** Diversity in the outdoors skyrocketed during the pandemic
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Tuesday, November 9, 2021
A ranger gives women directions at the Cronan Ranch Regional Trails Park in California. B ([link removed]) ureau of Land Management, Flickr ([link removed])
Many people of color in the United States have grown up without a connection to the outdoors, writes Fast Company's Elizabeth Segran ([link removed]) . This is the result of a number of sociopolitical factors, including our country's history—which pushed Black people outside to work in the fields and looked down upon Indigenous people who lived off the land, stigmatizing the very act of spending time outdoors—as well as financial barriers, such as the cost of buying gear to go camping.
"As a person of color, I am far from alone in feeling uncomfortable in the great outdoors," Segran writes. "For decades, camping in the United States has been an overwhelmingly white pastime."
Indeed, as recently as 2012, 88% of campers were white, according to research from KOA ([link removed]) . But that began to change during the pandemic. KOA reports ([link removed]) that in 2020, 63% of campers were white; 12% were Black, 13% were Hispanic, and 7% were Asian. KOA also found ([link removed]) that 60% of first-time campers in 2020 were non-white.
This is obviously a historic shift, and the results no doubt carry over to our public lands.
While the federal agencies that manage reservable campgrounds on public land don't collect info about race, a recent Center for Western Priorities analysis ([link removed]) found that camping at campsites on public lands skyrocketed last year, indicating more people were enjoying being outside than ever before.
** Colorado Latinos care about climate change
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A recent poll ([link removed]) conducted by a group of environmental and racial advocacy groups in Colorado found that the vast majority of Latinos in the state care about cutting emissions and expediting the clean energy transition. For example,
86% of respondents supported setting strict caps on emissions for all businesses in Colorado whose operations impact air quality, including the construction, transportation, oil and gas, and electricity industries. And 84% of respondents support a clean energy transition that includes stricter regulations on industries contributing to climate change.
Quick hits
** Meet five climbers of color finding their place in the sport
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Land & People Magazine ([link removed])
** Colorado regulators give polluting oil company a (nearly) free pass
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Colorado Sun ([link removed])
** Infrastructure package contains billions for national parks
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National Parks Traveler ([link removed])
** Tribes in Wisconsin sue state to stop excessive wolf hunt
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G ([link removed]) rist ([link removed])
** Biggest U.S. coal plant to halve production by 2030
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C ([link removed]) a ([link removed]) sper-Star Tribune ([link removed])
** Forest service is lagging in California prescribed burns
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Los Angeles Times (http://)
** Interior sued over Rio Grande National Forest management plan
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E ([link removed]) &E News ([link removed])
** There is no such thing as an outdoor "dream town" anymore
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Outside ([link removed])
Quote of the day
“People say that [African Americans don't recreate outdoors] as though there is some kind of natural law at play: that African Americans naturally don’t want to do these things, while white people do... But the truth is that white people have socially engineered their ownership of outdoor culture.”
—Marya T. Mtshali, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, on the unbearable whiteness of camping, Fast Company ([link removed])
Picture this
** @ ([link removed]) Wilderness ([link removed])
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“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, 'This is what it is to be happy.'" — Sylvia Plath
📸: Scott Bunter, flickr
🗺: Cabinet Mountain Wilderness, MT
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