Glenn Nelson
Based in Seattle, Wash., Glenn Nelson is the founder of The Trail Posse, which explores the intersection of race and the outdoors. He recently served as Community Director, leading antiracism activities for Birds Connect Seattle, where he also led the name change from Seattle "Audubon." He was included in the inaugural People of Color Environmental Professionals: Profiles of Courage and Leadership by the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Sustainability Initiative at Yale School of the Environment (JEDSI).
Nelson has won several national awards for his writing, photography and Web publishing, including second place in 2020 from Best of the West for his columns on race for Crosscut and South Seattle Emerald, first-place honors from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 for his columns on race for Crosscut and South Seattle Emerald, and Outstanding Beat Reporting (Race, Inclusion and Environmental Justice) from the Society of Environmental Journalists. His photography is published in Bird Photographer of the Year and has been honored by North American Nature Photograhy Association, the Audubon Photography Awards, Best of Nikonians, and Share the View.
Nelson also is a founding member of the Next 100 Coalition, a national alliance of civil rights, environmental and community groups advocating for more inclusive management of public lands, and a founding steering committee member of the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge, which advises outdoor brands on DEI work. A graduate of Seattle University and Columbia University, he was born in Japan and started his career at The Seattle Times. He later founded HoopGurlz (now at ESPN), which covered girlβs basketball and college prospects nationally, and helped found Scout.com, a network of sports websites. Nelson is the primary author of a teen book about the NBA, has been published in numerous magazines and book collections, had his photographic work appear at the Smithsonian, and has been profiled by NPR. He has served on the board of directors for several nonprofits, as well as the Washington Governor's advisory committee on outdoor recreation, the advisory committee for the Japanese American Remembrance Trail, and the Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Task Force.
Birding While Black with Drew Lanham
Drew Lanham is a different bird. And heβs known that to be the case since, back in the day in Edgefield, South Carolina, he leapt off buildings and trees with cardboard wings, umbrellas and parachutes made of garbage bags. One time he broke his collarbone...
‘Nature Keeps Me Grounded’
Itβs hard to say how or why Chevon Powell was granted a rebirth so close to the beginning of her life. She was only 5 months old when her familyβs Houston apartment burned down. She was rescued after suffering first- and second-degree burns on about...
Connected by Nature
OVER THE COURSE of 3Β½ months, I made more than 30 visits to a nest site thatβs surprisingly urban, in the middle of Seattle, in the shadow of the University of Washington campus, where aspirations sometimes rise and fall as suddenly and unexpectedly as the...
Birding Is Booming. So Where Are the Black Birders?
Tiffany Adams grew up in the Chelsea-Elliott Houses, a sprawling, low-income housing project on the west side of Manhattan. There, cookie-cutter brick buildings are separated by modest courtyards with benches and tables. Trees and grassy yards enclosed by black, wrought-iron fences dot the fringes of...
Birds of Incarceration
On an air-conditioned bus to Tule Lake, we fold shimmering sheets of colored paper into delicate, mystical birds. The weight of the shared ritual makes my fingers fumble. Itβs been decades since I made origami with my immigrant mother, and I feel pressure to reprise...
2019 Nature Calls
I finally captured an image of a pronghorn with a healthy, pronged horn and without details blown out. So I’m doing wildlife again–half mammals, half birds. And I’ve been saving these for this calendar. Nine of these pictures were never shared on social media. Making...