By Lornet Turnbull
Special to The Medium
This month, Jourdan Keith will take a group of young people on an excursion near Ross Lake in the North Cascades National Park. For many of them, it could well be the adventure of a lifetime.
For the last decade, the Urban Wilderness Project, which Keith founded 13 years ago, has partnered with the National Park to expose young people, primarily those of color, to the wonders and rewards of the outdoors.
For 17 days, starting later this month, the teens and young adults — many never having set foot in the wilderness — will build a bridge, repair trails, hike and backpack deep into the woods, while learning about these wide open spaces.
“For me, it’s beyond the act of taking young people out into the wilderness; it’s engaging them in culture through stories about the land,” Keith said.
It is one of many ways that Keith and others in her Wilderness Project, are helping to connect people to the wild. And it is one of many efforts by non-profits and big land-management groups in this state and across the country bringing diversity public lands and creating new outdoor ambassadors within the next generation.
On any given weekend, the crowded trails of popular local destinations like Snow Lake, Tiger Mountain and Mt. Si are a study in diversity. Increasingly, many of the hikers are African American.
Ten years ago, that was such a rare sight, the state of Washington launched a diversity program to encourage more outdoor recreation among Black Washingtonians.
Reasons for the paucity of Black people camping, skiing and hiking are as varied as the places there are to do so in the state. A common refrain is that those aren’t things Black people do. Many people cite the costs associated with outdoor recreation or the lack of transportation. A surprising number of African Americans attach negative associations to the small towns they often pass on the way to those hiking trails and campgrounds in state and federal parks.
People imagine danger lurking in the wild – the fear of getting lost or being attacked by bears.
From her home in Seattle’s Mount Baker neighborhood, Alexia “Lexi” Prince takes in Mt. Rainier and its surrounding snow-capped peaks. Yet in her adult life, Prince, a bartender at BluWater Bistro in Leschi has never set foot there.
She’s still haunted, she said, by a childhood experience when she was 11 and went hiking with her neighbors. Prince had climbed onto a log to take a picture and stepped onto a wasp’s nest, where she was stung 12 times.
After years of watching the state grow more diverse, the Washington Trail Association (WTA), one of the largest hiking non-profits in the country, began searching for ways to ensure that kind of diversity was also reflected on the public trails for which the group advocates.
Two years ago, the organization, which turns 50 this year, began offering a leadership training program for groups and organizations as a way of generating outdoor participation among youth.
Once trained, leaders may borrow outdoor gear – snow shoes, hiking boots – from the association, which operates a lending library in the Rainier Valley. And they may apply for a small grant to help pay for costs, such as transportation.
“It’s about looking at who’s going to be making the decisions in next generation and ensuring that those decisions continue to be about protecting and promoting the environment,” said Kindra Ramos, director of communications and outreach for WTA. “Someone can’t be a voice for something they’ve never experienced.”
Across the board throughout the state, more people are getting outside and getting away from the stresses and pressures that confront them in their everyday lives.
The psychological and health benefits associated with getting outside are well documented.
Outdoor Afro, an African-American hiking group, began promoting Healing Hikes following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri two years ago, according to Matt Reese, West Coast region leader. The hikes have become routine.
The group grew out of a blog a financial analyst from Northern California, Rue Mapp, started in 2009 to describe her experiences on hiking trails.
Mapp said she later realized that by focusing on just hiking, she was missing a large part of how many people connect with the outdoors – like fishing or picnicking in urban parks or working in their grandmother’s garden.
Her organization connects thousands of people across 28 states – including in Washington – to a range of adventures. And she encourages her event leaders to schedule activities accessible by public transportation.
In Seattle, the group has between 400 and 500 members on Meetup, some of whom get together at least twice a month for some form of outdoor activity, which can include rock climbing, hiking or snowboarding, Reese said.
Several of them recently hiked Hurricane Hill at Olympic National Park to mark the 150th anniversary of the Buffalo Soldiers, the segregated Black U.S. Army regiments that were the original park rangers.
“It’s about helping people recognize that nature is everywhere, and you don’t have to be in paradise to enjoy the outdoors,” Rue said.
“We want them to appreciate connecting with their urban and natural parks, their playgrounds, the local stream for fishing,” Rue continued. “It’s about breaking down that separation between us and nature.”
Another local group, Black People Hike, was started by some friends as they sat around chatting in a living room two years ago.
One of them, Dorian Waller, had been hiking off and on since moving to Seattle from the Midwest in 2000. When he first started he saw very few Blacks on hiking trails. In recent years, he said, that began to change.
With more than 1,000 members on its Facebook page, Black People Hike has a core of 40 to 50 people who usually hike on weekends. It’s casual and informal, a way for people – of all skill levels — to come together and have fun, Waller said.
Most are young professionals and transplants, who use the outings as a way to network, socialize and connect with each other.
‘’For us, it’s three things: seeing the beauty around us, becoming physically active and appreciating each other and culture through casual conversation,” he said.
While groups like Outdoor Afro and Black People Hike provide a social outlet, the Urban Wilderness program has a more specific purpose.
It has had an ongoing partnership with North Cascades National Park for at least a decade and has worked with the U.S. Forest Service and other groups, all with the goal of ensuring that young people of color, both male and female, have access to these public lands.
Most of the young people who participate have never had a wilderness experience, Keith said. Some are immigrants who bring with them stories of their own cultural experiences.
In addition to trail work and hiking, they also learn about the land from different perspectives, Keith said.
“Conversations about how the land was used by indigenous people and how plants were and are used are an important part of the narrative,” she said.
Lornet Turnbull is a Seattle-based freelance writer.
