The Service is joining Hispanic Access Foundation in celebrating Latino Conservation Week from July 16-24 as a demonstration of Latino commitment to conservation and the permanent protection of our land, water, and air. Events across the nation, including those planned by our very own interns, will bring members of the Latino community together by participating in outdoor recreation, environmental education, and conservation service projects. Throughout the week, we will share posts featuring our Hispanic Access Foundation interns and the events they’ve put together.

Without further ado:

This is Amber Betances, coming at you live from John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge!

This summer, the Hispanic Access Foundation has granted me the opportunity to work in Philadelphia at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. I was intrigued by the concept of community outreach, especially since I study landscape architecture, and the importance of including outreach in the design process. Over the years at Rutgers University, I learned about the disconnect between communities of color and green spaces/nature. Throughout the course of the internship, I’ve met with many community leaders and community partner organizations all working toward the same goal — to improve and advance these neighborhoods.

After getting to know the community leaders, I began to fully understand the severity of the conflicts a lot of these communities are facing. One of the major components in community outreach is building trust and being considerate and understanding of the obstacles these neighborhoods face. The refuge is currently in the process of partnering with local organizations to invest in the community and create green spaces tailored to community needs. Ultimately, the goal is to create programming that emphasizes the importance of conservation and helps community members develop a sense of ownership for green spaces.

I will be focusing on the development of program ideas that are of interest to the community. Sitting in on community meetings has helped me understand local needs, but my goal is to continue trying to reach a larger audience. Each conversation with a member of the Philadelphia community is valuable — even if it only serves to help the public understand what happens on a national wildlife refuge, like at John Heinz. Including the community in the design and implementation of programming gives us a better understanding of how people in different communities may feel about nature and the outdoors, and helps us address their needs and wants.

I never expected to end up at a national wildlife refuge as a landscape architect major, studying the social interactions between place and space. This internship ties in closely to what I want to do when I graduate. I want to be able to work for cities with consideration for people in the community. As a future landscape architect, I plan on working toward the advancement of communities of color by letting the communities lead the way and integrating their needs in my designs.

In the early 2000s, there was a need to clean up the Baltimore Harbor and dredge material (wood, mud, silt, sand, shell, and debris) from the seafloor. From that project and a robust coalition of partners, Masonville Cove was restored and Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center was born. Located on a restored site along the Patapsco River, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dubbed Masonville Cove one of the nation’s first Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnerships in September 2013. The partnership and education center have since served as a place for local residents and schoolchildren in Baltimore to connect with nature and participate in meaningful stewardship projects. The adjacent communities of Brooklyn and Curtis Bay are geographically isolated and face challenges such as income inequality, concentrated poverty, limited public transportation, high crime, and low high school graduation rates. Today we continue our celebration of Latino Conservation Week with a post written by Nia Edwards, featuring some of the work she’s done to help residents of South Baltimore discover nature in the Chesapeake Bay.

My name is Nia Edwards and I am a graduating senior at Towson University double majoring in Spanish and international studies. I am the Latino community outreach liaison working with Hispanic Access Foundation, Living Classrooms and Masonville Cove to serve the local community in South Baltimore. I am responsible for providing the local Latino community with engaging events and materials and bilingual programming in English and Spanish, to foster a better relationship with Masonville Cove and build awareness about environmental conservation. By translating resources to Spanish and offering events in both languages, I help open up the lines of communication and increase accessibility to Masonville Cove resources for members of the local Latino community. For example in February, I led a community program on watersheds that focused on waste management and the impacts of urban debris on our watersheds. We also participated in Project Clean Stream, a Maryland-wide initiative to tackle trash in and around state waterways.

A reminder that litter negatively impacts wildlife and our environment

Although serving the community is a very fulfilling job, it was initially very challenging for me to address environmental issues with local communities.The environment appeared to take a backseat to basic needs such as housing, food and jobs. Aside from these socioeconomic factors , language also plays a large role and is a barrier when engaging these communities.

Our first clean-up with the community was a lot of fun and seemed to successfully address a lot of these barriers. It was eventful, well-attended, and incorporated a lot of giveaways, while providing food and a safe space for community members to get together. During our Brooklyn clean-up, we served over 100 members and the feedback from the event was fulfilling. We had a free recycling bin giveaway for Baltimore City residents, and provided an opportunity for kids and their families to decorate their bins. Our biggest giveaway, and the one that the community volunteers seemed to enjoy the most, was a free year-long membership to the aquarium. Valued at $125, the winner and their family gained free entry to the aquarium and access to exclusive aquarium events.

