Noah’s Ark Whitewater Rafting and Adventure Company partnered with Hispanic Access Foundation to introduce forty urban Hispanic youth to newly designated Browns Canyon National Monument in a multi-day educational program. This adventure experience included a day of whitewater rafting down Browns Canyon—the number one rafted stretch of water on the Arkansas River—and a morning playing on the Noah’s Ark Browns Canyon Adventure Park, one of Colorado’s largest aerial adventure parks.

Between global warming, pollution, rainforest destruction and a host of other threats to our environment, planet Earth may be in serious jeopardy. According to Sara Benitez, community outreach and partnerships manager for the nonprofit group Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF), everyone has a responsibility to participate in conservation efforts that will protect our local area, and our world, long into the future.

Last Friday, President Barack Obama signed into law legislation protecting Idaho’s Boulder-White Clouds as a wilderness area, which will help preserve water sources – it provides the headwaters to most of Idaho’s clean water – ecosystems and wildlife for generations to come.

Here in the High Desert, we enjoy many landscapes and natural wonders that are the envy of many throughout the country. With the desert’s unspoiled geologic features, recreation opportunities, unique wildlife, and starry skies in our national parks, wilderness areas, and other public lands, we are truly fortunate.

As news broke that the U.S. Senate passed the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Jerry Peak Wilderness Additions Act (SNRA+) and the bill would be sent on to President Obama for signing, Idahoans throughout the state, including the Latino community, rejoiced.