Friends of the Organ Mountains
Grants Awarded
This project will pave a section of the La Cueva Trail to enhance accessibility for individuals with wheelchairs and limited mobility, making it the only accessible trail within the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. Covering nearly three-quarters of a mile, the trail will include viewing pullouts for wildlife and scenery, benefiting both participants and the local community.
The Moving Montañas program engages community youth in outdoor activities, fostering a strong connection to the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument and nurturing future stewards of our public lands. Through guided hikes, summer camps, and educational enrichment, participants will learn about climate change's effects on the Chihuahuan Desert and develop positive relationships with their natural environment, ultimately benefiting both individual youth and the local community. By collaborating with local partners, the program ensures that underserved youth have access to these transformative experiences.
The Moving Montañas Program aims to engage community youth with our national monument, addressing the lack of diversity in conservation and outdoor recreation spaces. The program hopes to cultivate a new generation of public land stewards that reflect our majority-minority community, and inspire youth to appreciate public lands as a shared treasure. To achieve this, a broad partnership network aids in reaching out to those who otherwise lack these opportunities.
The Moving Montañas program aims to connect community youth with the OMDP (Obsidian Mountain Desert Park) National Monument while fostering broader community engagement in conservation efforts. By lowering barriers to outdoor access, the program seeks to promote inclusivity and encourage diverse participation in recreational activities, ultimately benefiting both participants and the local community.
Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks (FOMDP) was founded as a grassroots organization to garner support for the establishment of a national monument. This goal was achieved in 2014 with the Obama administration using the Antiquities Act to create the OMDP National Monument. Although we continue to celebrate this designation to this day, we believe that there is still a lot of work to be done regarding the continued protection of the Organ Mountains Desert-Peaks. The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks is located in a border community. Prior to establishment, many concerns were raised about border security with one part of the monument being close to the border. This means that the national monument is uniquely placed in a community that has historically been excluded from the outdoors and currently experiences the struggles of living within the 100-mile jurisdiction of the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP). Being a border community, the idea of designating these lands as a national monument brought up contentions about border security. After the monument establishment, and shortly after threats to dissolve/shrink the monument, the organization has shifted its focus to ensuring that our community, made up of people who have recently arrived in the United States and people who have been here for generations, understand that the surrounding public lands were protected for them. The landscape is for them to use, to recreate, and to learn. Our organization hopes to establish a sense of belonging and ownership to these lands so that our community has a sense of responsibility for maintaining and protecting these lands for generations to come. The shift to programming began in 2019 and has grown to a popular program today. Friends of OMDP has been approached by various community groups to bring outdoor programming to their youth groups. We hope to grow the Moving Montañas presence throughout Doña Ana County as we continue to cultivate an appreciation for our public lands. This growth will be defined by the establishment of our own unique programming that directly recruits from community members. Currently we utilize our partnership network, and will continue to do so, but want to evolve and grow the programming to also include our own stand alone programming. We are seeing this strategy be effective on our outdoor clubs. We are looking to expand on that to include more after school clubs, summer programming as well as programming to be offered during long school year break (Fall and Spring Breaks).