Events like these are a reminder of the good work we are doing and continue to do at Masonville Cove. Our goal to bring awareness and create a safe space for community members, specifically in the Latino community is constantly met during these events. For Latino Conservation Week, Nia will be leading a community event at Masonville called “Nosotros Conservamos” which will include a shoreline cleanup, fishing, and a nature walk.

Ariel Martinez, Hispanic Access Foundation Intern, returns for a second summer to fulfill her mission of connecting communities to the outdoors.

My name is Ariel Martinez and this is my second summer working on a refuge thanks to the Hispanic Access Foundation. I applied to the program again because I had such a great experience, that I wanted to continue that work and put the things I learned last summer to good use.

My first ever experience with environmental science was when I took the AP class in junior year of high school. Up until that point I had never considered making that a career path, largely because I hadn’t known it was an option. When I stopped to consider the reason for my ignorance, I realized it was because the field of environmental science did not have many people who looked like me, sounded like me, or had similar backgrounds to me. When I read about environmental science, or saw something related on television, the people in the spotlight were almost always white men.

That’s why I was so thrilled when I found out there was a program that was working to bridge that gap by bringing more Latinx people into the field, and giving them a platform where they can connect to the community. This program is important because it not only brings a fresh perspective to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but it also opens a pathway for other minorities to pursue the same kinds of experiences, studies, and careers in the future. I lead every outreach and education event hoping there will be even one person there who will leave the program and think, “I want to do that too,” or “I want to come here again,” which I think is the goal for both Hispanic Access Foundation and the Service as well.

I’m really excited to be working at Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge this summer. It’s been a great experience so far. I helped run the kids fishing derby, which was a lot of fun. I was also able to lead a few sessions of a program on pelts and skulls at a field day for third graders and do some work with a pollinator garden in Buffalo this past week. I am looking forward to doing more programs and expanding the refuge’s network in the community. For Latino Conservation Week events, I have been in contact with the Boys and Girls Club in Rochester as well as the Division of Parks and Recreation in Buffalo to provide environmental education programming and getting students outside.

Guest blogger Lucia Portillo-Maldonado shares her experiences interning at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge and what inspires her to return year after year.

This summer will be my fourth summer working at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. As a Hispanic Access Foundation intern I know that I will have a unique experience. This is my first summer doing community outreach and working with young students in nearby elementary schools. I’ve assisted with planning summer camp programs and helped organize some events here at the refuge. Within my first week of my internship I helped with a family fishing day event. Over one hundred guests participated, some of which included my own family.

Throughout the years, I’ve enjoyed working at John Heinz with the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. Environmental conservation and preservation are topics that I am very passionate about and I hope to continue to learn more throughout this internship. Promoting environmental stewardship is also something that I enjoy doing. I am excited to be involved in a new project at my refuge that will help the public be aware of the fact that they have a National Wildlife Refuge close by. I will be assisting with creating a new bus stop close to our refuge, that will include a seating area, a map of the refuge, and a small pollinator garden. Our goal is to inform the public of how close the refuge is and to highlight activities that we have to offer. Below are a couple pictures of what the bus stop currently looks like.

I will also be helping with the repairing the pollinator garden at our refuge. Our pollinator garden will be reconstructed this summer and I will be assisting with that project. Some ideas I’ve had so far for Latino Conservation week is to arrange for students in north Philadelphia to come to our refuge and get involved in activities such as archery, fishing, hiking, and kayaking. I think it would be very beneficial for students to get outside of their neighborhoods and their comfort zones. It will give them a chance to see how many other places are available to them. Having access to open green space is something that is very important and everyone deserves.

That’s me helping a student put bait on a fishing rod during one of our youth summer camps.

Today, Ivette López, Hispanic Access Foundation Intern, shares her experiences at Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge as she strives to connect communities to the natural world.

Over the last few months, I have been closely working with our partners in New Haven to connect youth and families to nature, the outdoors, and their local wildlife refuge. Earlier this spring, the refuge piloted a new program, Owl for a Day, in collaboration with Southern Connecticut State University, or SCSU, as a part of the New Haven Harbor Watershed Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership. This program introduces the natural sciences to local New Haven students through an immersive and meaningful college experience at SCSU.

