'Defensores' Broadens Bay Watershed Work – In Spanish

Annapolis MD

14 April, 2022

4:47 PM

Description

By Jeremy Cox, the Chesapeake Bay Journal Apr 11, 2022 "Bienvenidos al Rio Anacostia!" Jorge Bogantes' introduction — translation: "Welcome to the Anacostia River!" — established more than just the affable tone of his boating excursion. It signaled that the next 90 minutes would be ensconced in the language most familiar to his audience. Minutes later, the pontoon boat pushed away from the slip, carrying more than two dozen adults and children on an unhurried voyage from Maryland into Washington, DC. At the wheel stood Bogantes, narrating the trip almost exclusively in Spanish. This wasn't purely a pleasure cruise. This was the first field trip for the first class of a program that trains people to be environmental guardians. Such "stewardship academies" have proliferated across the Chesapeake Bay watershed in recent years. But they traditionally have been taught in English. That has left a void for a key demographic, said Abel Olivo, executive director and one of the founders of Defensores de la Cuenca (Watershed Defenders), a nonprofit based in DC's Maryland suburbs that strives to connect the Latino community with the natural world. "There are so many communities that are unengaged," Olivo said. "If we want to make significant strides in addressing climate change and environmental justice, we need to reach the communities that are the most impacted. And that is the Black and Brown community." So, Defensores, which was established in July 2020, partnered with the Anacostia Watershed Society to create a new academy. Well, an "academia." "We're not here to exploit the free labor of the Latino community," Olivo said. "We want to provide opportunities for people to increase their education in nature and the environment." Last year, Olivo's group won funding from the highly competitive Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund's Small Watershed Grants program. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency make about $8 million–$10 million in funding available each year for community-based projects that seek to protect or restore natural resources within the Chesapeake's 64,000-square-mile drainage basin. Defensores received $167,000 and plans to combine it with $59,000 in matching funds to operate the academy. The first cohort started meeting in March. The academy's instruction on watershed issues takes place over four months, pairing workshops with hands-on experiences, Olivo said. At the end, each person has up to one year to complete a stormwater-cleanup project of their own choosing — with up to $5,000 available to support it. His goal is to enroll 15–25 participants per cycle. Olivo hopes to establish Spanish-language watershed academies throughout the Bay region, particularly in places where there are large concentrations of Latino residents. For now, he is concentrating his energies on a cluster of ethnically diverse communities along the Anacostia in Maryland's Prince George's County. Known collectively as "the Port Towns," the communities of Bladensburg, Colmar Manor, Cottage City and Edmonston are home to 13,000 people. Of those, about one-third identify as Hispanic. "It's not the White, middle-class retiree who is interested in nature that lives in a single-family detached home with lots of green space access," said Olivo, a fourth-generation Chicano who spent years working on Capitol Hill as a lobbyist for municipal interests in California and the Pacific Northwest. "It's a completely different demographic." He added that the program is tailored toward environmental issues that resonate the most with the Latino community, such as air quality, heat islands and tree canopies. The Anacostia Watershed Society has long taken strides to engage with Latinos, offering boat cruises in Spanish and an annual bilingual festival that blends family activities with environmental education. Latinos care deeply about the environment, said Bogantes, a natural resources specialist with the Anacostia Watershed society. But the odds are stacked against their getting involved. Many are first-generation immigrants — those born outside the United States — and work too many hours to have spare time for outside causes. Many struggle to make ends meet. And many have borne a disproportionate burden from the COVID-19 pandemic because they couldn't work remotely. The Defensores academy offers each participant $1,000 to encourage and support their enrollment. "It's sort of an experiment," Bogantes said. "This is an opportunity to work with other types of people that are not traditionally involved in this type of stuff." The group that gathered at the Bladensburg Waterfront Park for the boat tour was greeted by a cool breeze and cloudy skies. Several participants brought their children. There were no empty seats on the boat. Speaking in Spanish, Bogantes was a dutiful tour guide. He pointed out how the red maples were beginning to bud, living up to their colorful name. He answered questions about the turtles that lolled on logs along the shoreline. And he called out the names of landmarks, such as the National Arboretum and the gray husk of RFK Stadium. But he also delved into the Anacostia's ills: how toxic contamination from PCBs has spurred an effort to clean up its sediment; why it's important to sponsor trash pickup days; and why foreign plants such as phragmites and bamboo are so problematic. Dulce Gonzalez, a DC resident and one of the academy's participants, said afterward that she was dismayed to see so many floating pools of trash in the river – but not surprised. "So many people don't care [about littering]," she said. "They're like, 'It's only one bottle.'" For many participants, the Anacostia River is like a ghost — ever-present in their lives but rarely visible. Bogantes said that he hopes the academy inspires people to pay more attention to it. "What we have seen is people have lived here for decades, [but] they don't know the river or they don't know we have bald eagles and beavers and otters," he said. "It's just an amazing public asset that still needs some work." The Chesapeake Bay Journal is a nonprofit news organization covering environmental issues in the Bay region. Sign up for a free subscription at BayJournal.com.