Rivers & Birds
Grants Awarded
Rivers & Birds’ Earth Stewardship Through Outdoor Recreation Program aims to reconnect Taos County public school students with nature, fostering a sense of environmental stewardship and leadership through engaging outdoor activities like hiking and rafting. By addressing the disconnection caused by digital media, the program seeks to cultivate love for the Earth within participants, improving their well-being and reinforcing community ties to natural landscapes.
Since 1999, Rivers & Birds has engaged over 8,500 primarily Hispanic public school children in Taos County through multi-day nature immersion programs that include the Watershed Learning Project, Kids in the Monument Program, and Students Explore Wilderness Program. These curriculum address local conservation efforts, watershed health, the importance of outdoor recreational activities, and imbue respect for public lands. This hands-on approach educates children on their environmental heritage, lays a foundation for a love of nature, and empowers them to be responsible Earth stewards.
The Adventures in Stewardship program offers two days of outdoor education for third, fourth, and fifth grade public school students in Taos County, focusing on five stewardship principles inspired by Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic. Each principle: “Give Plants a Chance,” “Keep Wildlife Wild,” “Don’t Spoil the Soil,” “Care for the Creeks,” and “Respect People, Past and Present” is used to cultivate a better understanding of the natural and cultural heritage around them, encourage participation in conservation projects, and develop environmental stewardship. Activities range from planting seeds towards native vegetation restoration, installing bird nesting boxes, building erosion mitigation structures, to hiking with llamas and a cultural exploration of local petroglyphs. The program is in talks with the Watershed, Soil and Air Program Manager for Carson National Forest to potentially involve students in forest service projects.
Rivers and Birds provide hands-on environmental education that celebrates the interconnection of all life and advocates for the conservation and restoration of our public lands. Rivers & Birds also initiated and organized our culturally-diverse community in Taos County for several federal land protection efforts (the establishment of the 252,000-acre Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, the 45,000 acre Columbine Hondo Wilderness passed in 2014, the 13,000 acre Cerro de la Olla Wilderness still awaiting passage in Congress, the 8,120-acre Rio San Antonio Wilderness and the 13,420-acre Ute Mountain Wilderness – both of which were established in 2019). To date, Rivers & Birds’ culturally-diverse community for public land advocacy has led to the establishment of 308,000 acres of public lands in the past ten years.