Nature Niños (Fiscal sponsor: New Mexico Wildlife Federation)
Grants Awarded
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The New Mexico Wildlife Federation (NMWF) collaborates with private landowners to establish permanent public access across private land to the expanding Marquez Wildlife Management Area (WMA), benefiting both visitors and the local community. By installing signage along 16 miles of easement, the program promotes respectful access while safeguarding private property, ultimately ensuring continued access to 70,000 acres of public lands, including the Marquez WMA and L Bar Ranch.
The priority of Nature Niños is to reach underserved/ marginalized youth and families throughout NM that are lacking opportunities to connect with our public lands and encourage them to have a meaningful, purposeful, and personal connection to the natural world. Through this mission we are creating a new generation of land, water, and wildlife stewards to protect and foster creative solutions to the long-term care of our planet while nature helps to nourish their social and emotional health and wellbeing.
The NMWF (New Mexico Wildlife Federation) Nature Ninos program aims to connect Latino and Native American youth and families with New Mexico’s natural resources, enhancing their social and emotional well-being through outdoor education. By offering summer camps, day programs, family hikes, and community events, the program seeks to enrich participants' lives and promote conservation, while also equipping educators and youth professionals with effective outdoor learning practices.
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.