As a part of this program,U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff visited each participating school twice and worked with students to introduce topics of New Haven’s unique ecosystems, and how being situated in a heavily urbanized area creates the need for preservation, understanding, and stewardship of the natural spaces around us. The culminating activity for these lessons was a daylong visit to the university. During this field trip, students completed lab activities associated with the research of the Werth Center for Coastal and Marine Studies at SCSU, visited the athletic facility and library, and ate lunch at Connecticut Hall with their college student guide. After each field trip, students expressed they felt cared for and appreciated as learners and were inspired to pursue college science at their local university!

What is even more exciting is that some of these same school groups had the opportunity to visit their local national wildlife refuge last month! Since last fall, I have been working with 1st graders from Conte West Hills Magnet School and bilingual 6th graders from Fair Haven School who have learned about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge through interactive lessons and trips.

In late May, over 40 students from these New Haven public schools visited their local wildlife refuge at Salt Meadow Unit for the first time. Students enjoyed the beautiful day by taking a nature walk, where we explored the maritime forest, the salt marsh, and scrub shrub habitat, and saw wildlife such as chipmunks and migratory birds.

At noon, we had lunch in the meadow and continued with the next activities, where students conducted a biodiversity survey, learned about invasive plants, and removed Japanese knotweed from the refuge. Finally, everyone enjoyed playing the habitat loss game where students acted out migratory birds that faced threats such as land development, but were eventually protected by the refuge. Thank you to everyone who helped make the day a success and our partner organization Hispanic Access Foundation for supporting the trip! I am excited to welcome more New Haven families to Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge this summer!

Hispanic Access Foundation Intern, Kelsey Mackey, does it all through outreach and environmental education with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Be sure to join us all summer as we hear from our interns about their work and experience.

My name is Kelsey Mackey, and I am graduating from the University of Connecticut in July 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences. Currently, I am a cross-programmatic intern for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Hispanic Access Foundation. My love for wildlife and passion for conservation developed at a young age, and I continue to epitomize these values both personally and professionally. I connect on a personal level with the mission of the Service – to work with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.

I am grateful and excited for the opportunity to make an impact in urban and underrepresented communities through community outreach and environmental education. During my time at the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, which represents the Connecticut River Watershed, I will be involved in the Sustainable Springfield Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership that aligns with the Service’s Urban Wildlife Conservation Program. Specific outreach events include Cops & Bobbers, Hooks & Ladders youth fishing program, designed to teach kids to fish, connect with the outdoors, and develop positive relationships with law enforcement in their communities, and community block parties designed to engage, educate, and inspire people to become environmental stewards in their own community.

In addition to actively participating in the Sustainable Springfield Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership events, I will also work for the Richard Cronin Aquatic Resource Center. Current research at the center includes glochidia propagation in an effort to restore native populations of mussels throughout the Connecticut River Watershed. As a cross-programmatic intern, I will also have the opportunity to work in the Service’s Northeast Regional Office in External Affairs, where I will work on projects in communications and the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. My overarching goal is to educate and inspire communities to work together in collective action to ensure a bright future where both people and wildlife can thrive and coexist.

Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced a new partnership and the launch of the recruitment process for the 2018 U.S. Forest Service Hispanic Access Resource Assistant Fellowship. This fellowship will support 12 students for a one-year fellowship to learn about USFS professional opportunities, expose them to natural and cultural resources, and help build skills and experiences required for success in outdoor-related careers.

The program will help support the U.S. Forest Service mission and workforce development goals, develop the next generation of conservation and environmental stewards, and engage diverse communities.

“Our nation’s Latino community cares deeply about enjoying and preserving our public lands,” said Maite Arce, president and CEO of HAF. “This exciting fellowship program offers a wonderful opportunity for young people to build essential career skills while serving the community and engaging their peers and families in outdoor recreation and stewardship activities.”

HAF will recruit and provide training and mentoring to fellows to support the U.S. Forest Service mission to care for the land and serve the people. The fellows will be placed onsite at a dozen locations nationwide. These young adults with diverse backgrounds will undertake a wide variety of assignments such as lands management, conservation education, resource interpretation, and rehabilitation activities on public lands across the country.

"Through the Resource Assistants Program, the Forest Service is building a committed, qualified and diverse workforce for the future while fostering the health and productivity of our Nation’s forests and grasslands for all." - Leslie Weldon, Deputy Chief, National Forest System, Forest Service.

