Teresa Baker: Diversity One # at a Time
This story appears in the June 27, 2016 print edition of High Country News. Clicking on an image will launch a full-sized viewer. by Glenn Nelson During the past three years, Teresa Baker of Martinez, Calif., has organized some of the most significant events in...
Making a Splash
One of the joys of a recent visit to Rocky Mountain National Park was watching a young elk buck splish-splash in one of the Sheep Lakes. Often, Bighorn Sheep visit the lakes for the salt deposits in the soil. There were no Bighorn Sheep this...
Reconstruction Monument Proposed
The historic Penn Center campus, founded on St. Helena Island, S.C., in 1862 as the Penn School, one of the first schools in the South to educate newly freed slaves, has been proposed to become the countryβs latest national monument, managed by the National Park...
Nomadic Mama with a Mission
by Teresa Baker Christina Benton loves the road. She loves it so much that she took her three home-schooled kids on a 64-day, 5,704 mile RV journey across the country in the middle of the winter. Starting in January in their hometown of Charlotte, N.C.,...
Counting 100 Years of National Parks, for People of Color
When I was 7, or maybe 8, I read a book called The Hundred Penny Box. It told the story of an African-American woman who was 100 years old. She’d put a penny in that box for every year of her life, and whenever she...
Diversity Stars at Ranger Congress
Shelton Johnson of Yosemite National Park and Ravis Henry of Canyon de Chelly National Monument helped put the National Park Service’s scant diversity on display during opening ceremonies of the 8th World Ranger Congress on Sunday, May 22, at YMCA of the Rockies in Estes...
‘Hike Like a Girl’ Toward Change
by Liz “Snorkel” Thomas Note: A version of this story, plus more, appears at www.eathomas.com. Last week, I wrote in the High Country News about why closing the gender gap in the outdoors is important and steps women can take to reclaim the outdoors. This...
‘Hike Like a Girl,’ May 14-15, to crush taboos for women hikers
by Liz “Snorkel” Thomas Women often wonder whether it is safe for them to hike solo. For me, the answer clearly is yes: Iβve hiked 8,000 miles by myself, pioneered routes in Utah and the Columbia River Gorge, and set an Appalachian Trail speed record....
Tribes Granted $9.8M
The National Park Service has awarded $9.8 million in grants to more than 160 tribes for cultural and heritage preservation projects on their tribal lands. Another $46.9 million was awarded by the NPS on Monday for historic preservation grants to every U.S. state, territory, and...
Diverse Groups Propose Action
A landmark coalition of diverse leaders from civil rights, environmental justice, conservation and community organizations, including Glenn Nelson, founder of The Trail Posse, today announced a set of recommended policies and called on President Obama to take critical steps toward an inclusive system of national...
Parks Week No Game Changer
Sitting in front of the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center last week, the iconic National Park ServiceΒ ranger Shelton Johnson and I saw something that stopped our conversation in mid-sentence: a brown-skinned couple.Β The man wore dreadlocks, but both had their backs turned to us. We couldnβt...
No, National Parks Are Not Americaβs ‘Best Idea’
By Alan Spears When I was a boy, my family made annual summer pilgrimages to Gettysburg National Military Park, which ignited my lifelong passion for American history. As a high school student, I participated in my first park cleanup at Fort DuPont, a National Park...
