Creating Space for Everyone in the Maine Wilderness

Creating Space for Everyone in the Maine Wilderness

Statewide Movement Seeks to Increase Diversity in Outdoor Spaces

With rugged mountains, vast forests, scenic waterfalls, and cobblestone beaches, Maine is an outdoor enthusiast’s playground. Its natural beauty is open to all. Yet, not everyone feels welcome.

Photo courtesy Cultura Creative via Adobe Stock

This is the case for outdoor spaces all over the country. That’s why, right now, there’s a big movement in the outdoor community to encourage more diversity and better access.

The message? The wilderness is for everyone.

In Maine, numerous organizations and businesses are working to open the outdoor world and its recreational opportunities to more people who have historically underparticipated. Many of these programs and resources are new within the past year or two.

There’s a focus on serving marginalized groups such as BIPOC and LGBTQ communities, people with disabilities, women, Indigenous people, and people of lower socio-economic status.

“The outdoor lifestyle really elevates, elongates, and edifies the human experience, but our communities aren’t always invited to that,” said Moon Machar, Community Wellness Program Manager for Maine Association for New Americans.

Machar works with immigrants from Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana, Angola, and many other countries, helping them to adjust and feel welcome in their new homes. Last summer, she developed #WeOutside, a program that offers free outdoor experiences to immigrant children throughout the year. To date, she estimates that the program has introduced at least 200 children to outdoor activities such as canoeing, hiking, and snowshoeing.

“This is much bigger than just one little trip,” Machar said. “It’s sending a potent message that this is for everybody.”

To offer these opportunities, she partners with organizations such as the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust, Maine Outdoor Tourism, Maine Outdoor Brands and Confluence Collective, as well as Maine businesses such as L.L. Bean. Through these partnerships, she’s able to supply the children with the outdoor gear they need for any given activity, plus instruction from outdoor professionals.

“I want them to know this opportunity is here,” Machar said. “There’s water, there are woods, there are paths. This is how you stay safe and how you start to enjoy it for its mental health benefits and to find hobbies.”

Photo courtesy Culture Creative via Adobe Stock

Machar has already seen the difference the program is making for new Mainers and BIOPIC communities, and she’s been working to expand outdoor programs to adults.

“I see our kids now joining the ski team and outdoor clubs at school,” she said. “And we’re getting more invitations for trips. We’re about to take kids on the Allagash with Friends of Allagash and Chewonki.”

Opening outdoor activities to everyone requires breaking down barriers. The first step is recognizing those boundaries and who is being blocked by them.

The LGBTQ community, for example, faces the cultural barrier of historically facing violence and harassment when entering new communities and traveling in rural areas, explained Kelly Solberg, Youth Programs and Education Coordinator at EqualityMaine. This discomfort may discourage LGBTQ people from joining group bike rides or venturing onto a hiking trail alone.

“There’s a historical need to hide and not be visible in the country, while in the city, there was safety in numbers,” Solberg said. “That’s why there are so many lesbian and gay bars. The outdoors is the complete opposite. You’re alone. It’s rural, which tends to be less progressive in areas, too. You’re not necessarily seeing as many pride flags in those areas.”

Outdoor events and programs aimed at welcoming the LGBTQ community can help quash fear and communicate a sense of, not just safety, but also belonging.

“As a queer adult, I’m really excited to be curating and creating these experiences for queer youth throughout Maine,” Solberg said. “My job is to build opportunities, and it’s been absolutely rewarding.”

Solberg organizes an EqualityMaine summer camp for LGBTQ youth that’s led by LGBTQ adults. Last year, campers represented 15 out of 16 counties in Maine, with some traveling for hours to attend. Many developed lasting friendships, Solberg said.

To develop more programming, Solberg has been working with the Campfire Institute, which has been providing leadership and outdoor adventure camps for LGBTQ teens in Maine since 2015. She also works with Kindling Collective, a LGBTQ-centered gear library in Portland that was founded just last year.

Photo courtesy CandyRetriever via Adobe Stock

“There are amazing organizations that are working to uplift and empower the queer community right now in Maine,” Solberg said. “As much as people can do to continue to give them support and spread the word, I think that’s what really matters right now.”

At the University of Maine’s Maine Bound Adventure Center, there’s been an increased effort to encourage diversity and inclusivity through events such as Pride Climb on the center’s indoor climbing wall and Black Bear Outdoor Leaders Diversified, a two-day full scholarship retreat for students of color.

“In what’s predominately a very white industry, and in what’s a very white state, we see that there’s a need to create spaces for everyone so they can take part in what Maine has to offer,” said Colleen French, Coordinator at Maine Bound.

“A lot of our professional staff, both current and past, have worked in other outdoor organizations and have seen the need for creating space for all people in outdoor recreation,” added French. “It’s not just getting outside. It’s also having meaningful and impactful conversations while participating in activities outdoors.”

Another major barrier to people pursuing various outdoor sports is the cost – both in money and the luxury of free time. To acknowledge this issue, people have opened gear libraries over the past few years at several locations throughout Maine – including Monson, Millinocket, and Portland. These hubs offer free and cheap rental equipment for a variety of outdoor activities.

Outdoor skills and knowledge is a crucial asset as well. Working largely in rural communities, Maine’s Outdoor Sport Institute offers workshops that introduce people to sports such as mountain biking and skiing under the tutelage of experienced outdoor leaders. The organization also works with communities to develop outdoor resources such as trail systems.

“It’s a long, slow process, as is the case with any authentic community development work,” said OSI Executive Director Mike Smith. “But there are small steps you can take along the way to start to make it easier for people.”

Smith said the key to all of this is developing relationships and trust.

“You can make the gear free and you can build the trails and have them right out the back door,” Smith said, “but if they don’t feel welcome and don’t feel they belong, you’re going to have a hard time getting them out there.”


Story by Aislinn Sarnacki. Aislinn has worked as an outdoor journalist for over a decade and is the author of three hiking guidebooks: “Family-Friendly Hikes in Maine,” “Maine Hikes off the Beaten Path,” and “Dog-Friendly Hikes in Maine.” She teaches journalism at the University of Maine and is a registered Maine guide.


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