The program will incorporate support from a wide range of local and national partners, including REI Co-op. The co-op, which is focused on helping get people outdoors, will support the initiative through a sponsorship and product donation for the fellows.

To date, HAF has recruited, hired, and supervised over 100 talented young adults for federal partners including the National Park Service’s Latino Heritage Internship Program and the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s Northeast Urban Program.

Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF) launched its inaugural fellowship training program through its partnership with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in Denver on March 21. This program, which includes support from specialty outdoor retailer REI, is part of a year-long educational and training experience that has placed 12 recent college graduates of Latino backgrounds at USFS sites in Colorado, California, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Washington, DC. The fellows will learn about USFS professional opportunities and build skills and experiences required for success in outdoor-related careers. Participants are deeply committed to the outdoors, environmental stewardship, and community service.

"Our nation's Latino community cares deeply about enjoying and preserving our public lands," said Maite Arce, president and CEO of HAF. "This exciting fellowship program offers a wonderful opportunity for young people to build essential career skills while serving the community and engaging their peers and families in outdoor recreation and stewardship activities."

To kick-off the training experience, instructors from REI Outdoor School led participants in a day-long snowshoeing outing at Copper Mountain in Colorado. For most participants, it was their first time trying snow shoes, and was particularly memorable due to the quick sense of camaraderie that emerged.

"At REI we believe a life outdoors is a life well lived-for all," said Myrian Solis Coronel, manager of next gen marketing at REI. "And it's through cross-sector partnerships that we're able to support innovating programs like this one to engage and inspire people to explore and embrace the outdoors."

The training program included expert speakers from USFS, Denver-area environmental nonprofits, and other public agencies including U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service. Fellows will be working at USFS sites to undertake education and outreach activities to engage diverse communities.

"Engaging young people and diverse communities to explore and appreciate the outdoors is important to the long-term future of our nation's forests and other public lands," said Jessica Godinez, who will be serving as the Education & Outreach Coordinator and Interpretative Field Ranger in the Rocky Mountain Regional Office and Mount Evans, both in Colorado. "Our work is about the Next Generation. We need to create experiences and conduct outreach that connects with people today in order to foster passion and stewardship for tomorrow."

The program supports the USFS mission and workforce development goals, develops the next generation of conservation and environmental stewards, and engages diverse communities.

When I found yoga a few years ago, I embarked on a journey, determined to find and establish a secure mind-body connection within myself. Slowly, with each practice, the importance and the power behind fueling this connection becomes increasingly evident. Through this process, we learn a little bit more about ourselves and the world around us, sometimes forcing us to readjust and re-establish the connection we've created. It is my belief that connecting to the mind and body, to our innermost being, is powerful because it is the first step in really connecting to and understanding others. To a certain extent, we are connected with every other living and non-living creature that walks on Earth. Whether or not we feel like we are connected to the ground we walk on and the trees that provide our oxygen, we are linked by our common home: Earth. To better understand this innate connection we have with each other and therefore allow ourselves to better connect with those around us to elevate the work we are passionate about, we must first connect with ourselves.

Connection is powerful, but understanding our connections to each other are even more powerful. For the past few months, I have been lucky enough to explore this power in a different sense. My work as the Education and Outreach Coordinator at the U.S. Forest Service Regional Office in Lakewood, CO has allowed me to explore the relationships between organizations, communities, and people. I have gotten to witness the power of this type of connection first hand. Daily, I am introduced to established partnerships, partnerships in the making, and the idea of new partnerships - both external and internal to the U.S. Forest Service. I've watched inter-organizational alliances grow together and become more powerful, all linked together by an overlap in mission, vision, and passion. Most importantly, I've seen communities and cultures joining together to play, learn, and grow together - all because of a shared connection: variations of love and dedication to our natural world and environment. Despite our individual reasons for caring about our environment, we are connected by the environment and this connection creates power.

In my position, understanding the power of connection is essential. My mission, as a fellow through the Hispanic Access Foundation, is to help connect underrepresented communities, specifically the Hispanic community - my community - to the outdoors, environmental stewardship, and an individual passion to our environment. Working with local non-profits, I have seen how best to facilitate opportunities for this community to not only get outdoors, but to stay dedicated to the outdoors. I have learned that that is through understanding the power of connection. We, as those seeking to create opportunities and access to the outdoors, must understand the importance of identifying with the community to better understand the perspective of the community. We must connect to the community, understand the community and the culture, and allow the community to speak for themselves. In order to connect communities to the outdoors, stewardship, or anything really, we must first connect to the communities.

