“Wow! That sounds so cool!” is the usual response I get when I tell people about my internship with the Hispanic Access Foundation and the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Leadville, CO families celebrated Latino Conservation Week during the Mt. Elbert Family Camping Weekend in July. A coalition of conservation organizations came together to create this opportunity for members of the Leadville community to participate in a multi-generational camping experience and learn the fundamentals of trail building and restoration.

SAN DIEGO – More than 50 San Diego Latino youth and families took rods and reels this past Saturday for a fishing experience on Lake Jennings. The event held by Good Neighbor Project and Hispanic Access Foundation, taught multi-generational families basic fishing instruction, water safety, and hands-on conservation and aquatic stewardship activities.

Besides the general duties in the office, this position has given me the opportunity to participate in plenty of outdoor activities, including hikes and other educational activities with volunteer groups and the general public. These activities are key for conservation by providing the general public information about land use and getting them to fall in love with natures beauty.

Earlier this year I joined the Conservation Education staff at the USDA Forest Service in Washington DC as a HAF Resource Assistant. During these past four months I have been empowered to champion our public lands, delivering programs that make national forests and grasslands accessible to diverse audiences. As a relative newcomer to conservation I was weary about the contribution that I could make but I have been warmly embraced by leaders who are open to listen, eager to learn and humble enough to adjust. Passionate, caring and driven, I could not have landed in a more nurturing place for the kind of work that I truly value (more to come about my partners in crime in a future blog). Together we’re asking more and allowing for a free reign of creativity, giving the public a choice in how they want to protect and experience nature on their own terms.

It was in a Mission style single-story adobe structure located in “40 Acres” in Delano, California that César Chávez began a 25-day public fast resulting in the convergence of a movement that redefined workers’ rights in the United States. César Chávez solemn sacrifices to advance equity represented a powerful statement of solidarity for the United Farm Workers Movement, while the little adobe structure became the movement’s headquarters - a place that then hosted their challenges and conviction for a better future. More than honoring our community's stories and acts of empowerment, how do preserve the places that evoke our ancestors’ legacy of progress?

I credit my month to April Alix from the Providence Parks Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership and Janis Nepshinsky from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. Both of them had me travel between Kettle Pond Visitors Center and Rogers Williams Park. That way I could familiarize myself with the area and build relationships with different types of interns and employees, stakeholders, and communities of Charlestown and Providence.

One month ago, to the day, I began my internship at the Stewart B. McKinney Wildlife Refuge- although it hardly feels like more than a week has passed. After arriving in the wonderfully forested Westbrook, Connecticut I almost instantly jumped into my work. I quickly began working with the other volunteers, leading classes of fourth graders to Outer Island. We would take a boat to the island which was especially interesting because most of the students had never been on a boat and a small handful were down right terrified. Once on the island, we would teach the kids about shore birds, invasive species like the Asian shore crab and intertidal zones.

What’s better than working at one National Wildlife Refuge (NWR)? The answer is working at multiple refuges at the same time!!! Since last summer, I have interning at the newly named Lenape National Wildlife Refuge Complex. A refuge complex can be described as a network of refuges that are managed by a Project Leader or Refuge Manager, and all share the same resources and equipment. The refuge complex where I intern consists of four National Wildlife Refuges that are located in 3 states; they include Great Swamp NWR and Wallkill River NWR in New Jersey, Cherry Valley NWR in Pennsylvania and Shawangunk Grasslands NWR in New York.

WASHINGTON - Maite Arce, President and CEO of the Hispanic Access Foundation, released the following statement in response to the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management announcement that it will roll back the 2016 Methane and Waste Prevention Rule. The rule was originally implemented to curb natural gas waste by requiring existing oil and gas operations on public lands to use the most up-to-date technology to capture wasted natural gas that is either released into the atmosphere or burnt off and repair leaks from equipment.