As part of our community outreach strategy, we have focused on facilitating more outdoor connections to the Los Padres over the last couple of months. This includes working with underrepresented youth, families, and diverse stakeholders in a way that more intently connects conservation, time in nature, and public lands protection.
We started the year working with Assemblymember Monique Limón’s office to kick-off our bilingual hike series. Team Limón invited constituents for a meet-and-greet on the trail, while ForestWatch staff led an informative nature hike for community members. The event was a unique opportunity for participants to have face-time with their state representative, learn about native plants in the Los Padres, and get a general introduction to ForestWatch’s work.
Since the start of the year, we’ve also partnered with a few youth groups in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. This consists of a day at Horn Canyon with Fillmore’s One Step A La Vez, and Arroyo Hondo Preserve with the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara. Each outing is intended to tap into the group’s natural curiosity, provide a positive space for learning about the local ecosystem, and to support meaningful connections to our public lands.
In February, we collaborated with the national nonprofit Latino Outdoors to host a snowshoe outing at Mt.Pinos — the highest point in Ventura County. Participants from Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles joined ForestWatch staff and Latino Outdoors leaders for an educational and physically challenging day on the mountain.
Recreational events allow us to bridge a variety of conservation principles such as policy, advocacy, stewardship, and science education. Throughout the hike to Mt. Pinos, we reviewed Leave No Trace ethics, leveraged the outdoor classroom for a mixed conifer forest ecosystem discussion, summarized the importance of The Wilderness Act, and engaged in conversations about local projects being proposed or approved in the forest such as the Tecuya Ridge and Cuddy Valley logging projects. The day was a well balanced mix of recreation, conservation, and building community.
As we move forward with our mission, we will continue to seek meaningful opportunities to expand our reach to wider audiences. Some of the strongest conservation leaders have risen from early adoption to outdoor recreation, and as the existing membership of our organization and many traditional conservation organizations ages, connecting people to our region’s public lands through recreation offers a significant opportunity to advance the protection of public lands and waters.
See the slideshow below for more photos from these events:
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