The outdoors is having a breakout year. For some.
Out of stock. Back ordered. Buy now get one free! (when they ship in October).
This is what my screen says each time I fill an online shopping cart full of gear for an upcoming camping trip with my family. We’ve been camping more than usual this year. We’ve had more time. We’ve been redirected because of Covid-19, and frankly, it’s been an unexpected bright spot in this virus’s dark grip on the world.
We are lucky. No two ways around it. We chose to put down roots in western Montana for a variety of reasons. Less traffic, raising kids, slower pace. But what really brought us here is the great outdoors and the “Montana Way of Life”. Unlike so many, we had a choice, and we chose Montana.
We camp. We float. We hunt. We fish. We do all the things.
When our summer plans of hosting friends, family and traveling to far away places were suddenly cancelled, we turned to the one thing we knew would help relieve our stress, provide our kids with unforgettable life experiences and a respite from the insidious disease ripping across the world: Nature.
As we quickly learned, we were not alone. Our small town, a gateway to national parks and an outdoor recreation mecca in normal times, was quickly overrun with license plates bearing the names of places being devoured by the virus: Texas, Florida, California, Washington.
It was like a steady wind during a wildfire, blowing car-sized embers of infection into a dry tinderbox of healthy hosts waiting to be ignited.
But who could blame them? I couldn’t imagine living somewhere watching the walls close in like that. And what does every good American need for a romp out in the wild? Stuff. They need stuff. We needed stuff. A paddle board, an inflatable kayak, a new tent. Whatever it was, we needed it.
And we couldn’t get it!
Despite the faltering economy and the record number of jobless claims, people are flocking to nature. The $800 billion outdoor industry is hitting on all cylinders. Gas? cheap. Gear? back-ordered. Politics? Heck, let’s pass the biggest national park and public land legislation of all-time during a global pandemic and split houses of congress. No problem.
Every one was looking for space, for nature, for calm.
This period in our country has some resemblance to that of post-WW2 America. As former director of the Interior Sally Jewell points out in her “futurist” look at ‘American Conservation’, our government was focused on other issues, directing all our resources at the war while the people were speaking out, inspiring the start of the civil-rights movement. Replace ‘war” with ‘pandemic’ and little has changed today. Just like now people were flocking to national parks to escape and to recharge and most were also demanding social justice.
In both respects, the parks and the people suffered deeply. One was loved to death and the other, “the people”, were being left behind. Both needed help.
Much like the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020, congress passed, at the time, the most ambitious public lands project to fix crumbling infrastructure and expand access to the great wilds of our country. It was called: Mission 66 - A ten-year, $1B investment in our national parks, beginning in 1956.
As Jewell points out:
“The real legacy of Mission 66 is that it inspired an entire generation — baby boomers, my generation — to love and visit and support the great outdoors.”
But, one parallel to that time period persists.
The outdoors of my parent’s generation, the Mission 66ers, were not accessible to everyone and little has changed in 2020.
Our national park visitors are largely older and largely white. I’m routinely reminded of the impact Mission 66 has had on our new wave of visitors to America’s public lands every day. The boomers and their kids (now with their kids). Through my work at a national park I talk to hundreds of supporters, visitors and corporate partners each year. The phrase I hear the most when I ask them their “national park why” is:
“My parents brought me to this park when I was a kid and it is one of the greatest memories of my life”.
We must now direct our focus on the communities whose parents couldn’t bring their kids to a park and haven’t had the chance to make these memories.
Let’s not forget, segregation included national parks until 1964.
Making strides can begin through creating opportunities for the BIPOC community to feel comfortable visiting a national park and installing new national parks and monuments that speak to their background, experiences and heritage, not just to the Mission 66ers. We must create intentional opportunities, through education and supporting organizations and companies focusing on this access. And we must identify the systemic barriers and deploy strategies to break them down.
I firmly believe the outdoor industry community and corporate partners can provide the capital, (including the social and political means) to significantly support this movement.
Some have already started the work and I encourage you to support them and seek out more:
BIPOC Camping Kits
How do you know how to go camping if it’s never been a thing in your family or social network? I learned from my dad, and he learned from his and so on. Enter Mo Jackson and her idea to create BIPOC camping kits.
5 Ways to Make the Outdoors More Inclusive
REI collaborated with The Atlantic and a host of diverse outdoor experts to create an action plan towards a more inclusive outdoors
Dudley Edmondson
Author of the 2006 book Black and Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places, Dudley has been living and working in Minnesota as a wildlife photographer and conservationist. He shares his story here.
The Trust for Public Land
A study published by The Trust for Public Land found that parks serving primarily nonwhite populations are, on average, half the size of parks that serve majority-white populations, and are potentially five times more crowded. Link to full article from NPR.
That “stuff” we thought we needed, the kayaks and the paddle boards? Turns out, we had everything we needed and nothing we didn’t. We had nature and unlike so many, we knew how to get there and we had each other to enjoy it with, safely. And everyone, no matter their situation, deserves that.
There is no doubt that the Outdoors is having a breakout year. Let’s channel this into long-term investments for positive change to protect nature and to make it accessible to all.
TWIB notes:
An old game for new cause: Climate Change. Bank of the west teams up with 1% for the planet on an affinity credit card. Proceeds benefit climate change initiatives
How finance nerds, credit debt swaps and the Seychelle’s saved a tourism industry. We need for of these deals for Nature.
Twitter data confirms - Americans are flocking to nature
This week in “Art Inspired by Nature”:
Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue
Georgia O'Keeffe 1931
Corporate partners continue to play a key role in our national parks. From the early railroad and hotel companies that brought visitors from the east coast, to the famous Mission 66 campaign “See the U.S.A in your Chevrolet”, the social and emotional connections to these businesses have been a positive tradition in our parks, bringing awareness and affinity to the American public and our public lands. For more information on how corporate partners support public lands, or to see how your company can get involved, please reach out.