New Mexico Wildlife Federation

Founded in in 1914 by Aldo Leopold, The New Mexico Wildlife Federation’s (NMWF) early leaders convened sportsmen and women from across the region to protect the nation’s first wilderness in the Gila National Forest in Southwestern, New Mexico More than 100 years later, NMWF continues to inspire New Mexicans to conserve public landscapes, watersheds, and wildlife for our children’s future. Our fundamental goal is to cultivate the next generation of public land users that is in touch with our outdoor heritage. This is accomplished through a vast array of partnerships with a variety of environmental and conservation groups and through delivering high quality, research-based curriculum aligned programming. Nature Ninos is the Youth Education arm of the NMWF and delivers high-quality and award winning outdoor education to youth PreK though high school throughout New Mexico. A primary focus of Nature Ninos is to get underserved and marginalized youth (and families) into the outdoors through community hikes, outdoor education programming, overnight camping trips, and a variety of educational, fund, hands-on activities. Three recent successes: Created a nationally recognized research project centered on Engaging Marginalized Youth in Hunting and Fishing; Created a set of How To Guides for creating outdoor programming; Presenting our findings are local, state, national, and international conferences on this innovative work. Nature Ninos is poised to scale our work and provide pathways to the outdoors by and for marginalized youth in the outdoors.