Antonio Rafael, Stewardship Manager

Antonio Rafael, the Land Stewardship Manager at Rouge Park is a Coahuiltecan and Boricua agroecologist, artist, educator, and organizer from Southwest, Detroit. With a background in social justice, environmentalism and economics, he educates on topics ranging from climate chaos being rooted in colonial history, to neoliberalism and mushroom foraging. Here at Rouge Park Antonio leads our team of Rouge Park Stewards to build trails, manage invasive species and build up a natural areas management team.
Outside of Rouge, Antonio helps lead traditional ecological activities like hunting/fishing, wild ricing and the sugarbush project with native communities in Detroit and across the Great Lakes via a nonprofit he helped cofound called Black to the Land. Antonio also works with a prescribed burn crew seasonally. Ultimately, he is passionate about getting urban peoples outdoors and restoring healthy ecosystems!