These Vermonters are trying to make the outdoor recreation industry safer and more joyful for people of color.

By Anna Lesmes and Caroline Martin, for the Community News Service

Radical Adventure Riders, or RAR, hosts a regular Friday morning bike ride through Burlington.

RAR’s mission is to challenge the narrative that bike groups only exist for a certain type of ‘outdoorsy’ person.

“Radical Adventure Riders is, at its core, a movement for gender and racial equity,” said Sequoia Young, one of the leaders of RAR Champlain Valley.

Young has worked in bike shops for 12 years, and they said the cycling industry continues to cater to white, cisgender men.

“It was created by white, cis men. And so it’s no wonder that the people who are comfortable hanging out and going to bike shops and participating in these events are white, cis men.”

RAR, Young said, is trying to “center anybody other than that.”

A 2024 report by the Outdoor Industry Association showed more Americans are getting outside than ever before. Participation in outdoor recreation grew 4.1% in 2023 to a record 175.8 million participants.

The same report showed that of people who participate in outdoor recreation activities “very frequently,” 8% are Black, 11.5% are Hispanic, 5.4% are Asian/Pacific Islander and 74% are white.

And while the number and percentage of Hispanic and Black outdoor enthusiasts has increased in recent years, “the slower rate of increase compared to growth in the overall participant base indicates a lack of engagement in the more diverse participant base,” the report said.

Siân Hernit is one of the Vermonters trying to change that.

“Taking up space, especially in predominantly white spaces — insisting that you do get to be there, and enjoying those spaces, and reclaiming that space for yourself — can be a really radical act of resistance.”

–Siân Hernit

Hernit recently graduated from the University of Vermont, where she ran POCO, the People of Color Outdoors club.

“Our mission is to break down the historic barriers that people of color have faced in accessing the outdoors,” she said. “And we do that by planning beginner-level trips that are free from any barriers that we can control. So transportation is provided. We provide lessons and instructors. Gear and snacks are provided, and we do all of the planning.”

Hernit fell in love with outdoor recreation in eighth grade when her school led a hiking trip to Yosemite. She went on to work in the outdoor recreation industry, and she loves being outside.

But she’s experienced racism while working and playing outdoors, like hearing people say racist comments. Which is why, she said, organizations like POCO are so important.

“Taking up space, especially in predominantly white spaces — insisting that you do get to be there, and enjoying those spaces, and reclaiming that space for yourself — can be a really radical act of resistance,” Hernit said.

Miguel Reda agrees. He’s the director of communications for Unlikely Riders, a non-profit that supports Vermonters of color in mountain sports.

“The focus of our organization is to create more space in the outdoor industry for BIPOC Vermonters,” he said.

Reda says “joy” is at the center of their work.

“I think there’s a lot of moments that we can be in community and outdoors, and having folks who have a similar upbringing and cultural background from you is incredible.”

Unlikely Riders runs a winter gear closet where members can pick up outdoor sports clothes and equipment. And at their events, the professionals in the group teach the newbies, which makes learning a new sport way less intimidating.

“Having experts in our community to be able to instill those skills and lessons and knowledge is really powerful,” Reda said.

Reda said organizations Unlikely Riders combat the long history of racism and segregation that exists in outdoor recreation.

And that’s something Carolyn Finney knows a lot about.

Finney is an author, educator, environmentalist, storyteller and cultural geographer who studies the relationship between race, land and belonging. She’s currently a scholar-in-residence in the Franklin Environmental Center at Middlebury College.

Finney served on the National Parks Advisory Board during the Obama administration, and she says her work is personal.

“My father fought in the Korean War. And when he came back in the fifties looking for a job, he thought working for the park service would be a great job. And when he went to apply for that job in the state of Virginia, what they told him was, ‘I’m sorry, but we don’t hire Negros.’ I think it was up until 1956, it was against the law to hire a Black person at the park service.”

Finney said systemic racism in the outdoors persists today “because it’s always persisted.”

Since our country’s founding, people in power have dictated who gets to own, access and use land. Examples include the Indian Removal Act, the exclusion of Black people from public parks, the denial of USDA loans to Black farmers, and the lack of parks and green space in communities of color. That racist legacy has made it harder for people of color to fully participate in — and to be leaders in — the outdoor industry.

And while people of color have always cared for, shaped and enjoyed outdoor spaces, Finney says their contributions are often not widely acknowledged.

“Their body of knowledge isn’t acknowledged. Sometimes it’s extracted and used, but it’s not acknowledged. And their very presence, and the love that they have for these places, is not acknowledged either.”

These conversations about land, Finney said, are never just about land.

“It is about economic and political power. It is about legacy. It is about people getting to decide who gets to come in. And it is about the right to say you belong.”

Our country’s legacy, she said, is one of exclusion and erasure. And for that to change, we need to address civil rights and access to the outdoors and outdoor recreation in tandem.

FInney says the Civil Rights Act and the Wilderness Act — which preserves and protects federal lands — were both passed in 1964.

“But the folks working on the Civil Rights Act talked very little about the environment. And the folks doing the Wilderness Act didn’t really talk about civil rights and segregation at all,” Finney said.

She said the siloing of civil rights and the natural world continues today.

“We’re talking about the great outdoors as though it’s something separate from civil rights,” she said. “And I would say it’s not.”

Finney said we can all work to create a new legacy — one where more people can thrive in the outdoors.

Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, in partnership with Vermont Public.