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. Teresa Martinez is a co-founder and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, the lead national and lead partner working with the USFS, BLM, National Park Service, State Agencies, Indigenous Communities and Tribal Nations to cooperative Steward the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. In 2015, Teresa was part of the inaugural group of conservation leaders assembling in Washington DC to launch a new vision for the next 100 years of stewardship of our nation’s parks, forests, waters, oceans, and trails which led to the formation of the Next 100 Coalition and the Next 100 Coalition Colorado, and today, Teresa serves as the Chair of the National Board for the Next 100 Coalition. When not working one of these heart driven endeavors, Teresa spends her time exploring the mountains, mesas and arroyos of the landscapes around her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her rescue dog Riley and hosting Discada’s with friends while watching the sunrise and sunset over the beautiful terrain of the Land of Enchantment.

“I was then and continue to be in awe that these long trails exist and that I am privileged to be a part of their stewardship.”

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

My earliest memories, I loved to be outside. We grew up in suburbia, so the outside was mostly creeks in between the houses and the little patches of woods left in between developments. We would play in those woods and creeks all year around, and from very early on, I always wanted to be an outdoor professional. However, what really set my path forward was getting involved with volunteering at a local nature park in my hometown of Sterling, Virginia and discovering raptors and birding, which led me to going to Virginia Tech to initially study Ornithology. That all went out the door during the first weekend of my freshman year when I saw a poster on a bulletin board announcing the first meeting of the Outing Club and a need for volunteers to do maintenance on the Appalachian Trail. I had no idea what the A.T. was then, so I talked a friend into going with me and during the first 30 minutes I asked, “so what’s the A.T. again?” and I discovered I could turn right and head to Georgia and turn left and head to Maine. My whole life changed before my eyes, and I fell in love with the A.T. on the spot and never looked back. Every weekend after that I was on the AT doing maintenance with the club, or some other crazy outdoor activity, and by the end of the year I was president of the Outing Club of Virginia Tech, and then started volunteering in the summer with the ATC’s Konnarock crew, and then in 1991 went to work at ATC as the Assistant Regional Representative for the Southwest and Central Virginia Regional Office, and 35 years later, here we are. I was then and continue to be in awe that these long trails exist and that I am privileged to be a part of their stewardship.

Along with being the Executive Director and cofounder of the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, you serve as the Board Chair for the Next 100 Coalition. What led to your work on the Next 100 Coalition? What do you hope to see come out of it?

An early gathering of the Next 100 Coalition

I have always had a philosophy to follow my heart and use my head. When I was asked if I wanted to be part of a small group of conservation leaders of color assembling in Washington DC to discuss how we could reimagine the future stewardship of our national natural places and spaces, I wasn’t sure what would come of it, but I knew I had to be there. At the time I had been working in natural resource management for 25 years and I had experienced my own reckoning and re-awakening in outdoor spaces, and I didn’t know there were other people who looked like me, who had similar professional experiences and trajectories, and also had the same feeling of imposter syndrome mixed with an overwhelming sense of urgency that the next 100 years couldn’t look like the past 100 years. When the group first began to meet, we quickly discovered that there was nothing like the Next 100 happening anywhere else in the conservation space, and definitely not being led by the voices of the people comprising the Next 100. The privilege of being a part of the group of people who took the idea and put it into practice has been an amazing life experience. And the opportunity and responsibility to ensure this space exists as a safe and brave space for every Brown, Black, Asian, Indigenous, LGBQT+ or any other under-represented human on this planet for me, is why I committed to this work and why I continue to do the work.

What I hope to come out of it is that the next time a wide-eyed 18-year-old Mexican-American woman steps foot on a trail, she knows if she wants to steward it, she can; if she wants to work in this field, she’s welcome; and if she wants to be an Executive Director leading the charge, she knows she belongs and she can not only succeed, she will thrive will doing this work!

What do you hope the future of the outdoors looks like?

My hope for the future of what the outdoors looks like is a beautiful ocean of colors, shapes, sizes, backgrounds, experiences and that every kid in this world, not just in the U.S., has the opportunity to experience safe access to nature, witness the beauty of nature, drink clean water and breathe fresh air, and that whatever adventure they can dream up, they can find and assemble a crew to go do the adventure with, with access to the resources they need to experience that adventure, big and small, and that when they have their adventure, they invite the next kid standing next to them to join them, no matter what they look like or where they are from.

Lightning Round

An organization you admire: Environmental Learning for Kids

On your reading list: Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

Best close-to-home destination: Diablo Canyon and the Rio Grande River

Outdoor Allies: Teresa Martinez