The intersectionality of my unique fellowship position has allowed me to explore these different connections, specifically the connection between agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and our non-profit partners. In the short time that I've been here, I've been immersed in learning about and exploring the collaboration of non-profit organizations and governmental agencies. I've learned how important these partnerships are in elevating and promoting shared visions, values, and ideals. Identifying the way our values align with those of others in the community and connecting ourselves with them allows us, all of us, to find the gaps that allow us to be more efficient with our individual and collective programming and response to the needs of the community. In the Forest Service, we strive to "care for the land and serve the people," and the best way we can do so is by understanding and appreciating the power of connection - to ourselves, our partners, our colleagues, and our communities.

By: Jessica Godinez

Before finding the Hispanic Access Foundation and the fellowships they offer through the US Forest Service, I was hopelessly searching for a job like the one I do now. I knew I wanted to help people, and was interested in breaking into the environmental education field, but was faced with barriers to becoming employed by the federal government. It is hard to break into a federal agency like the Forest Service without being formerly employed by the government, and I wasn't making any headway.

However, last December, when I was offered the position of Youth Engagement Coordinator in Leadville, Colorado, I had my reservations about accepting. Leadville is a tiny town, smaller than any I've ever lived, and I didn't know anyone there. I didn't know how to be an environmental educator, and I had never spent a real winter in the snow. However, I recognized the opportunity I had been offered, and how it would help me explore a new field, expand my comfort zone, and ultimately begin to build my career. So I decided to throw caution to the wind and prepared to move to snowy Leadville, in the midst of the Rocky Mountains.

Three months into my Hispanic Access USFS Fellowship, I'm so grateful that I said yes. Here are the top 3 things I've learned about myself in those 3 months.

1. Doing work that impacts others makes me happy. I've always been driven by my ideals, and I'm happy I found a job where I help people every day. Before I arrived, the USFS office in Leadville didn't have any staff that spoke fluent Spanish. This might seem normal for a tiny town in the mountains of Colorado, until you find out that Lake County has a majority Hispanic population. In creating my role, the Forest Service knew that they needed to do more to serve the segment of Leadville who feel more comfortable communicating in Spanish. Since I arrived, I've worked on creating more resources for the Spanish-speaking community to learn about the Forest Service, to understand its mission, and to recreate on public lands. Every week, I meet with Hispanic families and the organizations that serve them, welcome them to the San Isabel National Forest and help them feel comfortable visiting this wonderful natural resource. When I see the smiling faces of my new contacts in the community, and when we plan events on the forest together, I know I have paved the way for a better understanding between the community and the Forest Service, and it makes me incredibly happy and proud.
   
   
2. Working outdoors energizes me. I've always gravitated to jobs that allowed me to stay active during the day, but I've never held a position that afforded me so much time outside. I have always lived in cities, but working at the Forest Service offered me the opportunity to experience a rural lifestyle. I love it more than I ever expected. The spot where I live is amazingly beautiful, and all I have to do is look out a window to steal a view of the tallest mountain in Colorado. The recreational opportunities are endless here, and far surpass those of any city. In addition, this fellowship includes plenty of fieldwork, which means that on many days, I get outside as part of my job. I've gotten to ski for a day at Ski Cooper, the ski area on the San Isabel Forest. I ran around playing games outside in Jackson, WY for an environmental educator training. And over the summer I have many field trips and conservation stewardship projects planned, in which I will be leading groups of youth and families outdoors. I'm excited to work outside and share my passion for the outdoors with others, and hope that I can help someone else discover the same passion in themselves.
   
   
3. I still don't know what my career holds, and I'm okay with that. As a resource assistant, I'm exploring careers in federal government, the types of positions available in the environmental field, and the benefits and drawbacks of federal employment. Once I finish the fellowship, I will have better opportunities to find permanent employment with the Forest Service through a special document that will help me be considered for positions before other applicants because of my prior service. This will be incredibly helpful if I do choose to pursue a career in the Forest Service. I'm not sure if I will ultimately go this route. Regardless, the skills and information I am gaining through the fellowship will be invaluable for any career I ultimately choose, and I'm incredibly thankful to be in a position that is helping me grow professionally and personally.

These are the things I have learned about myself in the last three months. I know that I will learn countless more lessons over my one year fellowship-and I look forward to meeting them all head on.

By: Andrea Kurth, intern Leadville, CO