Despite the relentless heat through the month of August, summer is almost over. I recently finished teaching my annual course, Outdoors For All, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am deeply inspired by the amazing young people who are eager to learn about the enduring legacy of environmental protection that includes the many contributions of those who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. Through lectures and in-class discussions, we explore the ways in which we can assure the well-being of the natural spaces we love for generations yet to come.

With students both online and in-person, I am especially grateful to my friends, and colleagues, who help me to teach this class. Dr. Carolyn Finney, author of Black Faces White Spaces, National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson, author of Gloryland and community revitalization strategist Majora Carter, author of Reclaiming Your Community, all very graciously volunteer their time to speak to my students via teleconference. Their books and lived experiences help to inform my students of the many ways people in the BIPOC community today continue the important work of the conservation movement. I only wish that our formal class sessions were actually held outdoors!

Excellent Final Projects!

Each year my students are tasked to create a final project that demonstrates a practical application of the knowledge gleaned from this comprehensive, yet concise, 4-week course.  Throughout the class, we explore case-studies and historical narratives that illustrate the disparities of access that people of color experience in the outdoors. Using these, each student develops a detailed proposal recommending strategies  to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in outdoor recreation and environmental conservation for a real or imagined nonprofit organization, private institution or federal agency. I am so very proud of how well everyone thoroughly embraced the spirit of this final assignment and delivered thoughtful solutions to the challenge of making the outdoors more accessible to everyone.

My students’ projects ranged in focus from the “Military Outdoors” program of the Sierra Club to the “Explore Fund” at The North Face. One student devised a culturally inclusive environmental studies curriculum called “Eco-Engineers: Prairies, Plants, Pollinators and People,” while another formulated a strategy to teach swimming to young people in urban communities called “Dive In!”

“This plan has the opportunity to be successful as it implements learning within the community, role models and educators that are representative of those they are trying to teach and inspire,” one student wrote. “This program becomes self-sufficient with more people becoming confident swimmers and going on to teach others.”

Each of these amazing projects recognized the long history of Indigenous exclusion and racial oppression. Taking into consideration the enduring impacts of slavery, Jim Crow era segregation, women’s suffrage, and redlining, they reimagined the principles of American democracy to insist upon the inclusion of all people. Through their understanding of John Muir’s transcendentalist ideals of preservation, Gifford Pinchot’s more pragmatic views on conservation and Aldo Leopold’s vision of the Land Ethic, my students created proposals that recognize the virtues of humanity’s relationship with nature. But they also acknowledge that true environmental protection includes our ability to share the outdoors harmoniously with others.

Outdoors Inclusive

“Humans are products of nature, not separate, and have an obligation to provide respect, kindness, and courtesy to their fellow humans as much as the land,” one student wrote. “When a Land Ethic incorporates these ideals, all visitors of outdoor spaces are welcomed.”

With the information they receive in my class and the concepts they are asked to discuss, my students can begin to imagine a world in which the outdoors they love can be preserved indefinitely. By addressing the disparities of access for those on the margins of society, we can promote the long-term protection of our natural resources for the benefit of our community at large. Though meant as an exercise of their thoughts on these complicated topics, their final projects allow each student to engage their understanding of the course materials in practical ways that can have real world applications. And it is my hope that they will continue to create ways to make sure that all are welcome in the outdoors.

Outdoors For All is a course taught at the University of Wisconsin Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Our reading list includes titles written by our guest lecturers. Each have been featured authors on The Joy Trip Reading Project

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