I was born and raised in Pecos, New Mexico, where my family has been for several generations. I grew up eating deer meat and trout. Nature is what sustained me growing up. My father was a hunter and a fisherman, and we depended on that for our food source. We’d gather berries and pick piñon in the fall. Food gathering has always been really important to my family.

I still share the tradition of picking berries and making jelly with my family. My daughter asks me why we’re doing it since we still have leftover jelly from last year, but I tell her it’s about remembering grandma and her recipes and continuing the tradition. I want to teach my kids and grandkids about the foods that are edible in this area and how to identify them. That’s something that’s been part of my upbringing and something that’s always been important to me.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerMarch 5, 2019Janice Varela, New Mexico, Hunting, Fishing, Traditional Land Uses, Outdoor Recreation, Pollution, WaterComment

Guest Blog: Hiking to the View - The Most Peace I've Ever Had

Once you get up there the treeline stops – you can see Sedona, all of Flagstaff, and the view from the back of the mountain is unreal. Breathtaking.

On the way down, a storm rolled in so for the last hour or two I was walking in the rain. People say, “oh man,” but honestly it was the most peace I’ve ever had. I totally got drenched it was so peaceful. The clouds rolled in and that’s all you hear is just the rain. That was one of the better hikes I’ve had in a long time. The last mile or two it really started coming down so I picked up the pace. But the rain actually ended the hike really well.

Featured Story, Guest BlogGuest BloggerFebruary 13, 2019Arizona, Outdoor Recreation, Fishing Comments

Guest Blog: Taking Care of Land and Water - The Importance of Tradition and Our Voices

I always went fishing with my grandfather and my uncles, Bernave Arellano and Virgil Lopez, who taught me how to catch trout. Both of my uncles were very respectful of the land and understood that it was important to leave it better than you found it.

Growing up in Salt Lake City, I always enjoyed the outdoors. The air felt so good to breathe and it seemed like the opportunities were endless. We were rather poor. My mother raised four kids by herself. We didn’t have a car for much of the time. When we got on the train to visit relatives, I always looked out the window at the open range where you could run fast and feel free.

Back then, my family hunted deer and elk. It’s important to realize that hunting and fishing are fun, but the best reason is to hunt to put food on the table. This is true for most Latinos. My family made jerky from the meat of the animals they killed. They would smoke the fish that we caught. Today, my relatives living in small towns in the Southwest still hunt for subsistence. A lot of these towns are food deserts and don’t have access to the best grocery stores. But through fishing and hunting you can still feed your family with good nutrition.

Guest Blog: The Land is My Life

The land has always been our life. Our dedication is to the land. We’ve always depended on the land to survive. My family were farmers and ranchers. I spent most of my summers with my grandfather, and I continue his traditions. We own pieces of land, but I don’t feel like they’re ours, only ours to take care of while were here.

Guest Blog: Protecting Public Lands for Future Generations

As a 26 year-old living in Phoenix, I hear all the time from the Latino community that camping and hiking is not part of our culture. That’s not true. This is part of who we are. It is part of our identity to enjoy the earth and what it provides for us, and also to have our role in protecting it. People are disengaged from their history and their roots. But if you can’t directly experience public lands, it’s harder to advocate on their behalf, or speak to elected officials about why they should care.

Featured Story, Guest BlogGuest BloggerOctober 29, 2018Access, Arizona, Outdoor Recreation, Environmental Justice (EJ), PollutionComment

Guest Blog: Teaching Our Kids to Fish and Hunt: A Generations-old Tradition

Sylvia Lovato Huereña loves nothing more than to watch a child fish for the first time. She had this experience with her own children, her 10 grandchildren, and countless others. “When a child goes out to the lake and catches their first fish, at first they’re terrified to grab it when it’s jumping all over,” she said. “But then the amount of joy in their eyes is one of the most profound moments.” In addition to teaching them how to hold a fishing pole and pull the hook out of the fish’s mouth, she and her husband Lupe also let them know that whatever they kill they have to eat; and that they should leave the lake in better condition than they found it.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerOctober 15, 2018Advisory Board, Sylvia Lovato Huereña, ArizonaComment

Guest Blog: The Outdoors Is My Second Home by Rose Ann Contreras Atherton (Plus my favorite wild game green chili recipe!)

Read the story of Rose Ann Contreras Atherton, whose second home is the outdoors - plus her favorite wild game green chili recipe! "Every Thursday night, like clockwork, my husband, son and I pack up our Fifth Wheel and prepare to head out into the woods the next day," she writes. "During hunting season, we drive a few hours away to our favorite spots looking for deer, elk, and wild turkey. I love the outdoors. I love the smell. I love that you can go for a walk for hours and you see something different every second. You don’t have to answer to anybody. I can’t even tell you the last time I stayed in a motel – it’s been years."

