Guest Blog: The Outdoors Is My Second Home by Rose Ann Contreras Atherton (Plus my favorite wild game green chili recipe!)

Read the story of Rose Ann Contreras Atherton, whose second home is the outdoors - plus her favorite wild game green chili recipe! "Every Thursday night, like clockwork, my husband, son and I pack up our Fifth Wheel and prepare to head out into the woods the next day," she writes. "During hunting season, we drive a few hours away to our favorite spots looking for deer, elk, and wild turkey. I love the outdoors. I love the smell. I love that you can go for a walk for hours and you see something different every second. You don’t have to answer to anybody. I can’t even tell you the last time I stayed in a motel – it’s been years."

Guest BlogGuest BloggerDecember 19, 2017Arizona, Hunting, Fishing, Traditional Land UsesComment

Blog: Appreciating Public Lands in a Border Community

My experiences growing up not only taught me to respect the land, it also taught me the importance of getting out there. You care more about protecting our land and water when you have a personal relationship with them. Now, I bring that to my work as county supervisor and I organize events that will get the community involved in outdoor recreation.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerMay 9, 2017Arizona, Ranching, Hunting, Fishing, Family Fishing DayComment

Guest Blog: The Arizona Schultz Fire & The Incredible Restoration that Followed - One Man’s Story

My family’s been living in the San Francisco Peaks area for three generations and the forest is everything to us. All my life my family would tell stories of the time they spent out on the land. One of my grandfathers was a logger and spent his entire career in the forest. There’s even a legend about a huge mule deer buck my grandpa got at Schultz Pass back in the 40’s. Personally, I’m an avid bow hunter, hiker, and mountain biker. I’m out there all the time. I even combine my mountain biking and hunting, since most of the forest is closed to cars.

Guest BlogCamilla SimonApril 5, 2017Arizona, Hunting, Outdoor Recreation, Forest Restoration, Liz ArchuletaComment

Q&A: HECHO Advisory Board Member Rock Ulibarri

The Ulibarri side of my family was one of the original 36 families that settled in Las Vegas, New Mexico and my mother’s side of the family is a mix of Apache and French Canadian (as a result of the cavalry in southern New Mexico). Our ancestry and heritage is assimilated from the Native American community, so we see ourselves as caretakers of the land, not owners. Indigenous DNA runs through us and makes us uninterested in developing or exploiting the land. The land is sacred. The blood from my father’s umbilical cord is soaked into this land and his mother before him and her mother before that.

Guest Blog: A Career Managing Public Lands: Q&A with Raul Morales

Raul Morales, Deputy State Director for Natural Resources, Lands and Planning, Nevada State Office of the Bureau of Land Management discusses Latino engagement when managing public lands, finding a good balance between conservation and development, and working in a federal leadership position.

Guest Blog: Hunting, Fishing, and Camping - A Way of Life Supporting Connections to Our Lands and Family

Lupe Huerena and his daughter Alexis Stack discuss growing up hunting, fishing, and camping and how these activities have shaped their relationship, lives, and traditions. They also discuss how these outdoor activities forge a connection between person and land, and how protecting these vital resources for our future generations is paramount to the way we live.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerMarch 24, 2016Arizona, Public Lands, Hunting, Traditional Land Uses, Fishing, Outdoor RecreationComment

Guest Blog: Living Our Proud Traditions of Camping and Fishing in a Multi-generational Family

Enjoying the outdoors naturally makes you want to conserve these resources so we can all continue enjoying them. And you don’t need to be in northern or rural Arizona to experience that with more and more city parks now including urban fishing and urban lakes. What good way to bring increased awareness of being outdoors and enjoying our natural resources. And for Latinos especially, it is important to keep public lands in public hands since this is where so many rich family traditions were created.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerFebruary 1, 2016Fishing, Traditional Land Uses, Arizona, Outdoor RecreationComment

Guest Blog: Generations-old Hunting Traditions in Colorado

My family has been hunting and fishing and enjoying the great outdoors of the Southwest for generations. They had a garden and ate elk and deer and fish – they were the “farm to table” organic growers before it was cool and trendy. Knowing my grandfather hunted in the same places I have and fished the same waters creates a powerful connection to the land.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerDecember 10, 2015Hunting, Traditional Land Uses, Colorado, Fishing, Public Lands Comments

