Maggie Bailey is a senior at Carroll College, where she’s studying biochemistry, molecular biology and sociology.  

“I’ve been in Camp Fire since I was a really young child,” Maggie said. “And I would say I’ve grown progressively with Camp Fire.” 

We would agree! She was a club member, camper, camp counselor and volunteer with Camp Fire Inland Northwest and a national Youth Advisory Cabinet member and chair. The Work, Health, Love Award recipient spent this past summer as Camp Fire’s first Environmental Justice and Programming Intern. 

“Camp Fire learned I was extremely interested in the environment and that I’m looking to become a scientist,” explained Maggie. “The internship was a good way to help me learn to effectively communicate science to the general population, specifically children, and learn to write curriculum.”  

In addition to helping create science-based programming, part of Maggie’s internship was spent developing the report, “Intersections of Camp Fire, Environment, and Race.” In it, Maggie outlines a vision for how Camp Fire can authentically engage with the environmental justice movement. It’s a compelling vision.  

Let’s dive into a few of the important takeaways from Maggie’s report:  

• What is environmental justice? “Environmental justice is both a social movement and an interdisciplinary academic field that addresses inequalities embedded in the ongoing ecological crisis.” 

Maggie points out that current science tells us it will take decades to return the earth to equilibrium — if humans commit to working together to heal the environment. Young people are facing a lifetime of climate change crisis impact, no matter what.  

“It’s important to be educated and understand that we need to do the work now,” Maggie says. “I think Camp Fire is a great place to carefully learn that expectation: To love the earth, love your community and know together you are able to do hard things like combat climate change. Talking about climate change is extremely depressing. It’s sad and hard. But having a welcoming community to learn about it, talk about and express your feelings about it is very important.”  

• What inequalities does environmental justice address? Environmental hazards have a disproportionate impact on people of color. “The EPA found that BIPOC on average faced a 28 percent higher health burden compared to the general population.”  

• “A distinct form of Indigenous environmental justice is required in order to address the challenges of the ecological crisis and the various forms of violence and injustices experienced specifically by Indigenous people.” 

Maggie has been active in the work Camp Fire has been doing to end cultural appropriation in our organization, and she sees parallels between that progress and environmental justice work.  

“Native Americans took care of the land with a way of grace that I think has been lost,” Maggie said. “I think it’s important to let the people who know how to do it and have been proven to be good at it hold our hand.” 

Because of that, she stresses the importance of partnering with Indigenous organizations to learn how to care for both the environment and each other: 

• What would environmental justice look like in Camp Fire? “Our solutions have to be earth-centered and led by Indigenous people.”  
• “Partner with a grassroots environmental activism organization 
• Maintain an environmental activism liaison position at Camp Fire” 
• What are some effective grassroots organizations to explore?  
• Climate Justice Alliance 
• Indigenous Environmental Network 
• Earth Guardians 
• Cultural Survival  

Maggie is excited to see how Camp Fire furthers its environmental justice work. She has been happy to see Camp Fire adopt science-based programming and continue its commitment to outdoor education and environmental learning.  

“I think keying in on the activism part would be extremely cool,” Maggie said, coming back to the importance of youth voice when asked about her dreams for Camp Fire’s future. “What if there were teenagers who created a council that lobbied for environmental justice in Camp Fire’s name?” 

Maggie plans to stay in touch with Camp Fire as she undertakes a biochemistry PhD program at Montana State. Her experiences in Camp Fire are making her consider how she can share what she learns as a scientist with the public, possibly as a professor. She encourages everyone who wants to learn more about environmental justice to do their own research and ground their passion in self-education.  

Here are a few starting places Maggie recommends:  

For high schoolers and older: 

• Tools for Grassroots Activists by Patagonia, edited by Norah Gallgher and Lisa Myers.  
• As long as grass grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker  
• Can You Hear the Trees Talking?: Discovering the hidden life of the forest by Peter Wohlbeen, author of The Hidden Life of Trees  

For middle-schoolers:  

• A Whale of the Wild by Rosanne Parry  
• Stella Diaz Never Gives Up by Angela Dominguez  

For young kids:  

• We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom  
• The Boy Who Grew a Forest by Sophia Gholz  

The post What’s Environmental Justice? appeared first on Camp Fire.

One of Camp Fire’s five strategic commitments is to promote environmental stewardship and action. We know we can’t be good stewards of our environment without another of our commitments: Advance diversity, equity, inclusion and access. We are committed to protecting our environment for everyone and enabling access to outdoor spaces for all.

Just like we integrate DEI work into our daily activities, Camp Fire integrates lessons about environmental stewardship into our programming, from the big issues (carbon footprints, climate change, food insecurity) to the local (daily conservation practices, caring for local natural spaces, working in community gardens).  We also have a partnership with Leave No Trace that helps us teach their Seven Principles for leaving a minimum impact when visiting outdoor areas. 

Want to get more involved in environmental justice issues? Learn how to better steward the natural spaces around you? Find ways to extend outdoor access to more people? 

Here are three things you can do this month to celebrate Earth Day and make some environmental justice moves: 

1. Learn about the nature gap

• • Read friend-of-Camp-Fire Quincy Henry’s Q&A blog post on environmental justice and Campfire Coffee’s efforts to make outdoor access more equitable in his community. “We want to eliminate cultural and financial barriers for people,” says Quincy. “We’ve set up a non-profit organization Campfire Explorers Club and our big picture vision with it is to ignite outdoor recreation in underserved communities by leveraging the ‘second use’ or ‘reuse’ economy.”
  • Did you know 74 percent of nonwhite people in the United States live in a “natured deprived” area (safe, nearby outdoor areas with clean water, clean air and wildlife)? Only 23 percent of white communities are nature deprived. Read this study by the Center for American Progress and the Hispanic Access Foundation to dive deep into the causes of this inequality (long-term racism, violent displacement, systematic segregation, and more) and suggestions for how to improve safe outdoor access for BIPOC, LGBTQ, disabled and low-income communities.
  • Learn from Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones’s lecture, Dismantling Racism in the Children and Nature Movement, from last year’s Inside-Out Leadership Summit, put on by the Children & Nature Network. “The four key messages I hope you take home are: Racism exists. Racism is a system. Racism saps the strength of the whole society. And we can act to dismantle racism,” Dr. Jones says.

2. Find a safe Earth Day 2021 activity near you. 

• • Contact your local Camp Fire council to see what’s going on in your own Camp Fire backyard.
  • Join three days of climate action (April 20-22) at EarthDay.org, including online summits and awareness building.
  • Search for an Earth Day event in your city or choose an every day environmental action you can take to celebrate.
  • Encourage the kids in your life to express their environmental vision through art with the Children & Nature Network’s Nature Future online gallery.  Submissions are open until April 30.

3. Talk to the kids in your life about environmental justice.

• • Use outdoor time and Earth Day activities to have a deeper back-and-forth about who has access to natural spaces. The Children & Nature Network has curated an extensive collection of resources to help guide nuanced, age-appropriate conversations about the interconnected topics of racism, able-ism, inequitable access to nature, and climate change. 

The post Celebrate Earth Day: Work for Environmental Justice appeared first on Camp Fire.