Guest BlogGuest BloggerDecember 19, 2017Arizona, Hunting, Fishing, Traditional Land UsesComment

Blog: Appreciating Public Lands in a Border Community

My experiences growing up not only taught me to respect the land, it also taught me the importance of getting out there. You care more about protecting our land and water when you have a personal relationship with them. Now, I bring that to my work as county supervisor and I organize events that will get the community involved in outdoor recreation.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerMay 9, 2017Arizona, Ranching, Hunting, Fishing, Family Fishing DayComment

Guest Blog: The Arizona Schultz Fire & The Incredible Restoration that Followed - One Man’s Story

My family’s been living in the San Francisco Peaks area for three generations and the forest is everything to us. All my life my family would tell stories of the time they spent out on the land. One of my grandfathers was a logger and spent his entire career in the forest. There’s even a legend about a huge mule deer buck my grandpa got at Schultz Pass back in the 40’s. Personally, I’m an avid bow hunter, hiker, and mountain biker. I’m out there all the time. I even combine my mountain biking and hunting, since most of the forest is closed to cars.

Guest BlogCamilla SimonApril 5, 2017Arizona, Hunting, Outdoor Recreation, Forest Restoration, Liz ArchuletaComment

Q&A: HECHO Advisory Board Member Rock Ulibarri

The Ulibarri side of my family was one of the original 36 families that settled in Las Vegas, New Mexico and my mother’s side of the family is a mix of Apache and French Canadian (as a result of the cavalry in southern New Mexico). Our ancestry and heritage is assimilated from the Native American community, so we see ourselves as caretakers of the land, not owners. Indigenous DNA runs through us and makes us uninterested in developing or exploiting the land. The land is sacred. The blood from my father’s umbilical cord is soaked into this land and his mother before him and her mother before that.

Guest Blog: A Career Managing Public Lands: Q&A with Raul Morales

Raul Morales, Deputy State Director for Natural Resources, Lands and Planning, Nevada State Office of the Bureau of Land Management discusses Latino engagement when managing public lands, finding a good balance between conservation and development, and working in a federal leadership position.

Guest Blog: Hunting, Fishing, and Camping - A Way of Life Supporting Connections to Our Lands and Family

Lupe Huerena and his daughter Alexis Stack discuss growing up hunting, fishing, and camping and how these activities have shaped their relationship, lives, and traditions. They also discuss how these outdoor activities forge a connection between person and land, and how protecting these vital resources for our future generations is paramount to the way we live.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerMarch 24, 2016Arizona, Public Lands, Hunting, Traditional Land Uses, Fishing, Outdoor RecreationComment

Guest Blog: Living Our Proud Traditions of Camping and Fishing in a Multi-generational Family

Enjoying the outdoors naturally makes you want to conserve these resources so we can all continue enjoying them. And you don’t need to be in northern or rural Arizona to experience that with more and more city parks now including urban fishing and urban lakes. What good way to bring increased awareness of being outdoors and enjoying our natural resources. And for Latinos especially, it is important to keep public lands in public hands since this is where so many rich family traditions were created.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerFebruary 1, 2016Fishing, Traditional Land Uses, Arizona, Outdoor RecreationComment

Guest Blog: Generations-old Hunting Traditions in Colorado

My family has been hunting and fishing and enjoying the great outdoors of the Southwest for generations. They had a garden and ate elk and deer and fish – they were the “farm to table” organic growers before it was cool and trendy. Knowing my grandfather hunted in the same places I have and fished the same waters creates a powerful connection to the land.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerDecember 10, 2015Hunting, Traditional Land Uses, Colorado, Fishing, Public Lands Comments

Q&A: HECHO Advisory Board Member Al Martinez

I grew up in a family that would camp, fish, hunt, and hike, and I thought they were the coolest things we did. We’d camp around San Antonio, Texas and my dad also took us camping in Colorado – we spent a lot of time skiing and fishing there. I remember my dad teaching us how to BBQ fish and how he’d buy watermelons and stick them in sacks in the cold lakes to keep them cool.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerDecember 2, 2015Advisory Board, Al Martinez, NevadaComment

Q&A: HECHO Advisory Board Member Utah Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck

My dad really ingrained in us kids the importance of stewardship, and this was something I knew was a commitment. You reap from the land and you have to be good stewards for the land. At a young age I was aware of that importance.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerNovember 3, 2015Advisory Board, Rebecca Chavez-Houck, UtahComment

Guest Blog: The Story of Juan Palma - How a Mexican Migrant Boy Became a BLM State Director (Part II)

Many Latino families are working so hard to fulfill those basic necessities, they may not have the time or headspace to consider the land or recreation or connecting with nature. However, in my opinion, spending time with family is also a basic necessity, and public lands are a great venue, as they are open to everyone and they provide a place for families to be together doing activities that are low-cost.

Guest Blog: The Story of Juan Palma - How a Mexican Migrant Boy Became a BLM State Director (Part I)

Only in America could a migrant boy from Mexico picking tomatoes look up toward the snowcapped mountains of the Sierra Nevada, and 30 years later, manage those same magnificent lands.

Guest Blog: Honoring our Heritage. Building our Future. One Man’s Story.

Growing up in Arizona, I was surrounded by family – my four sisters, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. It was a lot of mouths to feed and back then we didn’t have a lot of money, so we relied on nature for our food (not so different from our ancestors).

Guest BlogGuest BloggerOctober 10, 2015Hispanic Heritage Month, Arizona, Hunting, Fishing, Traditional Land UsesComment

Q&A: HECHO Advisory Board Member Senator Mo Denis

We need to provide our children with the things that make life worth living, and getting out and participating in the outdoors is very important for that.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerSeptember 30, 2015Advisory Board, Moises Denis, NevadaComment

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