National Wildlife Federation leads “greens” on Environmental Justice

 Article and Photo By Audrey Peterman

It was a shock to my system when I walked into the National Wildlife Federation conference in Lake Tahoe, Nevada late June. My body was still vibrating from the challenging drive from Sacramento – and by “challenging” I mean going up 7,000 feet over snowcapped mountains with winding hair pin turns through mostly forest, cliffs and sheer drop-offs.

So, I was already a little wobbly when I walked into the conference center and saw a room teeming with “the face of America.” There were so many Black and Brown people among the throngs, everyone happily greeting each other, multi-ethnic and multi-generational groups chatting on the side.

“Wait, What?!” my mind said as my eyes went wobbly.

Was I even in the right place?!

Because nowhere in history have I EVER seen such a tableau, though it’s what my husband Frank and I longed for, dreamed of and worked toward over almost three decades, alongside many others. For years, meetings dealing with issues of poisoning, ill health and a decreased quality of life suffered by Black and Brown Americans, and how to redress them, attracted no white participants unless they were staff. At meetings such as this about conserving wildlands and iconic animals, participants were likely to be more than 90 percent white, with few exceptions.  (Someone greeting us at a conservation meeting in the 1990s actually asked, “What brings you here?” to which Frank responded, “My truck!”)

So this diversity blew my mind. Then I saw that the agenda included topics such as Farm Bill Conservation Priorities: Elevating Wildlife, Climate and Equity;  Incorporating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice into Coalition Building; Pride Outdoors: Exploring LGBTQIA= Perspectives and Joy on Queering Nature; Justice Isn’t Just Us: Connecting Communities to Conservation;  and Tribal and Indigenous Partner Strategy. HECHO (Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting and the Outdoors) with whom we worked in the Next100 Coalition to secure a Presidential Memorandum on Diversity in Public Lands from President Obama, was host of the opening reception.

Had I actually entered the gates of heaven? That was my literal thought, though I affirm that I live in heaven on a daily basis. In my keynote next morning I asked, “AM I IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE?!”

I am eager to share these developments with the hundreds of key activists who worked with focus and determination over many years to bring this to pass. It took me back to the first Mosaic in Motion Conference in 1997, spearheaded by Iantha Gantt-Wright (her memory is a blessing) at the National Parks Conservation Association and supported by the National Park Service under Director Robert Stanton. 650 people of every ethnicity rose in that conference that included managers of the public land agencies to say, “Americans of Color are environmentalists too.”

Multiple people in the conference were instrumental in helping make this change. Since the 1980s, people as Dianne Dillon-Ridgley and Dr. Mamie Parker, both of whom serve on the NWF Board, helped seed the effort. The visionary leadership practiced by NWF Executive VP Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, (formerly of the EPA and the Hip Hop Caucus) and his brilliant vice president, Dr. Adrienne Hollis. are front and center in this breakthrough. For the first time ever, a “big green” group has a standing Environmental Justice Advisory Council!

I gushed with appreciation to the CEO Collin O’Mara and the board and exhorted them to speed things up and be a light to the organizations lagging behind. I complimented them on banishing the specter of “mission creep” a term used for decades to delay action on environmental justice issues.

I was relishing this development and calling for greater urgency in helping make the public aware that we’re all in this together, when this news item landed with a thud in my heart:

“UN says climate change is out of control.”

For decades the leading climate change bodies such as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been giving us a little more time to prepare, warning in their March 2023 report that we have a scant 10-year respite to fix things. So this statement was incredibly alarming to me. Communities on the frontline for harm are mostly in the environmental justice sector, making it even more urgent that the conservation sector uses its access, influence and resources to help protect these vulnerable populations.

The Federation recognized Frank’s and my efforts with an Environmental Justice 21^st Century “For the People” Award. Other recipients include Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks in Atlanta with whom we’ve been allied for more than 20 years; Dr. Bunyan Bryant in Michigan, and NW Board members Butch Blazer and Kent Salazar.

I do believe a change has come, and not a moment too soon. I’m so grateful.

I heartily recommend that you join the NWF mailing list at NWF.org so you can keep abreast of developments and help magnify their effect.

       (Environmentalist/author Audrey Peterman has been writing for the Westside Gazette/Black Press since 1985. Check out her books on national parks and the environment.)