WRA Co-Hosts a Hiking Tour as Part of Justice Outside Explore-A-Thon 2022

On July 16, 2022, WRA co-hosted an event with Justice Outside in Half Moon Bay, as part of their Explore-A-Thon series. Ivy Poisson, Biologist, and Derell Griffin, Senior Restoration Landscape Designer, led a group of interested community members in a hiking tour of the Wavecrest southern segment of the California Coastal Trail. The purpose of this event was to celebrate Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the outdoors, and to learn about the measures that are put in place to ensure public access and enjoyment of coastal resources including trails and natural resources.

Some topics that were covered during the tour included:

• Geenah Leslie and Robert Sindelar, of Justice Outside, made a land acknowledgement recognizing that we were on “ancestral and unceded lands of indigenous communities who are the rightful successors of these places” and an affirmation of indigenous sovereignty. The group was invited to reflect on and consider the following questions: Whose land do I occupy? How will we work to affirm Indigenous Sovereignty? How will we work to end the erasure of Indigenous identity? How will we hold ourselves and our community responsible for the respect of ancestral names, languages and laws?
• The significance of the California Coastal Act of 1976 which acknowledges that all members of the public have a right to access the state’s beautiful coastline.
• An exploration of planning efforts necessary in order to balance accessibility with natural habitat and resource protection.
• The identification and admiration of plants including soaproot (Chlorogalum pomeridianum) and their ethnobotanical significance as well as poaching risks to certain protected plant genus such as the north coast dudleya (Dudleya farinosa).

WRA is proud to support Justice Outside and be part of Explore-A-Thon 2022. To learn more, please visit their website: https://justiceoutside.org/about.