By Jocelyn Torres, Nevada Program Director at Conservation Lands Foundation

I grew up in southern Nevada in the Las Vegas area. At that time Las Vegas was already a very casino-centric town – with not a lot of entertainment options for families. So for my parents who had small kids, public lands was a way to entertain us. We spent a lot of weekends discovering new places.

Growing up we went on hikes; we learned about archeology and Native American cultures and traditions; and went fishing in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. When I was in high school my dad started getting hunting tags for mule deer and so began our annual hunting trips to the Ruby Mountains that we still do to this day.

I love camping because it forces me to unplug. At least a couple of times a year, we will get everyone from my grandma to my 8-year-old daughter to go out on big, fun family gatherings in the outdoors where we don’t have everyday distractions. You learn a lot about others from these trips. You get to know the early risers that will go on morning hikes or the people who stay up way too late telling stories. Even though I may see all of these people every day, we don’t connect at that deeper level that you do over a campfire or a grill making hot dogs.

Connecting on a deeper level in the outdoors doesn’t just apply to family members. I’ve participated in trips with our elected officials and you get to know people and what they enjoy. One Spring I went to Basin and Range National Monument with Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. It was a sun up to sun down trip. We went to a ranch in the area, and it was lambing season. There were lambs being born everywhere. Every time I see her and others who were on the trip we have this experience to share.

I originally started my conservation work helping designate the Basin and Range and Gold Butte National Monuments. We were able to establish permanent protection through an Antiquities Act designation via President Barack Obama. Under the new administration, I quickly went into defending all of the work we had put into protecting these places.

A lot of my work now is making sure community voices are elevated in Nevada and getting a seat at the decision-making table. Nevada is nearly 30% Latino. Nothing gets done on any advocacy plan if you don’t get Latinos involved. But too often when folks think of the conservation movement they’re not typically thinking of Latino communities.

There’s a false notion that Latinos don’t care about conservation. When I was growing up visiting Mt. Charleston or Valley of Fire or Lake Mead I saw many other families that looked like mine. There are plenty of Latino families and community members enjoying the outdoors in this state. I work on making sure that their enjoyment of public lands gets translated into the voices you’re hearing on the advocacy and policy fronts. There’s a mis-connection between users and who is setting the agenda.

Through my work with Conservation Lands Foundation, we’ve funded partnerships with local conservation organizations and recreation centers to outreach to families who maybe want to get out and camp but don’t have the transportation or the gear. We make sure to go where people are, versus asking them to come to us. We also work to make sure that their elected officials see that these types of partnerships are important to members of their communities.

So many outreach strategies to Latino communities are about introducing Latinos to public lands or a love of the outdoors, when that’s already culturally engrained in us. Conservation is important to all Latin American countries – it’s not something that needs to be taught. If we’re going to elevate voices and get Latinos more involved in public lands from a user level to an advocacy level to a leadership level, there needs to be more of a focus on introducing communities to the complicated system of the land management agencies. We need to give people a toolkit to share their stories and make sure they know that you don’t need to be an expert to submit a public comment on a land management plan. It is powerful to just say that we love going camping and we want to make sure this place that we love remains open for the public to enjoy. Or share that you think the picnic tables are too small and that different sizes are needed for different size families. I want people to know their feedback is important and you don’t have to be a scientist or a land use expert to have a comment that matters. Very simple comments can have a huge impact.

I’m also trying to get more members of Latino communities and other communities of color to serve on conservation boards locally. I want to get people thinking about the value serving on these types of boards provides for our communities; and how their participation can change how education, stewardship and outreach events are done when you have diverse perspectives in the planning phase.

I grew up with a deep connection to the places surrounding Las Vegas. Now I want to make sure that the places I enjoyed growing up are still there for the next generation.

In the meantime, I continue to take my daughter into the outdoors as much as possible. She loves the family camping trips. She thinks of them as giant sleepovers with her cousins. When we go on hikes we give her the map and ask her to decide the trail. The first time she’ll be unsure, but the next time she’ll bring a friend and lead the hike.

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Guest Blog: How to Elevate Latino Voices in Public Lands Policy