Outdoor Allies: Shalin Desai

Ever wondered how you can do more for public lands but you aren’t sure where to start? Outdoor Alliance’s Outdoor Allies series explores how other outdoor adventurers got their start in advocacy work and their advice for how you can harness your passion for the outdoors into advocacy for the land and water you love. Shalin Desai, of Frederick, Maryland, is the Vice President of Advancement for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), whose mission is to manage, protect and advocate for the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (A.T.). In his role, he oversees the organization’s development, communications, education, outreach and visitor services work. Prior to starting this role in late 2019, he served on ATC’s Board of Directors for several years and, before that, spent a decade working as an operations and sales consultant in the private sector. He is the first person of South Asian descent to complete the Triple Crown of hiking, which includes end-to-end hikes of the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail.

Tell us about your relationship with the outdoors – what do you like to do outside?

I view my relationship to the outdoors primarily through the lens of hiking. My heart belongs to trails.   I grew up in New England and spent all my free time – weekends, summers, school holidays – hiking trails in the Berkshires, White Mountains, and Maine. I temporarily left trails behind when I moved to Chicago, where I went to college and started my corporate career. After a decade in the Midwest, where flatness defines the landscape, I yearned for altitude and returned to the East Coast and began thru-hiking. The prospect of spending months on the Trail – a life lived in the woods, however temporary - appealed to me. I completed my first thru-hike, the Appalachian Trail (A.T.), in 2015. The A.T. got me hooked to thru-hiking. After 2015, I took several years to complete thru-hikes of the Long Trail in Vermont, the Pacific Crest Trail, Oregon Coast Trail, and Continental Divide Trail.

 What first got you into advocacy for the outdoors?

After I completed the Triple Crown, I had a sense of dread that my niece, who is now a toddler, would not have the same opportunities I had. The various threats we feel, see, know about, or predict – whether climate change, encroachment, or lack of political will to protect natural spaces – would fundamentally alter the experience of being outdoors by the time she was old enough to traverse trails on her own. That sense of dread lit a fire in my belly and sent me down the path of environmental stewardship.

That sense of dread also led me to one fundamental truth: it’s easy to take hiking, or any outdoor activity, for granted. Those opportunities – recreating outdoors and feeling connected to something larger than yourself – only exist because a critical mass of people manage, protect, and advocate for these outdoor spaces. Whether it’s a small city park or the 2,193-mile long Appalachian Trail, environmental stewardship and conservation are the bedrock of outdoor recreation and create essential connections to nature.

What are the big issues that you’re working on right now at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (or elsewhere)?

As a Conservancy, we do so much more than manage and protect a footpath. We protect the A.T.’s surrounding landscape, we manage and preserve the Trail’s fragile ecology, and we recruit, train, and deploy a volunteer corps of over 6,000 people. As an organization that is tasked to protect a public resource that is 2,193 miles long and traverses fourteen states, there is no shortage of issues to focus on.

Three priorities at the top of the list would have to be ATC’s focus on justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI); our landscape protection efforts; and, our work to address ever-increasing visitor use. The first priority on the list, JEDI, was borne out of a recognition that the Conservancy has to ensure the Trail is safe, welcoming, and inclusive for all. We acknowledge we have a lot of work to do but we are dedicating the time, resources, and attention to educate ourselves and, ultimately, to do better when it comes to equity, diversity, and inclusion. The second priority, landscape protection, has so many associated values. Conserving the land around the A.T. protects a footpath that follows a continuous line from Georgia to Maine. It protects a critical avian skyway and some of the busiest wildlife migration routes in North America. It creates a climate corridor that has global environmental impact. It creates an outdoor recreation resource on a scale that is matched by few others. Landscape protection, in short, is one of those things we take for granted but is essential to human life. The third priority, visitor use management, is a response to the ever-increasing popularity of the Appalachian Trail and outdoor recreation, in general. It is not uncommon, even before the pandemic, to find cars parked along the highway and trailheads crowded shoulder-to-shoulder with hikers. We love that the Trail and outdoor recreation is becoming more popular (after all, why manage and protect a trail if no one is planning to hike it?). But, the disproportionate impact to the Trail’s resources – the trailheads, the footpath, the shelters, the privies, the bog bridges, etc. – becomes more of a concern. We must ensure the Trail retains its essential character even with more people visiting the A.T., year after year.

You’ve talked to me about being an advocate for other people of color in the outdoors. What are the most important things you wish people would know about getting involved in outdoor advocacy?

Outdoor advocacy is a decision. You arrive at a point where you say yes, or you say no. Saying yes means you must educate yourself. Saying yes means you must set aside the capacity to engage with the issues and organizations focused on outdoor advocacy. And, saying yes means you must create the emotional bandwidth to be frustrated by the setbacks and challenges or – if all goes right – overjoyed at the successes. Calling yourself an outdoor advocate is an identity shift. It signals to the world you have a relationship to the outdoors, whatever that may be, and – as with all relationships – it will require work. But it starts with an affirmation that you’re ready to take that work on.

“Calling yourself an outdoor advocate is an identity shift. It signals to the world you have a relationship to the outdoors, whatever that may be, and – as with all relationships – it will require work. But it starts with an affirmation that you’re ready to take that work on.”

 What do you hope the future of public lands and the outdoors looks like?

I hope that “public” lands become just that: for the public. Right now, it’s difficult not to pay attention to the global justice movement. Public lands need one of their own. Public lands need to be relevant, accessible, safe, and inclusive for everyone – not just a narrowly-defined part of our demographic. That requires a shift in perspective, a shift in understanding of who and what these lands are for, and – ultimately – a shift in who considers themselves to be users and stewards of these public lands.

Lightning round

 Favorite thru-hike you’ve done

Continental Divide Trail.

On your reading list

Goodbye, Wisconsin by Glenway Westcott.

Long-time favorite piece of gear

Your average, plain ‘ole bandana!