Promoting diversity in nature

Over the past two decades, wildlife photographer Dudley Edmondson has frequented America's iconic locales, from trekking through the aspen trees for elk at Yellowstone National Park to searching for the California condor in the Grand Canyon.

Locating the exotic species wasn't the hard part. It was finding people of color, like him.It's a shame that nature is considered "a white thing," said Edmondson, a Minnesotan whose experience led him to publish the book "Black and Brown Faces in America's Wild Places" (Adventure Publications, 2006). "It's a shame that anyone would miss out on such a gorgeous thing."

Edmondson will headline tonight's talk on "People of Color in the Outdoors," at Miller Community Center on Capitol Hill, in hopes of inspiring Seattle African Americans to hike, camp and see Mount Rainier and other Northwest icons.

The event is sponsored by YBOYS Expeditions and Passages Northwest, two local nonprofits that lead hundreds of Seattle teens on backpacking, sea-kayaking and rock-climbing expeditions.

Across the state, minority attendance in state parks and ski areas has been so dismal that some youth advocates have started organizing camping trips and offering free snowboarding lessons to minorities. Since its inception last summer, YBOYS Expeditions has taken 189 Seattle teens, mostly minorities, on one- to 14-day camping trips to Alpine Lakes Wilderness and the Cascade Mountains, loaning sleeping bags and gear to those in need. Passages Northwest plays a similar role for females.

Andrew Jay, director of YBOYS Expeditions, has been walking the halls of inner-city schools, trying to convince 12- to 15-year-olds that recreation isn't just about shooting hoops on the court.

"From so many people I recruit, I hear, 'Rock climbing is something that black people don't do,' " Jay said.

To make the outdoors less intimidating, he runs slide shows of other African-American teens backpacking along the Olympic Peninsula. He brings in past minority participants to ease their concerns.

Jay's latest coup: signing 15 students from Meany Middle School to venture on a four-day camping trip to Vantage, in Central Washington, during spring break, and other overnight trips this summer.

"They were all nervous. The first thing they all wanted to know is if they were going to be eaten by bears," he said.

Selling the outdoors

"Outdoors is where we (minorities) have the least amount of understanding, but where we can have the most fun and learn the most because you're out of your comfort zone," said New Yorker Shirley McGill, a diversity consultant for Outward Bound, who will also speak tonight.

As part of their initiative, McGill and Edmondson will also speak at Meany, Madison and inner-city schools to encourage more minorities to get out and see Puget Sound.

Still, many advocates believe it's a tough sale. Many poor minorities can't afford skis or camping equipment, or their parents hold a second job on weekends, several after-school program coordinators say.

Also, for many African-American parents and grandparents, the outdoors connotes images of cotton picking, sharecropping and manual labor in the summer heat, Edmondson said.

Edmondson has made it his crusade to get the new generation to embrace the mountains and rivers. His book features 20 African-American outdoorsmen, including a bird watcher, mountaineer and wildlife biologist.

"Lake Superior is five blocks from my house, and I often think about it and photograph it," said the 46-year-old photographer from Duluth. "I want to create a yearning (for African Americans in Seattle) to visit Mount Rainier, see the wildflowers and mountain goats."

"If you want to be truly free in this country, there is no better place than to be in the outdoors."

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com