The Adventures in Stewardship program is an opportunity for young people in Taos County to establish a lifelong covenant of care with their natural surroundings. In collaboration with partner organizations, Rivers & Birds instructors facilitate two joyful, transformative, and cost-free days of hiking, experiential learning, and hands-on stewardship projects. For many students, these trips represent their first foray onto their local public lands, overcoming systemic socioeconomic barriers to outdoor recreation and environmental education. The Adventures in Stewardship program invites underserved youth to partake of the beautiful heritage of their home, and empowers them to become stewards of their environment.  

Our multi-year curriculum is structured around five Rivers & Birds stewardship principles, inspired by a Leopoldian conception of the land community. These principles are: (1) “Give Plants a Chance,” (2) “Keep Wildlife Wild,” (3) “Don’t Spoil the Soil,” (4) “Care for the Creeks,” and (5) “Respect People, Past, Present and Future.” Students engage with a different stewardship principle on each day of the Adventures in Stewardship program. Third grade classes start with “Give Plants a Chance” in the fall and “Keep Wildlife Wild” in the spring, moving up through the stewardship principles as they graduate to fourth and fifth grade. 

Each field trip provides students with the opportunity to apply these ideas and contribute positively to our local environment and climate. Classes visit sites where ecological restoration or conservation projects are underway, play games that simulate human impact on biodiversity and ecosystem health, learn from experts in the field, and then get to participate in the restoration work themselves. Students leave with a deeper sense of responsibility, but also an empowering narrative about their collective ability to protect the biosphere.