivors feel welcome in a strange temporary home. That day left her heartbroken, but it also left her invigorated to secure her community the resources it needs the next time disaster rolls around.
“We believe that people have a right to receive vital information in the functional language that they choose, and that’s not always English,” Orantes said. “That needs to be something that all disaster management emergency officials take into account because that should be a right, that people receive information in the language that they are most comfortable in and that function best for them.”
Little Progress, Large Gaps
The 2020 wildfire season will go down in history. Forever. The blazes have made exceedingly clear that the climate crisis is here and that world leaders are failing to take enough action to prevent the loss of life.
Orantes has been on weekly calls with county officials since March when the COVID-19 crisis gripped the nation. The calls are meant to advise officials on how to strengthen their COVID-19 response within Spanish-speaking communities, but the information shared is also relevant to when wildfires break out, a different kind of disaster.
Despite the many phone calls and hours spent offering guidance, Orantes still sees language gaps this wildfire season. She acknowledges that, at least in Sonoma, agencies have improved compared to even three years ago. For instance, government experts now talk regularly on the radio stations that locals trust to share incident updates or inform residents on how to prevent wildfires. This came after community requests. Agency websites, including Sonoma County’s, feature some press releases and evacuation information in Spanish.
Is that enough, though? No. Not nearly.
“[The state is] still failing in terms of language access,” Orantes said. “And that’s not to discredit. There are a lot of good amazing people in our disaster response entities, but as a system, as a whole, there are still gaps that community organizations, and community leaders, and grassroots efforts are meeting because the system is still full of gaps and not accounting for everyone.”
In 2017, these gaps left Latinx residents feeling fearful and uncertain, according to a 2018 report from international organization Internews assessing the needs of Spanish speakers during that disastrous season. Many families didn’t even receive emergency alerts, and others couldn’t communicate with police officers who were ordering evacuations in person. As a result, families avoided shelters like the one Orantes was volunteering in out of fear that immigration enforcement may be there.
What the report made clear is that these communities need a source they can trust. When you’re undocumented or even a documented immigrant, the government isn’t exactly an entity you can trust—especially under Donald Trump. It’s on government officials to build that trust. That has to happen long before a wildfire breaks out if they wish to protect members of the public, as is their duty.
“Culturally, a lot of it has to do with trust,” said Jeannette Sutton, an associate professor at the University of Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity. “The big fix is committing to infrastructure. The second big fix is committing the personnel and resources to spend time on these things… The non-expensive ‘quick’ fix, which is not quick, is building relationships and making sure that those who are trusted can reach out to those who lack the digital resources, and that takes time. That’s not a quick fix.”
Donate here to UndocuFund if you wish to support undocumented wildfire and COVID-19 survivors in Sonoma County.
Faith-based organizations and community groups can step in here to help share information because many residents already trust them. NBOP, for instance, helped to develop UndocuFund, a mutual aid fund, in collaboration with other local organizations to provide financial relief to undocumented immigrants in the region who can’t receive formal federal dollars.
The fund has received grant dollars from across the U.S. As of March 2020, the fund has raised and distributed more than $7 million to over 4,000 families. Through the fund, community leaders have also been able to gather data on this vulnerable population to learn more about its needs and housing situations, which can better inform disaster response.
TV and radio stations play an important role too. These are where Spanish speakers turn to first. They’re what this community trusts. Suheily López Belén, a meteorologist at the Univision Weather Center, has been covering the wildfires in the West with the goal of educating her viewers. Even if people receive alerts in their language, they might not always understand what they mean. That’s why López Belén centers her work on education.
“More than get information as soon as possible, people need to know their risks, need to know how to prepare their properties in case of extreme fire weather,” López Belén said. “This will help to make the best decisions before, during, and after the emergency. Knowing the information as soon as possible complements that, and therefore we can save lives and properties.”
Non-English speaking communities need a long-term solution, though. Six of California’s top 20 largest fires have occurred this year, highlighting the acceleration of the climate crisis. Communities, as well as agencies, have less and less time to prepare for these disasters.
“With the shorter and shorter times between disasters these days, it’s tough to implement the changes we know are needed in order to make sure people have the information they need,” said Jesse Hardman, founder of the Listening Post Collective at Internews, who co-authored that 2018 report. “You don’t get five years in between devastating wildfires anymore to try and test new strategies.”
Without such strategies, the consequences can be severe. That’s especially true for Latinx communities in California who are vulnerable when wildfires explode in the state. They are more likely to rent, which puts them at increased risk should a wildfire destroy their home. Latinx are also disproportionately exposed to wildfire smoke and extreme heat conditions through their jobs. Across the U.S., Latinx make up huge chunks of the construction and agriculture workforces. California is no exception, especially not with its multi-billion-dollar agriculture industry. This population already faces health disparities through higher-than-average asthma and diabetes rates. All that smoke only makes matters worse.
