On a journey to bring the outdoors to all
Sunlit river trails. Vistas lush with acres of greenery. City parks blooming with flora and fauna.
Evenings at Jeanette Honermann’s grandparents’ West Side backyard, birthdays at local parks and clam digs on beaches in Taiwan sparked her love of the great outdoors.
Now, Honermann wants to help others experience similar open-air adventures. She believes accessibility to nature is a right of all people.
“Making outdoors more available is what gets me excited,” she said. “I think that there’s a false perception that being outdoorsy means you have to be hyper-fit and hyper-physically challenged to do things like mountain climbing and long journeys.”
For nine years, Honermann has been a member of the REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.) government and community affairs team. She’s also chair of learning and development for the agency’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) Inclusion Network.
Honermann’s work is more than a job — it’s her livelihood that allows her to do the things she enjoys.
Currently, Honermann is Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s appointee to the San Antonio Parks Board. She is also a member of the National Parks Conservation Association Texas Regional Board.
Inclusion has always been a part of Honermann’s world, as she was raised in a multicultural family.
She grew up in Taiwan and Japan, where her father was
stationed as a language instructor for the Defense Department. Her mother, of Mexican American heritage, taught English as a Second Language in Japan. Her Minnesota-reared father had German ancestry and spoke fluid Mandarin Chinese.
Honermann was 10 when her mother took her and friends on a Girl Scouts campout to dig for clams on the East China Sea. It was a new adventure for the girls and her mother, who had never camped out but studied the skills
needed from a library book.
At low tide, amid rain and wind, the youngsters knelt and scanned the beach for bubbles of water spurting from beneath holes, a sign of where the clams were. Using small shovels and their hands, they unearthed the shellfish. Then they smoked them on a fire of driftwood. Even washing dishes in a net bag and cleaning the campsite couldn’t dampen Honermann’s excitement of taking part in one of her first adventures.
As a meditation instructor, Honermann sees the link between wellness and nature as a factor for tomorrow’s leaders.
She connects nonprofit organizations with financial support from the REI Co-op, working with local groups committed to making nature an inclusive, safe place for all communities.
Alex Bailey, board president of Black Outside Inc., which provides outdoor activities for African American youths, said Honermann has been instrumental in helping expand the perception and possibilities of nature for youngsters.
“Jeanette has done a great job as a network weaver,” said Bailey, 31. “Any barrier that we feel we’re hitting, she wants to tear those barriers down. When she’s around our kids, they feel the passion she has. She’s such a light for us and reminding us how important our work is in the community.”
Last year, Honermann hosted a complex educational challenge for 40 adult members of Leadership SAISD (San Antonio Independent School District).
The session explored how little time children spend outdoors at school through a 20minute scavenger hunt. At first, the men and women were hesitant to join in the exercise. However, Honermann said, by the end of the session, they were all smiling and laughing.
She was excited the group experienced the raised levels of endorphins and dopamine to help them understand the importance of nature and being outside.
Her work aligns with the Trust for Public Land’s philosophy that green spaces and quality parks are essential for healthy, resilient and equitable communities. According to the nonprofit’s website, it supports the efforts of historically marginalized groups to create access to the outdoors by delivering park solutions that address wide-ranging challenges.
In 1993, the organization helped the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department acquire more than 4,000 acres for Government Canyon State Natural Area above the Edwards Aquifer, the city’s primary drinking water source.
The Trust for Public Land’s goal is to ensure a park within a 10-minute walk from every
home, and each year it ranks the 100 largest cities in the country according to park access. This year, San Antonio ranked 60th.
Honermann’s hope is the same as the trust’s goal — accessibility to public lands, green schoolyards and urban trails and quick access to high-quality parks near homes.
“My hope and dream is that San Antonio increases our place in that 10-minute park walk,” Honermann said. “I want to be part of that solution. It gives us plenty of room to grow.”