Conservation Lands Foundation is proud to support and celebrate Latino Conservation Week, and recognize the hard work of our partners in organizing many great events across four states – Nevada, Texas, Colorado and California! This is the first year that some of our partners will be participating – the same organizations and communities that helped permanently protect California’s Mojave Trails and Sand to Snow National Monuments, New Mexico’s Rio Grande del Norte and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monuments, and Nevada’s Basin and Range National Monument.
Some Friends Groups and Partners that have joined forces to get involved in Latino Conservation Week include the Mojave Desert Land Trust, the Council of Mexican Federations, Por La Creacion, the Native American Lands Conservancy, Frontera Land Alliance, Conejos Clean Water, Friends of Basin and Range National Monument and Friends of Gold Butte. Events include moonlight hikes, cultural heritage hikes, panel discussions, a Spanish-language native plants workshop, an intercultural roundtable with the Native American community, and many more. These events show that conservation works best when it is collaborative, inclusive, and empowering.
At the Native Plants Workshop youth learned how to make a tasty, medicinal tea from Yerba Santa, and after the night hike in the Mecca Hills Wilderness–an outstanding National Conservation Lands site in Southern California–a participant said it was one of the most marvelous experiences of her life, not just because of the natural beauty of the hills under the moonlight but because she had never seen her family so united, helping each other along the long, sandy wash.
If you haven’t participated yet you can find more events at LatinoConservationWeek.com, including this archaeology tour in the Kastner Range in El Paso, Texas.
Conservation Lands Foundation is proud to support #Latinos4Conservation and Latino Conservation Week as a catalyst for collaboration in the effort to help a broader cross-section of Americans experience, enjoy and connect with their public lands.
From the Conservation Lands Foundation Blog