Surfrider Protects our Coasts During Latino Conservation Week

Last week, the Surfrider Foundation partnered with Hispanic Access Foundation to support the Latino community getting into the outdoors and protecting our shared natural resources. Latino Conservation Week: Disfrutando y Conservando Nuestra Tierra saw activities across the country that helped communities play outdoors and advance local and national conservation priorities.

Surfrider led three events, engaging more than 500 volunteers in a variety of stewardship, outreach, and recreation activities in California and Puerto Rico. 

In Imperial Beach, California, on the US-Mexico border, a community plagued by crossborder sewage contamination, Surfrider worked with local organizations Friends of Friendship Park, Outdoor Outreach, Casa Familiar, Climate Action Campaign, and Living Coast Discovery Center to remove 60 pounds of trash from the beach with 60 volunteers. Sarah Davidson, Surfrider’s Clean Border Water Now Coordinator, said that “the event not only cleaned the beach of plastic pollution and trash but it also elevated the awareness of the ongoing sewage crisis here. Fortunately, there is progress on funding and implementing the solutions needed to fix the issue.” The cleanup was followed by a celebration with food, music, door prizes, and activities brought by participating organizations to engage community members.

Meanwhile, up the coast in Long Beach, Surfrider co-led an Ocean Friendly Garden workshop and milkweed giveaway. Ocean Friendly Gardens is Surfrider’s sustainable landscaping and education program that provides beautiful, inexpensive and natural solutions to reduce polluted runoff and support resilient coasts. “We had the opportunity to collaborate with SAMO Fund and Puente LBC, two organizations that go above and beyond to include the Latino community in taking action for the environment,” commented Kathryn Dressendorfer, Surfrider’s Southern California Ocean Friendly Gardens Coordinator. “We were stoked to see the enthusiasm and passion of everyone involved, and the 2,984 native milkweed plants distributed will have a lasting impact on the local ecosystem.”

More than 3,000 miles away, in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, Surfrider’s Puerto Rico Program’s Manager, Hector Varela Valez, led more than a dozen volunteers through a day of interactive education and stewardship on Aguadilla Bay. Surfrider student club members and local volunteers snorkeled and learned from Hector and other conservation leaders. To help manage visitation in the bay, the participants installed an interpretive sign for those that come to enjoy its coral reefs, abundant marine life and waves. 

Hector said, “Latino Conservation Week provided an opportunity to bring together Surfrider's two student clubs in Puerto Rico with local activists and learn first hand about the struggles for the conservation of the ocean and beaches, including the coast of Aguadilla. This provided an opportunity to get to know the bay with a boat experience and help educate beachgoers who visit the bay with the placement of an interpretive sign. For the community, seeing young people committed to conservation gave hope for the future.”

Surfrider would like to thank the hundreds of people that joined us in our efforts to protect our oceans, waves and beaches this Latino Conservation Week. We would also like to thank the Hispanic Access Foundation for their leadership making the outdoors a more equitable space while protecting its resources.