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. Alicia is the Community & Government Affairs Manager at REI Co-op, where she manages its state-level outdoor policy work and bolsters the co-op’s strategy to engage REI employees, members and the broader community in the fight for life outdoors. She comes to REI Co-op after 11 years at Farm Aid, a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing family farm agriculture and sustainable food systems, where she led the organization’s advocacy strategy and grassroots engagement work, as well as its national grantmaking and direct service work with farmers. She has an M.S. in Environmental & Agricultural Science & Policy from Tufts University. Alicia is also a certified yoga instructor and is completing her 500-hour certification through Yoga Medicine. Currently based in the Boston area, she enjoys adventures in New England’s beautiful landscapes when she isn’t listening to music, enjoying some chocolate or cuddling with her dog.

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

Just being outside makes me happy. Taking my dog for a walk on a rocky New England beach, strolling in the woods for fall foliage, or taking advantage of public parks and gardens is a delight. Humans are made to be outdoors.

But when I really want to venture out, I love a good day hike or a multi-day backpacking adventure. I also love sea kayaking, which is something I’ve loved to introduce friends and families to over the last few years. I just don’t get to do those sorts of things often enough.

What led you to your work at REI?

REI met me at the very start of my life outdoors. I embarked on my first “serious” outdoor adventure as a teenager: a 4-week kayaking, hiking and backpacking trip in the Pacific Northwest. It was a profound experience for me. Island hopping in Puget Sound, the awe of Mount Rainier towering over me as I wondered if I was up to the ascent, or the gorgeous wildflower meadows of the Olympics: these spaces left an enduring mark on my soul. But the journey really started at REI’s awesome flagship store in Seattle, where I got outfitted. So, as I looked to start a new chapter in my career, the welcoming atmosphere of the Seattle store came flooding back. I knew that I wanted to continue policy advocacy around land and climate change, and that I wanted to be situated somewhere with wide reach into people’s lives. The prospect of mobilizing REI’s giant community to advance better outdoors policy was just too appealing to pass up!

What are the big projects you’re hoping to tackle in 2021?

We’re in such a challenging and interesting moment in history. With the Biden Administration just starting, we at REI anticipate many opportunities to drive forward solutions to the climate crisis, to ensuring that the outdoors is welcoming and accessible to everyone, and to protecting the places where we love to recreate. I’ll be focused on state policy, where so much innovation takes root. Seeing programs like New Mexico’s Outdoor Equity Fund being introduced through federal legislation, or how states are teaming up to tackle the climate crisis together gives me a lot of hope for what we can accomplish as a country. I think it’s at the state level where we can really prove how the outdoor recreation sector can be an incredible and unique force for good in pressing societal issues.

I’ll also be spending a lot of energy innovating ways to engage REI’s staff and membership in this work. I believe in people power. When you have 19 million members to engage, you start to see really quickly how each of us makes a big difference when we work together. So stay tuned at rei.com for what we’re cooking up.

What do you wish more people knew about advocacy in the outdoors?

That your voice matters! Outdoors policy is not only about iconic public lands or highly technical feats in remote corners of the world. It’s about the neighborhood park. It’s about environmental justice and our fundamental right to clean air and water. It’s about child education and school wellness. It’s about sustainable rural economies. It’s about drawing carbon back into the soil through reforestation. It’s about clean transportation and clean energy. I guarantee you: whatever your passion, there is a point of entry for you in the outdoors. And we need you.

What do you hope the future of the outdoors looks like?

There’s a huge frontier ahead as we center racial equity in outdoors policy. To me, that encompasses not only how we make real our belief that the outdoors is for everybody, but how we acknowledge the fuller history of the places where we love to recreate. For example, anytime you are dealing with land on this continent, you’re dealing with stolen land. We can’t realize the big goals we have around stewardship, climate change, public health and so much more, unless we partner with tribal nations who are indigenous to this land and learn from them. I think we’ll see a resurgence of Native land management practices that help us come into right relationship with the land. I think by respecting tribal sovereignty and the role of land in cultural survival, we may come to understand how foundational land is to our lives, our health, and our communities.

Looking ahead, as outdoors policy becomes more inclusive in these ways, recreation won’t be seen as an extra, “nice-to-have” thing, but as essential to our wellbeing. We will know this planet not only as our birthright, but as our responsibility.

Lightning round:

Favorite piece of gear right now: Rumpl down puffy blanket

On your reading list: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Best close-to-home destination: Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain.

Outdoor Allies: Alicia Harvie