Outdoor Allies: André Sanchez

Ever wondered how you can do more for public lands but you aren’t sure where to start? Outdoor Alliance’s Outdoor Allies series explores how other outdoor adventurers got their start in advocacy work and their advice for how you can harness your passion for the outdoors into advocacy for the land and water you love. André Sanchez is a community organizer, environmental advocate, and community-nature connection builder. André works with CalWild, where he serves as their Community Engagement & Conservation Policy Manager. He presently resides on the lands of the Nisenan and Miwok, what is nowadays referred to as Sacramento, CA.

What do you like to do outside and how did you first get connected with the outdoors?

I’ve always been drawn to nature, though didn’t always recognize that I had an affinity towards it. Even when it was just being in the backyard and playing in the soil underneath the tree, being outside just felt right. When I was young, I did a lot of fishing with my brother & friends and grew up having family day trips to many of the local water bodies in the area including the main stem San Joaquin River. It wasn’t until I got to college that I started doing day hikes, got into backpacking, car camping, and rock climbing. I even tried out bird watching via my wildlife coursework. Eventually I also did some mountain biking and snowboarding. Now I’m trying to lean into whitewater rafting, particularly as it allows me to connect to rivers differently. I like to dabble!

I was lucky in many respects with my upbringing. My grandma shared a lot of Indigenous ecological knowledge with me growing up, especially around plants, though it wasn’t referred to as that and it was just simply her teachings. Plants are our friends, and plants are medicine. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was all building a background in and connection with the outdoors.

You’ve had a rich background in conservation and natural resources. How did you find your way to your work now at CalWild

I ended up on the path to wildlife, conservation, and policy work through my experiences in the outdoors. My late uncle took me and my siblings to Yosemite Valley for the first time when I was around seven. My memories of that trip are vivid, I knew Yosemite was special but what I didn’t know is that I would eventually end up working there. The summer between high school and college, I worked in Ahwahnee, what is now referred to as Yosemite Valley. Getting to live and work there made me fall in love with it even more and would be one of many summers I would eventually spend working in the park. During that first summer is when started getting into hiking and had my first exposure to rock climbing via bouldering. After wrapping up my summer job, I started at UC Davis and went in as an “undeclared” major. When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I remembered the joy I had being in Yosemite, and I decided my major would be Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology. After college, I ended up working in Yosemite again and it really solidified that path. Many years later, I would make my way to CalWild, and started as their San Joaquin Valley Organizer. I’ve since transitioned to be the Community Engagement and Conservation Policy Manager.

Throughout my time at CalWild, I would argue that I’ve largely been focused on community engagement, relationship building, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Access work, which dovetails with my volunteerism with Latino Outdoors (I encourage folks to check out their website if you’re unfamiliar). In sharing all this, I also want to share that my family were migrant workers, which is a common story for folks from the San Joaquin Valley. Many do not have exposure to natural landscapes throughout their lives and I was fortunate to be exposed to the degree I was early on in my life. I now do the work I am involved in because I want to change that narrative.

Your work at CalWild focuses on community engagement, organizing, and policy. Getting people involved in understanding and advocating for policy wins is such hard work, but it’s how you build resilient conservation efforts! What has stood out for you about organizing in California?

What stands out to me is that organizing in California is easy and difficult at the same time. California is a highly populated state, but there’s a lot of rural places as well, including in much of the San Joaquin Valley. The way community exists here is different than a larger city. In organizing, you have to understand that you’re not there to be transactional, but to develop relationships. You have to build genuine relationships and show up when you can for people when they need you.

I was on the job with CalWild for about two months before the Covid-19 pandemic started. It was challenging to organize with rural community members through Zoom. You can’t really build a good rapport with them on video even if they have access to such technology. You need to be showing up face to face to build trust, and you need to be patient developing those relationships. CalWild leaned into 30x30 work and that was an opportunity for me to share everything from scratch with my community. Something as simple as creating and sharing a one-pager went a long way, as did information sharing for meeting opportunities. It generally boiled down to making it easy and digestible for people to be involved. It ultimately felt like a great learning experience on effective organizing.

What are the biggest advocacy issues you’re thinking about, either through CalWild or on your own right now?

As an organization, we’ve been working on 30x30 and trying to uplift national level policy campaigns on public lands. This includes working on the Protect California Desert campaign and the San Gabriel National Monument Expansioncampaign. Along with Outdoor Alliance, we’ve been working on bills to protect more California landscapes and that would designate more Wild & Scenic Rivers. As for me, I’m continuing to focus on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Access throughout all my work.

I think many people can be intimidated by getting into advocacy. What advice do you have for people who want to make a difference but don’t know where to start?

An easy step is getting connected with groups that are local to you, like a local California Native Plant Society chapter, local stewardship nonprofits, or orgs like CalWild and Outdoor Alliance. A lot of these groups have local opportunities tied in with larger conservation efforts that will have opportunities for you to volunteer or learn from them.

 Lightning round (one or two word answers!)

Favorite close to home spot—Currently, the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area

A book you love—Hatchet, a childhood favorite which was life changing for me

Another advocate you admire—Ryan Henson, my coworker at CalWild who is a guru in the California conservation space