Our Partnership with the USDA Forest Service

The relationship between Environmental Education of New Mexico and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Forest Service Southwestern Region goes back decades to the early days of
Environmental Education of New Mexico.

Collectively, our work demonstrates how a public-private partnership between a local nonprofit and a federal land management agency with shared values can bring different resources and expertise together to support local teachers and communities in environmental and outdoor learning. Our recent collaborations have included:

From 2019-2020, we offered statewide educator workshops to support teachers and educators
in gaining knowledge and skills for implementing New Mexico’s new science standards while
demonstrating how forest- and nature-based activities align with these standards. Environmental Education of New Mexico offered a related Outdoor Learning Webinar Series and we created the
popular NM STEM Ready! Standards Quick Start Guide.

From 2020-2021, we developed the State of Outdoor and Environmental Learning (SOEL).
The SOEL is a reinvigorated regional inventory of outdoor and environmental learning
initiatives, curricula, and programs in the Southwestern region. It is a tool for 1) decision makers
to use for data-driven decision making for resourcing environmental and outdoor learning, 2)
organizations to seek partners and collaboration, and 3) educators (formal and informal) and
families to become familiar with opportunities near them. It demonstrated that annually nearly
300,000 learners in New Mexico receive benefits from outdoor and environmental learning.

From 2022-2023, we collaborated on the online Outdoor Learning Symposium (along with
other partners) with engaging sessions on outdoor classrooms and standards-aligned outdoor
learning curricula and this Outdoor Learning Toolkit. These products serve as entry points for
interested teachers and educators to begin meaningful, relevant outdoor learning on school
grounds and in local communities.

Together, through our partnership, our organizations have realized mutual benefits that
advance Environmental Education of New Mexico’s mission to ensure every NM child has
equitable access to environmental and outdoor learning and the Forest Service Southwestern
Region’s commitment to youth engagement to provide learning and inspiration for the next
generation of stewards to care for the land. Our shared hope is that these efforts will continue to
serve as springboards for many new community collaborations and impactful learning
outdoors for all New Mexican youth.