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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, ApRIl 16, 2022
Report shows barriers to outdoors for Black Washingtonians
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest News Network
Trina Baker didn’t grow
up hiking, camping or adven-
turing in the snow. How-
ever, as soon as she began
walking outdoors with Girl-
Trek, a program designed to
get Black women outdoors,
Baker said she fell in love
with nature.
“Hiking has been my spir-
itual place,” Baker said at a
Washington State Parks and
Recreation
Commission
work session on Wednesday
in Ilwaco, Washington, near
Cape Disappointment State
Park.
Now, Baker has made
part of her mission to get
other Black Washingtonians
to head outdoors.
A recent survey by the
Black
Washingtonians
Workgroup on Outdoor Rec-
reation found fewer than
1.5% of state parks visitors
are Black.
Some barriers included
safety concerns, a lack of
access to transportation, and
access to outdoor equipment,
which can be expensive.
The 12-member work-
group surveyed Black Wash-
ingtonians about these bar-
riers to participating in
outdoor recreation. In addi-
tion, the group presented
potential solutions to lower
those barriers.
Reco Bembry, the work-
group’s facilitator, said learn-
ing more about these barri-
ers is a critical conversation.
However, he said, this dis-
cussion should be only the
beginning.
“It’s a very critical con-
versation to have about ways
to create greater humanity
for our citizens, and I think
outdoor recreation serves to
do that a lot,” Bembry said.
The workgroup reviewed
at least 76 scholarly articles,
he said.
Talking to Black com-
munity members, the group
found at least 57 barriers to
getting outdoors. The big-
gest concern, Bembry said,
is safety, especially for par-
Flickr Creative Commons
Cape Disappointment State Park in Ilwaco.
ents taking children outside.
“Outdoor
recreating
while Black, in Washington,
is a modern-day safety haz-
ard,” Bembry said.
To help with potential
hazards, a Black couple,
Anthony and Marlie Love,
created a travel show that
rates how safe and comfort-
able they feel while travel-
ing around the Pacific North-
west, similar to the green
book that guided travelers
across the country.
The Black community
has faced more than 100
years of barriers to recreate
in state parks, which were
created through systematic
racism and white supremacy,
he said.
“Parks were set up specif-
ically for people that don’t
look like me,” Bembry said.
“When parks and recre-
ation as a whole was set up,
it was a place for white citi-
zens to go to get away from
this diversity in the urban
settings.”
In addition, he said, laws
and norms have led to the
oppression of Black, Indige-
nous and people of color in
the outdoors.
Now, parks have changed,
Bembry said, which is some-
thing he’s noticed after
spending around six decades
outside.
“I also can still feel the
‘yOu’RE EFFECTIVEly ASKING
FOR FREE lABOR FROM
pEOplE WHO HAVE BEEN
dENIEd THE ABIlITy TO BuIld
GENERATIONAl WEAlTH.’
Sophia Danenberg | the only Black member of the Washington
State Parks and Recreation Commission
barriers that exist,” he said.
However, Bembry said
the racist system that set up
parks is changing slowly.
“It’s like turning a cruise
ship. It takes time,” he said.
In addition, adequate
transportation can become a
major barrier to getting peo-
ple outside, as well as discre-
tionary money for entrance
fees, gas and outdoor cloth-
ing, Bembry said.
To help with some of
those struggles, Bembry and
Baker recently held two out-
door events for Black Wash-
ingtonians, with transporta-
tion, food and entrance fees
covered by Black Washingto-
nian groups and businesses.
Meeting up at a specific
location to travel together
can reduce transportation
issues, Bembry said. In addi-
tion, communicating plans
in-depth beforehand helps
people understand what to
expect, he said.
Good advertising, for
example, attracted 68 peo-
ple to a snow tubing trip in
March — it was designed for
30 people.
“That’s a good problem to
have,” Baker said.
Bembry said Black peo-
ple tend to trust community
members who are planning
and leading events, such as
Black People Who Hike or
Outdoor Afro. These groups
can help people learn how
to get outdoors, a signifi-
cant barrier when first start-
ing out, Bembry said. People
seem to be more comfortable
initially going outdoors in
large groups with 10 or more
people, he said.
“You’d be surprised about
how many people in multi-
ple communities around this
country don’t know how to
set up a tent,” Bembry said.
“These are simple learning
lessons that a lot of people
are uncomfortable with and
just need to learn.”
A little bit of help from
more experienced people can
go a long way, he said.
Experienced community
members can also help Black
people overcome generations
of what Bembry called his-
torical trauma, which leads
to a fear of nature, Bembry
said. He said he still remem-
bers his grandmother telling
him not to go into the woods
at night.
“A lot of folks are over-
coming that fear,” he said. “It
takes one, two or three trips
for folks to really get over
that completely. The risk
and reward function kicks
in about the second or third
trip.”
In addition, equipment
costs can create a hardship
for people first looking to
head outdoors, Bembry said.
For example, he said, hik-
ing boots can cost $200 to
$300.
For her part, Commis-
sioner Sophia Danenberg,
the only Black member of
the Washington State Parks
and Recreation Commis-
sion, said it’s also hard to
know where to buy equip-
ment when first heading
outdoors. She purchased
her first outdoor equipment
from Goodwill, including an
external-framed backpack
formerly used by the Boy
Scouts.
Moreover,
Washing-
ton State Parks needs more
inclusivity in its own hiring,
volunteer development, and
vendor partnerships, said
Chevon Powell, a member
of the workgroup who owns
the outdoor event company
Golden Brick Events.
Earlier in the meeting,
Valerie Roberts, the state
parks volunteer program
manager, said the volunteer
program is building relation-
ships with new volunteers
from many communities in
Washington.
Danenberg said state
parks isn’t diverse in its
employment or volunteers.
At an event in Goldendale
last week, she said she saw
one other person of color.
“I’ve got to say, I saw one
Black woman, and just as I
was about to be like, ‘Hey
Girl!’ when I realized that
she was part of Gov. Inslee’s
security detail,” Danenberg
said.
To increase diversity,
equity and inclusion when
dealing with the public, she
suggested increasing diver-
sity training and the diversity
of camp hosts at state parks.
To make camp hosting
easier, Commissioner Mike
Latimer said state parks
could look at creating camp
host positions in places with
yurts or cabins so that hosts
don’t have to buy their own
RVs.
However,
Danenberg
said, it’s difficult to bring in
more diverse volunteers.
“You’re effectively ask-
ing for free labor from peo-
ple who have been denied
the ability to build genera-
tional wealth,” Danenberg
said.
Next, Bembry said, the
state needs to study more
deeply how Black Washing-
tonians recreate outdoors,
including focus groups and
a more extensive survey of
people who don’t already
visit state parks.
“Reconnecting
with
nature is an inalienable
right,” Bembry said.