Adam Williams / Adelante

By Colleen Stachura
Adelante staff writer

There’s a distinction to be made between an ecologist who wants to study the ecosystem, and an ecologist who wants to teach people about the environment.
Nadia Navarrete is the latter.
She kept noticing that no one in the Hispanic community was doing anything about the environment. People were interested, but language was a barrier.
Navarrete’s solution was simple: create a fully bilingual environmental program for the Hispanic community. Make the events free and active, and focus on kids to draw in parents. The group is called Columbia Verde, and since its first activity last year, it has run programs on reptiles, bats, native plants and birds of prey.
Navarrete, originally from El Salvador, has always found a connection with plants and animals. But she became interested in environmentalism by working with a group called Amigos del Árbol in San Salvador. She helped replant mangroves that had been cut down to build homes in poorer communities. The trees protected the sea turtles, the land and other animals. As they disappeared, so did the turtles.
That work opened her eyes. “You really learn to see the environment as a whole,” she says.

Navarrete went to Southern Illinois University to study forestry and learn about the relationships between individual plants and the environments they inhabit. She eventually brought that interest to Columbia.
Interest has been growing steadily. More than 50 Latina Girl Scouts from the greater-Columbia region participated in the birds of prey event in February. Navarrete’s next full program is scheduled for May, but she has another small event planned with the University’s Earth Day celebration on Sunday, April 27. Navarrete plans to give guided tours on wildflowers through Grindstone Park.
Earth is a delicate, intricate system to Nadia Navarrete, and she wants to share it with her people.