Closing the Nature Gap: Increasing Access to Outdoor Recreation for People of Color

Gordon with a turtle at a Brown Faces Green Spaces event. Credit: Brown Faces Green Spaces

When environmental activist Kimmie Gordon founded Brown Faces Green Spaces in Gary, Indiana, in 2017, it began as a group of friends and family that occasionally gathered for outdoor recreation. In the years since, Brown Faces Green Spaces has evolved into a nonprofit environmental education organization dedicated to helping People of Color connect with nature in Indiana and beyond.

An avid outdoorsperson, Gordon observed that People of Color were drastically underrepresented in nature-focused activities in northern Indiana. She refers to this as the “nature gap”—the decreased likelihood that People of Color in America will feel comfortable engaging with outdoor spaces.

“My son and I go kayaking, fishing—we do all of those things I used to do as a child growing up,” says Gordon. “Most times when Kaleb and I show up to an outdoor recreation event, we’re likely the only People of Color. So, I said, ‘Why aren’t my friends doing this? Why aren’t they experiencing the same joy, peace, and privilege to be outdoors in public green spaces?’ We belong here, too.”

Gordon, who earned her master’s degree in environmental policy from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, attributes this hesitation to the historic segregation of American state and national parks. State and national parks weren’t formally desegregated until the 1940s and continued to be hostile to People of Color until the mid-1960s and beyond, with some posting signs at campgrounds and picnic areas that read, “For Whites Only.”

“There’s trauma—unhealed trauma—related to the outdoors culturally when it comes to Black and Brown people,” says Gordon. “For instance, there’s Indiana Dunes National Park. From 2018 to 2021, Latinos and Asian Americans made up less than 5% of visitors while less than 2% of those visitors were African American. So out of 318 million visitors, only 7 percent were People of Color. The nature gap is represented there by 93 percent…Closing the nature gap means filling that 93-point space with color.”

A group of happy outdoorspeople at a Brown Faces Green Spaces event. Credit: Brown Faces Green Spaces

Today, Brown Faces Green Spaces operates from south Chicago to Michigan City, Indiana, and hosts a full summer line-up of events that invite people of all races to have positive experiences with public green spaces. These family-friendly events include kayak and canoe paddles, horseback riding, fishing clinics, group birding hikes, archery lessons and campouts.

Many of these experiences are hosted through Indiana Dunes National Park at the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education, located in Gary’s Miller neighborhood along the shores of Lake Michigan.

“I thought that the best way that I could reach people is to invite them into my world,” says Gordon. “The amazing thing is to be able to welcome people into a space of belonging where everyone feels safe and welcome and where it’s not a majority of one culture, color or race. It’s everybody participating in something fun, interesting, and exciting together in the outdoors.”

Brown Faces Green Spaces regularly draws anywhere from 25 to 50 people to each event, many of whom may not have access to well-maintained green spaces in their neighborhoods. For example, in urban Gary, which has a history of steel production that spans more than 115 years, Gordon says the physical environment of many neighborhoods makes it difficult for children and families to play outside.

“Gary, Indiana, is the armpit of pollution in the United States,” she says. “We are ranked third for cancer rates, and we ranked fourth for PM2.5, which is particulate matter that comes from smokestacks.”

Contaminated water and soil, unmaintained parks, and “heat islands”—areas without adequate tree cover—all contribute to a lack of access in Gary’s urban areas, Gordon adds. “And that’s not just access to green spaces and clean spaces,” she says, “but to clean air, water, and soil, which are basic human rights.”

By providing fun, family-friendly outdoor experiences, Gordon hopes that Brown Faces Green Spaces can inspire more people to see the value of the ecological and environmental resources around Lake Michigan and take steps to protect them. To that end, the organization hosts shoreline cleanups and other restoration events at places like Marquette Park, Brunswick Park, and Hatcher Park in Gary.

Gordon showing a child butterflies. Credit: Brown Faces Green Spaces

“The kayak clinics, the canoe paddles, the fishing clinics—all of those have a water quality education component,” she says. “We talk about fish and plant species within the habitat. We do wildlife education in the habitat with the animals that live in and around the watershed. We talk about the history of the nearby Calumet River, and the history of Lake Michigan.”

In early 2023, the organization also committed to participating in a multi-year project with Audubon Great Lakes to restore the disconnected wetlands at Gary’s historic Hatcher Park, which was named after the city’s first Black mayor, Richard Hatcher. Surrounded by 300-acres of prairies, woodlands, and wetlands, the now-defunct Hatcher Park was once a valuable environmental resource for Gary residents to experience the outdoors along the Little Calumet River.

By restoring the disjointed wetlands—known as Marshalltown Marsh—that once flowed through the park, Gordon and her colleagues hope to improve and protect water quality, reduce invasive species, provide essential plant and animal habitats, and prevent future erosion and flooding. Wetlands are vital environmental resources that are often disrupted due to climate change, fluctuating water levels, and human interference like construction. Wetlands have also lost much of their protections due to a recent Supreme Court decision.

“The goal is to get that water—that reservoir—back flowing,” says Gordon.

In the meantime, Brown Faces Green Spaces will continue to offer a full roster of events, including its annual Earth Day celebration—“Planet Palooza: Celebrating Earth, Health & Mental Wellness”—which will kick off the organization’s summer season on April 13, 2024. The event will start that morning with a shoreline cleanup at Marquette Beach, followed by a host of activities at the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education.

For Gordon, these opportunities to gather and rally around the environment are the first step toward healing some of the unmet needs caused by the nature gap. “It’s the need for us to feel welcome in spaces that we deserve to be in and share along with the rest of the world,” she says. “That’s what I needed for myself, so I knew that it was needed and necessary to be able to bring in people who were never yet introduced to the outdoors.”

Visit BrownFacesGreenSpaces.org for more information and follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/BrownFacesGreenSpaces.

A Brown Faces Green Spaces fishing event. Credit: Brown Faces Green Spaces