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Latino Legacy: Building Place-Based Connections of Youth through Family Experiences with Forest Lands
Current collaborators include: USDA Forest Service (USFS), Texas Forest Service (TFS), US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU), Conroe Hispanic Force (CHF), Conroe Independent School District, Houston Independent School District, Texas Wildlife Association, Texas Youth Hunting Program, National Wild Turkey Federation.
Summary In April, 2007, the U.S. Forest Service launched More Kids in the Woods, a funded campaign designed to inspire youth and their families to pursue outdoor experiences. Our funded project, Latino Legacy, focuses on both urban and rural, minority communities. The project goal is to design and conduct outreach and conservation education programming appropriate for Latino communities; however, the outreach methods utilized in the project have extended far beyond the target audience. Through these outreach methods, we are creating pathways and building relationships between Latino communities, the resource management agencies and their public lands that offer numerous recreation opportunities families can enjoy. We have created primary outreach tool, designed to seek out the Latino community. The "Bosque Móvil" ("Forest Mobile") is a traveling information station filled with bilingual conservation and management outreach materials as well as hands-on activities and experiences designed to engage youth and their families in interactive interpretive and educational activities, exhibits and programs. The Forest-information team, "Los Amigos del Bosque" ("Friends of the Forest"), conducts bilingual outreach, specifically targeting the Latino community. The Forest-Information team, Los Amigos del Bosque, (two to six members, depending on the size of the event), interacts with visitors and discusses themes such as the availability of public lands, the multitude of recreational opportunities that exist on these lands and some of the sustainable management practices and principles that the US Forest Service and the Texas Forest Service employ to maintain healthy and productive forests. The team also discusses how the use of prescribed fire can be beneficial to certain ecological communities and to humans in the reduction of wildland fire risks in an urban-wildland interface. Our team uses a variety of unique educational tools to create connections with the public while communicating the necessity for management of different ecosystems for benefits to people and certain high priority species. For example, to explain the link between prescribed fire and management of such important communities and ecosystems, TFS provided our team with a cross-section of an original Red Cockaded Woodpecker (RCW) cavity and also an artificial cavity insert, to help illustrate the successful management of this endangered species. We have developed a bilingual interpretive exhibit panel that accompanies our hands-on outreach display describing RCW habitat and management. The Texas Forest Service has also provided our project with Firewise materials on fire safety, safe debris burning, and other materials, in both English and Spanish that our team members have distributed to interested event participants. USFS and TFS have also provided promotional items such as Mark Trail activity books and Smokey Bear memorabilia (Smokey Bear pins, rulers, stickers, whistles, Frisbees, water bottles, etc.), that both parents and children enjoy.
Special Events and Conducted On-site Activities
The Bosque Móvil debuted on June 24, at the George R. Brown Convention Center, for an event sponsored by the Mexican Institute of Greater Houston, and a variety of other organizations and agencies concerned with educational outreach to the Latino community. There were over 1500 event participants and over 900 individuals visited our mobile unit. Through participation at local Latino events such as the Cinco de Mayo celebration (≈ 500 visitors), the US Independence Day Celebration ((≈ 500 visitors), and the Hispanic Heritage Mexican/Central American Independence Day Celebration (≈1500 participants), all sponsored by the Conroe Hispanic Force, in Conroe, TX, along with the two Mobile Mexican Consulate events in Nacogdoches, TX (≈ 900 visitors), and the Mexican Institute of Greater Houston in Houston, TX (≈900 participants), we are reaching a segment of the population that is generally unaware of the opportunities that National and State Forests have to offer. Our Forest Information team explains the benefits of public lands and discusses recreation opportunities that families can experience on National and State Forests.
On several weekends, during July, August and September, the Forest Mobile traveled to several sites (USFS Scott's Ridge Recreation Area (≈ 80% Latino visitation), Lake Conroe Park (≈ 85% Latino visitation), and USFS Double Lake Recreation Area (≈ 60% Latino visitation)) to conduct outreach and present interpretive programming in an outdoor recreation setting. It is estimated that we were able to contact ≈ 2500 visitors during these summer on-site visits. In addition, our Amigos del Bosque team accompanied USFS representatives in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo on October 6-7, 2007. Officials estimated a two-day total visitation of greater than 40,000 visitors. Demographically, we estimated that Latinos comprised approximately 15% of the visitor base on Saturday and approximately 45% of the visitors on Sunday. We estimate that our booth received approximately 1,800 Latino and 10,000 non-Latino visitors and approximately 60% of the total visitors could be considered as direct contacts. On Saturday, October 27, our team joined the Texas Forest Service for their first annual Texas Forest Expo in Conroe, TX. Using the Bosque Móvil, we conducted interpretive outreach and hands-on activities to an estimated 300 children and 150 adults. Only small percentages (2%) of the visitors were Latino. On January 10-11, we participated in the Houston ISD Livestock Show and Expo in Houston, TX. We conducted three stations (Smokey Bear/fire prevention, leaves/leaf rubbings and forest wildlife) and reached approximately 400 K-2 children and conducted personalized outreach/recruitment to 20 high school youth. On January 30, we conducted USFS outreach to approximately 200 students and parents at a Conroe ISD elementary school. The following day, we conducted personal outreach/recruitment to 20 CISD high school students through two student organizations. Our estimate is that we reached a total of 18,000 individuals during our preliminary outreach/conservation education season
Future Outreach Efforts.
