ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - When Lucia Ibarra was growing up in Las Mochis, Mexico, near the Gulf of California, she felt most at home running barefoot, climbing trees, playing in the ocean, and laughing with the sheep and horses on her mother’s ranch.
“Since I was a kid I loved nature. My culture was humans and animals. But I felt like we were all connected and everything had a domino effect,” said Ibarra, who has lived in Asheville for nearly three years.
“When something happened to a living being, something else was affected. It was a chain of changes. I couldn’t put it in words when I was a kid, but I decided to be a wildlife biologist to understand wildlife, habitat management and these ecosystems, and how they were linked.”
The wonder-filled, little girl running wild still shines in Ibarra’s eyes as an effervescent, free-ranging adult, whether she’s engaging with communities to discuss environmental injustice or paddling the Southeastern swamps and bumping into alligators as the “Wetland Wanderer.”
Ibarra is the program outreach manager for Dogwood Alliance, an Asheville-based nonprofit that works to protect Southern forests from industrial logging and works in the intersection of community justice and climate change.
Part of Ibarra’s job is educating communities about the environmental and health effects of industrial logging, “which supports other industries like the wood pellet industry that is destroying our bottomland forest and is our best tool that we have to face the impacts of climate change,” she said.
During Hispanic Heritage Month, Ibarra said she is proud to be a Hispanic woman in the environmental field, where there are few Latinos.
“The outdoor and environmental field is an amazing field for all of us to go into, and especially minorities. If you see people that look like you be represented in the field, you follow,” Ibarra said.”
“If there are more Hispanics, more African Americans, more indigenous people, more Native Americans in the field, then it’s kind of like an invitation for other people who are interested in working in the field or just to enjoy the outdoors. Having a person that represents them that looks like them, is also an invitation. It’s an invisible kind of invitation,” she said.
WHAT IS HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH?
National Hispanic Heritage Month was established by Congress in 1968 as a weeklong celebration of Hispanic Americans, their culture and their history. In 1988 it was expanded to a month, from Sept. 15-Oct. 15, to coincide with the independence days for several Latin American countries.
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica celebrate their national independence from Spain on Sept. 15. Mexico celebrates its independence Sept. 16, Chile on Sept. 18 and Belize on Sept 21.
Hispanics can be of any race. But what they share is the Spanish language and culture.
While Hispanics make up about 18% of the U.S. population, at nearly 61 million in 2019, they account for more than half of the U.S. population growth in the past decade, according to the Pew Research Center. The Hispanic population in North Carolina is even higher, at 22%.
But their numbers are not well represented in the outdoors in terms of recreation or employment.
HISPANICS AND THE OUTDOORS
According to the 2019 Outdoor Industry Association Participation Report, Hispanic Americans represented just 10.7% of those who participate in outdoor sports like hiking, camping, paddling and mountain biking.
According to a 2008 visitor use study in the Great Smokies, 97% of visitors each year are white, while only 2% were American Indian or Alaska Native, 1% Asian, 1% Black or African American and 2% identified as Latino or Hispanic.
Ibarra said when she was living out West, she met many Mexicans and other Hispanics who worked in the environmental fields and played outdoors, but she said she hardly meets any in Western North Carolina. That is something she says she’s like to see change.
“When I am doing my job in community organizing, I’m making sure I’m letting people know how much nature is good for them, just to be one with nature, how amazing the outdoors is for exercise and there is no cost to go on a hike and see a waterfall,” she said.
STUDYING WILDLIFE, STRUGGLING WITH ENGLISH
Ibarra said she always loved animals. Her family was always rescuing cats and dogs, and she loved wildlife, birds, fish and the domestic ranch animals. She knew she wanted to work with them.
“Back then, environmental studies was nonexistent. The only way to work with animals was to be a zoologist or a veterinarian,” she said. “I didn’t want to be a veterinarian.”
Ibarra attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she first studied communication but also struggled, she said. “My English was not that good.”
After a year, she switched to wildlife biology, where she was much happier and flourished. But at the time, she said, “Nobody knew what a wildlife biologist was. My father said, ‘You’re going to die of hunger.’”