This doesn’t even include the immediate consequence of missing critical evacuation information that may inform residents of what to take with them or where to go. The long-term effects of these wildfires are just the cherry on top.
“People, they lose their homes, livelihoods and, in the worse case, they may actually lose their lives,” said Shanna Edberg, the director of Conservation Programs at the Hispanic Access Foundation, which frames conservation issues with a lens on the Latinx community. “They don’t have that government support buffer because of this lack of connection and lack of language access.”
If these gaps remain for Spanish-speaking parts of California, imagine the work left to do among other languages. After all, the state is full of people who speak Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Armenian, and even Indigenous languages from Latin America. They deserve access to information, too, and that work has barely begun.
ROLL CALL: Protecting our public lands is a national health issue
In recent months we’ve seen an outpouring of interest in visiting parks and rivers nationwide. As someone who loves spending time outdoors, I can relate to anyone who seeks comfort and relaxation in nature — especially right now.
THE OUTDOOR WIRE: Celebrate National Wildlife Refuge Week
Enjoy stellar outdoor recreation and the country’s wildlife heritage during National Wildlife Refuge Week, October 11-17, 2020. Celebrate your access to nature on the nation’s largest network of public lands dedicated to wildlife conservation, the National Wildlife Refuge System, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
LOS ANGELES TIMES: California grants western Joshua trees temporary endangered species protections
State officials took the unusual step Tuesday of granting temporary endangered species status to the western Joshua tree, but will allow 15 solar energy firms to raze Joshua trees that stand in the way of their shovel-ready projects.
LAS CRUCES SUN NEWS: Conservation can help solve multiple crises
Our country is facing multiple crises. Yet too often, we fail to take on our challenges holistically, and so they continue down separate tracks. Fortunately, two crises impacting New Mexico are converging, with local communities working with state and federal leaders to offer real solutions.
NJ SPOTLIGHT NEWS: Students of color prepare for jobs in the green sector
Seventeen-year-old Mychael Holloway is one of more than 30 high school teens who is participating in a paid internship program called Building Conservation through Diversity and Teamwork.
“Usually with this type of program, you don’t see a lot of minorities. I started to go out more and start walking on across trails and I felt a lot more comfortable people of my color were doing this as well,” Holloway said.
The Mercer County program aims to help students of color prepare for jobs in the green sector.
“We started it with some training, because a lot of the kids don’t have the exposure that a lot of people sort of take for granted. Look around, we are going to see trees, we’re going to see birds, we’re going to see flowers. Part of the curriculum walks them through land, water, open space preservation and these are ways you can make a living,” said Lisa Wolff, co-founder of Outdoor Equity Alliance.
“Places like the National Parks Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management are heavily white spaces and that’s because of frankly a history of discrimination in these workplaces,” said Shanna Edberg, director of Conservation Programs of Hispanic Access Foundation.
Edberg is the co-author of a report just released that found that people of color are three times more likely than white people to live somewhere that is nature deprived.
“So it doesn’t have any park nearby or green space. In Jersey, it’s worse than the national average, it’s about 3.5 times more likely if you’re a person of color than if you’re a white person to be living in this situation,” Edberg said.
“You have these kids who can be in really, really rough neighborhoods and they’re not scared at all, and then you say you’re going into the outdoors and then they are really, really scared about what they’re going to find,” said Wolff.
“I want to make sure that if a kid comes out to a park they can identify what the bird is and they need to know, that they can walk out in the woods and know they are not going to get attacked by something that doesn’t even exist,” said Aaron Watson, deputy administration of Mercer County and executive director of Mercer County Park Commission.
Watson and Wolff are co-founders of the Outdoor Equity Alliance, which created the internship program. They have teamed up with the Boys and Girls Club and are dedicated to combating environmental racism.
“Why aren’t you often going to parks? Number one, transportation. Number two, some of them said, ‘It’s not a place for us’ which means they didn’t view it as a diversified population,” said Zoubit Yazid, chief operating officer of Boys and Girls Club in Mercer County.
“You don’t see many people of color getting into this field, land conservation, stewardship, things that are vitally important to the future of this planet and we have a responsibility to make certain that we are making these career and opportunities known to these kids,” Watson said.
“We’re learning about putting ourselves out there, we want to be seen and want to be heard. There’s that one stepping stone that can help you get where you want to be and you just need to take that step,” Holloway said.
Just one step, as long you’re pointed in the right direction.
By Raven Santana for NJ Spotlight News