This should charm Climb_CA, who frets over the wilds being so lily-white, peoplewise (hey, it’s good disguise on a ski slope!). A new book is called “Black & Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places,” by Dudley Edmondson, an African American wildlife photographer who profiles 20 non-white outdoorspeople in the book. Edmondson’s site: Raptorworks.com
. What he has in mind:

In the coming decades the future of natural resource protection will be in the hands of people of color as their population numbers will exceed those of the larger white majority today. If these groups are not properly prepared for this responsibility then the future of natural resource protection is in very serious jeopardy. Federal, state and non-profit agencies will have to provide more educational programs and make a concerted effort to get diverse groups of people involved in conservation.

To be candid I would say the message of resource protection and conservation will have a better chance of being heard in communities of color when the messengers are people of color; that is the function of Black and Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places.

One book probably won’t change the world but it’s like taking your vitamins: it can’t hurt.