Equitable land access

Conservationists of Color puts the voices of those often relegated to the margins at the forefront while offering safe and brave spaces for conservationists of color.

Some incredible environmental and cultural preservation projects are being carried out by land trusts throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

“Because my tribe was displaced from our ancestral lands…we had to reclaim our knowledge of how fire was used by our people and relearn what it means to work with it.” — Jessica Douglas, member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

Forty acres of California forestland overlooking the North Fork American River and Sierra Nevada mountains have been protected by the accredited Placer Land Trust and returned to the tribe that considers the land its ancestral home.

During the Jim Crow era of forced racial segregation, Black Americans were prohibited from visiting beaches like Ocean City or Atlantic City. However, several Maryland beaches owned by the Carr family of Annapolis were getaways — known as “The Beaches” — that welcomed Black people and hosted renowned Black musicians like Billie Holiday, Count Basie and James Brown.

"For far too long, we’ve known of the harm we are doing to this planet, the realities of systemically excluded communities and the continuation of the all-too-narrow definition of what it means to be outdoorsy,” says Teresa Baker in an online video for the Outdoorist Oath, a new nonprofit that believes in the power of individuals to collectively shape the future of the outdoors.

In Columbia County, New York, budding naturalists can check out Hudson Valley nature with only a library card — and a sense of adventure.

"When my grandmother lived in a nursing home, she told me that her friends were from farms or often talked about being outside," says Leia Lowery, director of education at Kennebunkport Conservation Trust in Maine. "That's when I made it my mission to bring the outdoors in."

When the accredited Solano Land Trust began work to increase accessibility on its properties, it knew the only way to successfully achieve this goal was to invite community members living with disability to join its “design table.”

From the outset, the accredited Land Conservancy of West Michigan wanted to create a universal access trail on land — a much-needed solution to the community’s lack of recreational opportunities for people with disabilities.