After graduating, and speaking English more fluently, Ibarra took a job with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, studying a small bird known as the willow flycatcher.
“I was camping for 10 days in the field, studying this bird, and going back to civilization for four days. I loved it,” she said.
After three months, she went to work as an environmental consultant throughout the West, working on projects such as power lines and freeway expansions, advising on environmental regulations.
“I realized working in the field was great, but I needed to learn how to talk to people better, move it another step forward and try to organize people. That’s when my love for policy came in,” she said.
She earned a master’s degree in leadership in organizational psychology from the University of San Diego and then worked for the U.S. Forest Service in public affairs, focusing on the forest plan in Colorado.
FIGHTING FOR FORESTS AND ‘ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE’ COMMUNITIES
Ibarra said she came to the Dogwood Alliance nearly three years ago because she related to the organization’s values and its views of forest management.
“I love my job,” she said. “We educate leaders and work with communities to adapt to these times of climate change. We need to wake up to the reality that we are in a climate crisis.”
Ibarra said her focus is industries that build in environmental injustice communities – those where the poverty level is above the state medium and at least 25% of the population is nonwhite – specifically the wood pellet industry, which cuts forests and builds production mills to make wood pellets to burn for energy in place of coal and ships them to Europe.
“My focus is to educate and unveil the truth about the industries that come with a ‘green and clean’ banner,” she said.
“Burning wood pellets is not clean, neither green. The point of combustion is higher than coal.”
Ibarra said some of the effects from wood pellet mill pollutants such as fine particulates and volatile organic compounds have been shown to cause cancer, lung diseases and asthma.
“My work is to organize people and let them know the truth based on science, and to get companies to take responsibility for their actions and stop polluting,” she said.
“They are devastating forests at a time when we need them the most. Forests and wetland are essential to fight the impact of climate change. We’ll have more hurricanes, more storms. When they clear cut, forests don’t have the ability to safeguard communities from flooding.”
Organizing through Zoom during the coronavirus pandemic has been challenging, said Ibarra, who loves to meet people in person, has a warm, infectious smile and laugh and a natural ability to gather people and make them feel welcome.
“We’re managing very well, even in virtual mode, but it’s slow. My challenge is to be patient and adapt to virtual world or have one-on-one talks with leaders,” she said.
Also on COVID-hold is Ibarra’s “Wetland Wanderer” video blog where her bubbly personality percolates through her kayak trips in “amazing” swamps, rivers and wetlands of the South, brushing up against snakes, turtles, birds and alligators, true to her wildlife roots.
“Standing forests and wetland forests are one of the best tools to help us with climate change,” she said. “It’s that simple, leave them alone! And enjoy the benefits that these ecosystems can give to our lives, our planet and our economy. Just try it, and you will see.”
CELEBRATING MEXICO, HISPANIC HERITAGE
Ibarra would like to set the record straight. While Cinco de Mayo is probably the most well-known Mexican holiday for Americans, and she enjoys a beer on May 5 much like anyone, it is not that big in Mexico.
“Cinco de Mayo is called La Batalla de Puebla. Mexico won against the French (May 5, 1862), one of the most powerful armies in the world. It was huge back then,” she said. “But our Independence Day is Sept. 16, so this is very important to me to clarify. September is essential for us.”
Ibarra loves to hike, camp and kayak in her adopted home of Western North Carolina. But there are some things she misses about Mexico – her family and the authentic food.
“I miss ceviche (a dish of marinated fish) and tacos dorados (taco soup). It’s a specialty only from my city and state, Sinaloa. It’s a staple – rolled taquitos with chilis, tomatoes, onion, lettuce and avocado, and you put broth on top. You eat this with your hand and a spoon.”
She suggests trying it, and thinking about all the food, music, culture and other contributions the United States gleans from Mexico.
“It’s important that Latinos highlight this month – who we are, where we come from, our ideals,” Ibarra said. “I’m proud to be Hispanic and proud to be Mexican. It’s important that this month is giving us space to raise our voices.”
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