Being black, brown or poor shouldn’t mean less time in nature
What I learned from being a black conservationist
By Anastasia Greene
I remember the first time I discovered that going into the woods to walk around and sleep was a thing.
I was about nine years old and my mom and I moved to Virginia from Philadelphia earlier that year. It was like a foreign world to me. I traded in my bustling city streets for open spaces and loud sounding bugs I couldn’t identify.
I learned that we don’t’ appreciate what we don’t know
In Philadelphia, I was surrounded by el-trains (short for the trains that ran on elevated platforms around the city) and cement pavements that crisscrossed the busy streets packed with cars and buses. I can’t even truly recall seeing trees in abundance until I moved to Virginia.
“…there just weren’t many local parks nearby, though I can recall some neighborhood playgrounds.”
We used to go to parks sometimes for family reunions, but spending time outdoors and outdoor recreation weren’t pastimes of anyone in my family. We lived in areas where I think there were two barriers to that type of leisure. First, there just weren’t many local parks nearby, though I can recall some neighborhood playgrounds. Second, it wasn’t high on the necessity list. For a lot of people living in the sprawling city of Philadelphia, the priority is making ends meet. Later that year, my mom would do something that drastically changed the course of my life — enroll me in Girl Scouts of America. Moving to Virginia in general was a big culture shock for me. Joining my Girl Scout troop wasn’t any different. I was the only black kid in my school classes, my troop, my soccer team, and on and on.
But it was through that group of young women that I discovered service to others, nature and myself. I gained a lot of self-confidence and took pride in earning badges, going on recreation trips and doing service projects. My first camping and hiking trip was with Girl Scouts. I had never even considered going into the woods until that trip. I was wholly unfamiliar with the concept.
In my experience, the black families living in the city of Philadelphia that we knew at the time, just weren’t camping and hiking. They didn’t talk about “getting outdoors” and that is still my observation to this day. I just don’t think this type of activity is ingrained for people living in a city who haven’t been introduced to it. Once I discovered nature I was hooked. And that’s why I think public lands and open spaces can be that bridge for a lot of people.
“Once I discovered nature I was hooked. And that’s why I think public lands and open spaces can be that bridge for a lot of people.”
I learned kids need to be mentored early
Had it not been for my mother’s decisions to move to rural Virginia and to place me in Girl Scouts, chances are I would never have been as enamored with the outdoors and nature as I am today.
But sadly, millions of other young, black and brown kids don’t share my path. For them, outdoors recreation is too often something out of reach, too expensive, too far away, the domain of other people, not for them.
As a member of The Wilderness Society’s communication team, I took my passion for our natural world and turned that into a career. I feel very lucky that I get to do that every day. At the Wilderness Society, our mission is to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. To do that, it will take more people like me, people who represent a growing part of our American make-up. That type of representation matters to youth figuring what type of mark they will leave on this world.
I learned that the conservation movement has been mostly white but that will need to change
As a young, black woman in the conservation community, I represent a minority — but as a part of our country’s racial make-up, black and brown people are quickly becoming a majority. To ensure our mission is achieved and the mission of so many other environmental organizations, it is our responsibility to empower the next generation of public lands and conservation leaders. But we can’t inspire that next generation if we don’t reach out to all its members, not just certain demographic groups.
“…we can’t inspire that next generation if we don’t reach out to all its members, not just certain demographic groups.”
In the beginning of our nation’s conservation movement, the people at the table were usually white men. Looking to the future we must change that. To accurately address the social and environmental justice issues that we face as a nation, we need to ensure that we authentically include people from all different walks of life — we all need to have a voice. For the environmental movement to remain strong and vibrant into the future, we must be intentional about how we move forward.
We need to empower the next generation of conservation leaders to carry the torch over the finish-line. Those leaders must be from different backgrounds to more accurately reflect the country America is.
The first step is connecting youth to the outdoors. Organizations like City Kids Wilderness Project in Washington, D.C. are doing that work on a local level. City Kids’ mission is to enrich the lives of DC youth from under-served communities by teaching kids how to be prepared for life beyond a traditional classroom — in nature. Some of these children come from a single parent household, like I did, and their parents don’t have time or sometimes money to take them on trips or even to local parks often. So, organizations like City Kids that have afterschool and summer time programs provide very formative experiences in these children’s lives. And through that authentic engagement and connections like these, we are empowering the conservation leaders of tomorrow.
The next step should be for environmental organizations to realize that our issues ARE environmental justice issues and begin to partner with and understand better the issues of local communities. They should partner with smaller organizations like City Kids to ensure we are enriching those students lives beyond high school with internships and teaching them the skills to succeed in an environmental nonprofit. Because they know the what it’s like to grow up in the inner city or in an extremely rural area. We can no longer be a movement of the elite with so many barriers to entry.
“We can no longer be a movement of the elite with so many barriers to entry.”
I don’t know that I would be the outdoor lover I am today if it wasn’t for my experiences in Girl Scouts and Virginia. People don’t know what they don’t know. We can’t truly say one type of person is an outdoor lover. It is up to us to ensure that everyone has equal access to make that choice for themselves. Public lands are America’s common ground — we can all find ourselves in the outdoors, whether it be at an iconic national park or simply at an open space near the city.
And through that salvation, the next generation will stand tall to defend our lands. To make them a part of the solution to climate change, to ensure that we all continue to have access to some of the most spectacular scenic and cultural landscapes.
Our future multicultural conservationists will save the places that matter most for the next 1,000 years.
Anastasia Greene is an energy communications specialist at The Wilderness Society in Washington D.C. as well as a member of the Associate Board for City Kids Wilderness Project. She is an outdoor lover who goes trail running In D.C.’s Rock Creek Park as much as possible. Anastasia is also in the process of trying to visit all the national parks in the U.S., and she gets out West as often as she can.
