As a nature loving little girl, Jessica Newton never understood why the faces on information boards in the state and national parks she visited looked nothing like her.
“My parents would take me to these places and the platforms would tell you about a trail, or a person, but I’d never see anyone that looks remotely close to my color,” she said.
“Not a person of color, not an Asian person, not even a Native American person, honoring them.”
As founder and chief executive of Vibe Tribe Adventures, a Colorado non-profit dedicated to encouraging Black, Indigenous and other minorities to enjoy America’s outdoor spaces, Newton has worked for years to change attitudes and tackle the inherent racism that has contributed to a disparity of access known as the nature gap.
This week, she celebrated the historic first naming of a trail in the Denver Mountain Parks System for a Black hiker, guide and outdoorsman, her friend and mentor Winston Walker, who died in 2019.
To Newton, the dedication of the almost 3-mile Winston K Walker loop trail was much more than a deserved honor for a man who over several decades introduced thousands of people, many from minority communities, to the stunning scenery of the 14,000-acre system.
It was also recognition of progress made towards acceptance of non-white hikers and adventurers, which she says is often still a challenge almost 60 years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act finally ended segregation in national parks and elsewhere.
“The mountain community is not always open and welcoming,” said Newton, whose group was formally known as Black Girls Hike, and organized regular walking and camping adventures in Colorado’s parks for men and women.
“I think it’s because there’s a change in the atmosphere, in their spaces and their backyards. It’s like they’ve been living here for 20 years just with people that look like themselves, then you have maybe 15 or 30 women, a mixed community, hiking in their backyard, which is what the national park is.
“It can kind of catch you off guard, like, ‘What are these people doing here?’ There are people who don’t want us there, people who don’t want the outdoors in their backyards to be inclusive. It’s a real thing. People are intimidated, they’ll just pick up the phone and call state park rangers or the sheriff and we have to deal with it.”
Newton was among those who instigated the push to have the trail at the 860-acre O’Fallon park in Kittredge named for Walker, but said it was a community effort that was enthusiastically embraced by officials.
The application was filed by another of Walker’s friends and fellow hikers, Everett Brinson, who told city commissioners last month that the nature lover was “the closest thing to Dr Dolittle” he had ever known, according to the Denver Gazette. They approved the dedication unanimously.
“We thought, ‘hey, we had this legend in our community who was such a movement within Colorado.’ We raised funds, we got signatures, we had to go to city council, make presentations to parks and rec, the board, the committee, to get this passed,” Newton said.
“I think what our state, city and federal agencies are saying is, ‘Let’s help you make these outdoor spaces more inclusive, more equitable, more diverse.’
“Having a relationship with these different partners is what’s helping change the narrative on such a high level so that the community can explore nature and feel safe about it, feel accepted and want to be in these spaces. They’re really trying to change the story of what it looks like to be accepted and inclusive of Black and brown adventurers.”
A 2020 study by North Carolina state university’s college of natural resources tracked an ongoing “lack of diversity and inclusion in outdoor spaces” that researchers say dates to the era of slavery.
Also that year, the Sierra Club apologized for the racist views of its founder, the naturalist John Muir, who was known as the “father of the national parks system”.
“Throughout history, parks in the US have been conceptualized, created and managed by white men who held racist beliefs. People of color were rarely considered to be major stakeholders in outdoor recreation or park-related activities,” the university report said.
It cited income disparity and “current-day prejudices” as reasons for lower participation by minorities, noting also that people of color are three times more likely than whites to live in areas with no immediate access to nature.
Aware of its own questionable history, the national parks system has made strides in recent years towards inclusion. Its website lists at least 12 parks and monuments honoring the legacy of African American figures.
The dedication of Colorado’s Walker trail, meanwhile, will hopefully encourage minorities, especially Black women, to get out and explore, and equally importantly feel they are welcome, Newton said.
“We do adventure, we explore the outdoors, we utilize natural spaces for healing, for mental health, for dealing with illness. We use all the tools,” she said.
“There’s a bunch of us across the US. If you have fear, join a community adventure group in your area. We’re here and we’re waiting patiently for people to join us.”
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