Latino Conservation Week is September 14 through September 22. The nationwide effort supports Latino communities everywhere getting outdoors and getting involved with environmental causes.
Defiende Nuestra Tierra, the Spanish-speaking and Latino outreach program of Wilderness Workshop, will be hosting a few different local events in celebration. This is Defiende Nuestra Tierra and Wilderness Workshop’s third year of recognizing the week, and the 11th nationally.
The festivities will kick-off with a guided hike at Rifle Arch on Saturday.
Omar Sarabia is the director of Defiende Nuestra Tierra.
He said when people get to interact with public lands firsthand through these kinds of experiences, it makes them more likely to get involved in efforts to protect them.
Sarabia said specifically, he’d seen more participation from the local Latino community in public comment periods for federal land management agencies, like the U.S. Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management.
“They are more engaged, because we've been kind of educating them, during the hikes, during the snowshoeing, during the Latino Ski Day,” he said.
Most of the celebrations will take place the next day, on Sunday, in Glenwood Springs.
One of the biggest events of the week is the opportunity for people to try rafting for the first time.
“We want to create our connection with the Latino community, breaking barriers about myths like rafting is dangerous, rafting is for privileged people and white people,” Sarabia said. “It's a nontraditional activity for the Latino community.”
In addition, there will be a project in partnership with Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, where participants will get to work on riverside access and restoration on the Roaring Fork River, as well as help with fire mitigation.
There will also be free bike rentals from Blue Sky Adventure.
From 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, there will also be a party in Two Rivers Park, featuring live music from Conjunto Revelacion and Mariachi Sol de mi Tierra with Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. There will also be food, vendors, and giveaways.
You can register for any of the events online on Wilderness Workshop’s website.