Q&A: HECHO Advisory Board Member Al Martinez

I grew up in a family that would camp, fish, hunt, and hike, and I thought they were the coolest things we did. We’d camp around San Antonio, Texas and my dad also took us camping in Colorado – we spent a lot of time skiing and fishing there. I remember my dad teaching us how to BBQ fish and how he’d buy watermelons and stick them in sacks in the cold lakes to keep them cool.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerDecember 2, 2015Advisory Board, Al Martinez, NevadaComment

Q&A: HECHO Advisory Board Member Utah Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck

My dad really ingrained in us kids the importance of stewardship, and this was something I knew was a commitment. You reap from the land and you have to be good stewards for the land. At a young age I was aware of that importance.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerNovember 3, 2015Advisory Board, Rebecca Chavez-Houck, UtahComment

Guest Blog: The Story of Juan Palma - How a Mexican Migrant Boy Became a BLM State Director (Part II)

Many Latino families are working so hard to fulfill those basic necessities, they may not have the time or headspace to consider the land or recreation or connecting with nature. However, in my opinion, spending time with family is also a basic necessity, and public lands are a great venue, as they are open to everyone and they provide a place for families to be together doing activities that are low-cost.

Guest Blog: The Story of Juan Palma - How a Mexican Migrant Boy Became a BLM State Director (Part I)

Only in America could a migrant boy from Mexico picking tomatoes look up toward the snowcapped mountains of the Sierra Nevada, and 30 years later, manage those same magnificent lands.

Guest Blog: Honoring our Heritage. Building our Future. One Man’s Story.

Growing up in Arizona, I was surrounded by family – my four sisters, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. It was a lot of mouths to feed and back then we didn’t have a lot of money, so we relied on nature for our food (not so different from our ancestors).

Guest BlogGuest BloggerOctober 10, 2015Hispanic Heritage Month, Arizona, Hunting, Fishing, Traditional Land UsesComment

Q&A: HECHO Advisory Board Member Senator Mo Denis

We need to provide our children with the things that make life worth living, and getting out and participating in the outdoors is very important for that.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerSeptember 30, 2015Advisory Board, Moises Denis, NevadaComment

Guest Blog: Parks and Open Spaces Part of a Balanced Life

Preserving parks and other open spaces is a priority for residents in my district, and for me too. Many of us shared a similar upbringing. Unable to go on exotic sounding vacations like Disneyworld, most of us took to the hills. On weekends, my family would pack a picnic and go to a park.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerSeptember 8, 2015Mark Cardenas, Advisory Board, ArizonaComment

Guest Blog: Water’s Interwoven Connection with Public Lands

During my childhood in Las Vegas I got to enjoy regular family outings to a slew of landscapes, from deserts and dry lakebeds, to marshland and forests. I remember gazing upon breathtaking sights that expanded my outlook on life and put into perspective my place in nature.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerAugust 31, 2015Water, Nevada, Public LandsComment

Q&A: Kent Salazar, Outdoorsman and HECHO Advisory Board Member

"Spending time outdoors has always been a renewal to me, almost like going to church. In the hardest times of my life when I was facing adversity, I found that being outdoors, camping and spending time alone in nature rejuvenated me, brought me back, and cleared my vision of life.

Guest BlogGuest BloggerAugust 24, 2015Kent Salazar, Advisory Board, New MexicoComment

Guest Blog: Community Gardens - A Modern Way to Pass Down Our Latino Heritage

You didn’t have to tell the kids to get outside and go hiking to get some exercise. That’s what we were always doing – we just didn’t call it that. You didn’t even have to hop in a car to go to a park or the woods. It was right out our back door. And with every action, we were getting acquainted with our natural resources and deepening our bonds with our planet and our heritage.

Guest Blog: How One Adventure Turned Into A Love For The Outdoors

Some of my favorite memories with my daughter, Vida, have been watching her as she explores her surroundings and challenges her own physical limits. At four years old, she has become acutely aware of her environment, even showing concern for the smallest creatures and things. It was Vida, in fact, that brought our love of hiking to our family.

Four Steps to Developing a Lifetime Habit of Hiking and Camping

Even so, I know for some, getting outdoors may seem daunting. There is a lot of equipment available and it seems like there are new products every day, designed to make your hiking and camping easier or more enjoyable. But in some ways, trying to make things easier has made them seem more out of reach.

We need more diversity in outdoor activities, including those jobs that cater to hikers, campers, hunters and anglers. HECHO has asked me to provide some tips to help others develop lifelong skills outdoors and I am happy to help!

Guest BlogGuest BloggerMay 14, 2015Idaho, New Mexico, Outdoor Recreation, ColoradoComment

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