Arizona Democratic Reps. Raul Grijalva and Ruben Gallego joined other lawmakers and civil rights groups Thursday urging President Barack Obama to implement more inclusive policies on the nation’s public lands.

On Thursday a coalition of civil society organizations have urged President Barack Obama to ensure greater participation and involvement of Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans citizens in national parks and public lands of the United States.

Today, more than 20 Latino faith leaders joined the public celebration of the new California Desert National Monuments demonstrating their intention to serve as stewards and connect the greater Latino community with these special places. The designation of the Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow and Castle Mountains National Monuments marked the outcome of a multi-year effort to permanently protect these public lands of the California Desert for present and future generations.

The added protected lands, Jewell said, make it possible to hike from the Angeles National Forest east of Los Angeles to the San Bernardino National Forest to the newly created Sand to Snow National Monument, to Joshua Tree National Park, to the newly created Mojave Trails National Monument, to the Castle Mountains National Monument and to the Nevada border.

As America’s National Park Service celebrates its centennial this summer, we have a responsibility to create a vision for the next century that focuses on the importance of public lands for all Americans.

Thirty fourth-grade students from Escuela de Guadalupe, a Catholic, dual-language school, will take part in the National Park Service’s Every Kid in a Park (EKIP) initiative this Thursday at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.  

Our country this year is celebrating the centennial of the National Park Service. To mark this milestone, I’m calling on our community to reflect on what the next 100 years will hold for our national parks and public lands. It’s especially fitting that we engage in this conversation in the California Desert, where public lands are woven into our way of life.

On June 4, 12 youth from Indio Spanish Seventh Day Adventist Church camped overnight in the new Sand to Snow National Monument, which was designated by President Obama in February.

We are proud to announce our partnership with the Hispanic Access Foundation in an effort to connect Latino youth with careers in natural resource conservation. The U.S. is projected to become more racially and ethnically diverse in the coming years. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 29 percent of Americans in 2060 are projected to be Hispanic – that’s more than one quarter of the total population!