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. Chad Brown, US Navy veteran who served in Desert Storm/Shield Gulf War and Operation Restore Hope, Somalia, struggles today with PTSD. Chad Brown is an accomplished documentary style portrait photographer, creative director, adventurer, conservationist, and founder/president of a non-profit organization, Soul River Inc.

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

My parents introduced me to the outdoors early on. I come from a family of hunters, farmers and educators; my family line derives from slaves to black cowboys. I have memories as a kid putting on my boots and going out to the pasture with my grandfather to feed the cattle and watch my dad and uncles rope and wrestle bulls. I would go on deer hunts with my grandfather. As a family, we did a lot of camping and backpacking together.

As I got older, I remained in the outdoors. My mother gave me archery lessons. It was a way to keep me out of trouble and off the streets in the city. As a result of being inspired by the many bedtime stories my father used to share with me about Matthew Henson, the great American explorer, I also got into mountaineering. I ended up in the military later on which gave me opportunities to travel the world: I climbed Mount Fuji and Mount Kilimanjaro, backpacked for months in Japan, and hiked on the ice in Antartica.

Today, I love fly fishing, wilderness survival, exploring and teaching. I am also a professional adventure photographer, and my work is centered around creating stories of the untold and bringing them into educational advocacy exhibitions focusing around our public lands and the people who inhabit them.

What led you to your work creating Soul River and Love Is King?

I had a pivotal change in my life years ago when I attempted suicide. As a veteran, I was facing the demons of severe PTSD. The outdoors played an incredibly important and lifesaving role and I began to see the importance of natural areas and public lands as places of healing for us all. The more immersed I became with nature, the more I found myself involved with advocacy to protect our natural spaces and support indigenous nations — this became my life work and I launched my nonprofit Soul River Inc. The program identifies environmental issues around threatened wildlife and rivers and builds them into a field curriculum with outdoor leadership skills training, fly fishing, science, congressional presentations, Indigenous relations, and advocacy.

When George Floyd was murdered, many African Americans saw ourselves as George. This fear should never be normal or acceptable. I founded LOVE IS KING not just because of my experience in the outdoors, but for the many people who have faced FEAR, hate, racism, bigotry and ignorance and even death threats.

Tell us a little bit more about the Love Is King initiative – what is your vision?

I created Love Is King as a moral obligation to take action! Our goal is to ensure that people of color are guaranteed a welcoming, safe, and inspiring experience in the outdoors recreating, hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking. The mission is to activate and empower a humanitarian movement to mobilize citizens of all colors to carry out a humanitarian obligation that will raise our collective consciousness, educate and help facilitate conflict resolution through love, empathy, respect and a true sense of personal responsibility without discrimination. Love Is King was created to ensure that the personal stories, images, experiences, history, culture and leadership of people of color are represented, valued and celebrated. It’s your obligation to inspire new conversations, new points of view and shift perceptions that help guarantee the basic human right for all people: the freedom to roam in nature. Love Is King exists because people of color deserve a voice, they deserve an advocate and deserve action to ensure that the Freedom to Roam is Unhindered, Unlimited and Unforgettable.

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

Advocacy is needed today more than ever before. The more we are able to come together and advocate, the more we are able to change the narratives and dismantle centuries old hate in the outdoors. When we can step out of our norm of life and show empathy and love towards others, we are then able to come together stronger where advocacy can act as a sword to kill hate, ignorance and bias. It will allow everyone to feel safe and free. Advocacy is powerful, and if it’s done right, it can be the beginning of a movement to rise for change.

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

Here’s an excerpt from Martin Luther King “I have a dream” speech: “I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

We are still not there. It has been more than 50 years since Martin Luther King passed. He stood for all people to come together merely to dismantle hate and rise with love. I hope that the outdoors will be bias-free spaces, accessible and safe for everyone. This is simple but 50 years have passed, and the murders are still happening, the threats are still happening, and the bigotry, ignorance, and hate are still very much present in the outdoors and elsewhere. Everyone should associate the outdoors with safety, access, and equality.

Lightning round:

Favorite piece of gear right now: I love my collection of Wes Wallace recurve custom bows.

On your reading list: Can’t Hurt me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds (David Goggins)

Best close-to-home destination: Deschutes River and Metolius River (both in Oregon)

Learn More:

Love is King | Soul River Inc. | Chadcreative | Soul River Runs Deep

On Instagram: @_chadbrown_ and @soulriverinc

Outdoor Allies: Chad Brown