Our efforts, currently involve a variety of Independent School Districts (Conroe Independent School District, Houston Independent School District and Nacogdoches Independent School District) that maintain after-school/after-hours programs designed for their Latino students and parents (i.e. Noche de Familia, etc.). These venues lend a welcoming environment to the Latino participants and the support of the educational institution would assist in creating a level of credibility and a more direct link with the Latino community. We will take the Bosque Móvil and the Forest Information Team, Los Amigos del Bosque, to the families present at these school sponsored programs designed for the Latino parents. In addition to providing information and hands-on activities and experiences, we will begin an incentive program (upon approval by the USFS and the TFS) for these families to visit various National and State Forest Recreation Areas, free of charge. (There is a possibility that we may be able to offer annual passes to participants.) These special invitations will coincide with on-site Conservation Education programming to be conducted on these areas during the 2008 high use season on the Davy Crockett and Sam Houston National Forests. Special invitations (free passes) will be distributed to families who agree to be study participants as an incentive and as an act of gratitude for participation. The special invitation vouchers will be tracked using color codes and numbers which will denote the particular family group, demographic information describing the group and the outreach function in which the participants received the invitation. A removable stub will allow the visitor to display evidence in their vehicle of legal entry into the chosen recreation area. These passes will provide a method by which to monitor original outreach success. Passes will be collected by U. S. Forest Service employees during normal fee collection. The color-coded passes will be separated from the official fee envelopes. The researcher will collect the color coded passes which will be subsequently used to contact individuals that used the special invitation. These participants will then be asked to participate in family-based interviews concerning the effectiveness of the conservation education program provided. Through in-depth interviews, we expect to receive information about attitudes and concepts that could be used to improve upon the relevancy of the existing programs to the Latino community. We will use these in-depth interviews in the following ways: to explore participants' use of natural areas, to determine knowledge of and level of appreciation for natural resource conservation and the agencies that conduct those management activities; to understand current attitudes and concerns in relation to the conservation of natural resources; and to determine improved methods of communication and connection to the Latino community.
Design and Evaluation of Conservation Education Programs Designed for Latino Communities One of the project goals is to redesign existing conservation education programs in a manner that is more relevant to Latino communities. Through interaction with families during the delivery of currently developed conservation education programs, our goal is to develop programs that correspond to the Latino communities' perspectives. Following presentations of the newly developed culturally appropriate programs, visitors will be asked to participate in in-depth interviews. The family, as a unit, will be invited to participate in these interviews.
Recruitment of Youth as Amigos del Bosque Team Members In an attempt to encourage youth to pursue an education and to become involved in the field of natural resource conservation/management, our team will offer the opportunity to approximately 16 bilingual students to assist in Forest Mobile outreach and conservation education programming on National Forest lands during the 2008 visitor use season. Selected individuals will receive compensation for training and also for assisting in on-site programming. Through these life-changing experiences, we hope to create new conservation leaders who in turn, will inspire additional youth and families within the Latino community to become connected with nature.
Future Collaboration and Funding Goals
For further information, please contact: Tamberly Conway, M.S. Dr. Mike Legg Dr. Pat Stephens Williams
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| Last Updated ( Apr 26, 2010 at 10:13 AM ) |
Our Forest Team will continue to conduct outreach at community events and in recreation areas/park settings that have been designated as study sites for the current fiscal year. We will also continue to seek new venues that provide additional opportunities to from connections with Latino community members. 
Through the initial Kids in the Woods project funding and the continued in-kind support of the Texas Forest Service and SFASU, we have developed a pioneer outreach program. With the goodwill and support of the Conroe Hispanic Force, we have begun to forge a relationship with the Latino community. Future endeavors will entail the nurturing of these relationships as well as an effort to create outreach/conservation education programs that are relevant to Latino communities. Through continued collaboration with current partners and initiation of additional collaborative efforts with interested parties, we will strive to improve upon our current efforts and to create a sustainable project that may be replicated elsewhere. We will submit a proposal which will request continued project funding. We will continue to seek connections with new partners and to work together in creating a sustainable outreach program that will benefit Latino communities and the Forests that surround those communities.