A Youth's Look at Black & Brown Faces in America's Wild Places

Black & Brown Faces in America's Wild Places is the result of 4 years of traveling around the nation speaking to African Americans who enjoy the outdoors. In all the interviews people were very candid about their experiences and shared personal stories about their connection to nature. The combined subjects of the outdoors and people of color is rare but I am very passionate about both so I felt it necessary to write and photograph this book in hopes of making nature a topic of discussion among African Americans. The goal is to get them and America thinking about the role people of color play in the future of natural resource protection in the country.

I also feel it is very important to dispel the belief that African Americans don’t enjoy outdoor and nature oriented activities. The next generation, the culturally diverse youth of America seems to have bought into this notion and I want to stop that with this book. I want urban youth to see that not only do minorities enjoy the outdoors but they also have rewarding careers in the outdoors. My hope is to inspire them to follow in these people’s footsteps.

In the coming decades the future of natural resource protection will be in the hands of people of color as their population numbers will exceed those of the larger white majority today. If these groups are not properly prepared for this responsibility then the future of natural resource protection is in very serious jeopardy. Federal, state and non-profit agencies will have to provide more educational programs and make a concerted effort to get diverse groups of people involved in conservation.

To be candid I would say the message of resource protection and conservation will have a better chance of being heard in communities of color when the messengers are people of color; that is the function of Black and Brown Faces in America's Wild Places. Listen to the sound bites I have chosen from just a few of the interviews I conducted with the people in this book. They had plenty to say about their outdoor experiences and what they feel is the cause of why people of color are often absent from the outdoors.

Black & Brown Faces in America's Wild Places

For more on this subject pick up a copy of Black & Brown Faces in America's Wild Places available in bookstores nationwide later this year.

Listen to some of Dudley Edmondson's interviews from the book!

Bill Gwaltney Director of Workforce Enhancement - National Park Service Denver, CO Audio Sample	Frank & Audrey Peterman Conservationists Atlanta, GA Audio Sample	Cheryl Armstrong Director of James P. Beckwourth Mountain Club Denver, CO Audio Sample
Hank Williams Jr. Big game hunter and Black cowboy Rush City, MN Audio Sample	Georgia Reid Experienced bird watcher Detroit, MI Audio Sample	Craig Manson Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior Washington, DC Audio Sample
Lynnea Atlas-Ingebretson Coordinator of the Adventure Leadership Program - Auraria Campus Denver, CO Audio Sample	Phadrea Ponds Wildlife Biologist - U.S. Geological Survey Fort Collins, CO Audio Sample	Shelton Johnson National Park Service Ranger & Buffalo Soldier Historian El Portal, CA Audio Sample