PEEC wins $30,000 state grant to expand outdoor science education

The Pajarito Environmental Education Center, operator of the Los Alamos Nature Center at 2600 Canyon Road, was awarded $30,000 from the New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division’s Outdoor Equity Fund to expand Outdoor Field Science programming for K–12 students across five north‑central New Mexico counties, including Los Alamos and Rio Arriba. The award, reported April 9, 2026, is explicitly designated to reduce barriers such as transportation costs and resource gaps that have limited field trips, planetarium visits, and after‑school offerings.

PEEC’s 2026 OEF award brings the nonprofit’s Outdoor Equity Fund total to $60,001, following prior OEF grants of $10,000 in 2021 and $20,001 in 2024, according to PEEC’s grant profile on the New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division portal. PEEC, which says it serves about 40,000 adults and children each year through the Los Alamos Nature Center, planetarium, public programs and school lessons, operates the Nature Center under contract with Los Alamos County and has run programming from the facility since the county completed the current $4.3 million building in early 2015.

Program details listed in the OEF recipient description show PEEC will use the funding to scale specific hands‑on activities: bird banding, planetarium‑based space exploration, place‑based K–12 lessons, expanded after‑school modules and the Weekend Horseback Outdoor Adventure (WHOA) camping program. PEEC has scheduled community events that will feed into the outreach push, including a BioBlitz at the Los Alamos Nature Center on April 25 that will showcase some of the field science techniques the grant is meant to expand.

Statewide context frames PEEC’s award as part of a larger $1.9 million OEF investment announced April 1, 2026 that the Economic Development Department expects to connect more than 22,000 youth across 14 counties to 62 programs. The department also reports that since the Outdoor Recreation Division and the Outdoor Equity Fund began in 2019, ORD has awarded more than $10.5 million in grants connecting 128,000 youth to outdoor education experiences. The EDD release noted that recipients are providing nearly $2 million in matching funds to amplify the state investment.

Making the grant measurable at the program level, a proportional calculation based on PEEC’s $30,000 share of the $1.9 million tranche suggests a potential cohort in the low hundreds of youth could be served directly by this award, though final enrollment will depend on PEEC’s implementation plans and partner school commitments. The OEF listing specifically ties the money to removing transportation and equipment barriers, which locally means more schools can bring students to the planetarium, support field trips into Pajarito Plateau habitats, and offer scholarships or gear for weekend and summer camp programs.

PEEC’s OEF project also aligns with regional workforce and education initiatives that emphasize early exposure to STEM and conservation careers; PEEC has a record of partnerships and funding support from organizations such as the LANL Foundation and United Way. The New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division has said the next OEF application round opens July 1, 2026, with a second round slated for February 2027, and PEEC has indicated it will provide more detailed school partnership and capacity plans in the coming months as it scales the field science offerings.