Nature center's Black Birders Week plans tweaked after claims of racism

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Ogden Nature Center faced backlash for its Black Birders Week plans for late May, as originally stated.
A social media post said Black people would get free entry, prompting charges of racism, but now all will be able to get in for free.
Black Birders Week events aim to broaden interesting in birding and environmental matters, proponents say.

OGDEN — The Ogden Nature Center's plans to mark Black Birders Week next month sparked intense backlash from members of a Utah group that promotes conservative causes.

However, the Ogden environmental group, which operates a nature preserve and promotes environmental stewardship, will go ahead with the planned activities. But specifics as outlined in a controversial April 1 Facebook post about the event — which said Black birders and their families would get free entry to the nature center from May 27-31 — have been tweaked.

Now the nature center leader says anyone who takes part in nature center activities on May 31 can get in for free, regardless of race, though the intent of encouraging interest in nature among people of color stands.

"We're just trying to encourage a different community in connecting with nature. And traditionally we have not seen a lot of people of color who are Black birders," said Laura Western, the Ogden Nature Center executive director. Black Birders Week activities date to 2021, though this is the first time the Ogden Nature Center has gotten involved. The annual initiative gets financial backing from Amplify the Future, a nonprofit group formed to promote equity in conservation matters.

As Western describes it, the April 1 post — which sparked charges of racism from Eric Moutsos and commenters on a Facebook group he helps lead, Utah Revival — should have stated that any and all comers who take part in Black Birders Week activities at the Ogden Nature Center could get in for free. The group, Western noted, has had events geared to military veterans, grieving children and others.

"We're doing everything we can to include everybody. ... I think we kind of got hammered on it, to be honest, and it's been difficult," she said.

Moutsos, an outspoken social media influencer on conservative issues in Utah, said the original post carries a divisive message. It's since been deleted from the Ogden Nature Center Facebook page, though a screenshot of it appears on the Utah Revival Facebook page, which promotes conservative causes and issues.

"Whether you're a novice or an expert, all birders and naturalists are invited to join us May 27th through May 31st, with black families receiving FREE ADMISSION for the week," reads the original post.

In his response on the Utah Revival page, Moutsos charged Ogden Nature Center, an independent nonprofit organization, with discriminating against people who aren't Black. He also dubbed the plans, as originally stated, a bid "to virtue signal their pretend diversity."

Contacted by KSL.com, he said he reached out to the Ogden Nature Center to convey his concerns. Western said the group fielded many calls and emails on the issue from across the United States.

"When I called to complain to them, I said, 'Look, just think about it. If it was the other way around, if you were offering free admission to white people, how would that look?'" Moutsos said. "And the lady agreed with me, actually. She's like, 'I get it. I totally get it.'"

However well-intentioned, Moutsos said, such efforts are misdirected. "They're doing it to try and stop quote-unquote racism. But to me, the solution isn't more racism," he said.

Moreover, he takes umbrage with the notion of Black Birders Week activities catering specifically to Black people, even if all participants can take part for free. "I personally don't like it. But that's a lot better than not letting white people in for free. I just don't like to put labels on people," he said.

Western, meantime, says the intention isn't to divide people but to encourage interest in environmental matters to a broader pool of people. "The truth is, we want people to learn about birding. It helps connect people to nature. We've seen some communities that traditionally haven't been involved in birding and connecting with nature," she said. "Certainly it was never our intent to separate people out."

Reps from the Black Birders Week organization didn't immediately respond Monday to a KSL.com query seeking comment. But its website addresses the vision of organizers — increasing accessibility to the outdoors and making the outdoors a space where all feel welcome.

"Black Birders Week is more than birding — it's a movement for liberation, healing and the transformative power of nature as a force for resistance and reclamation," reads its website. Black birders, it goes on, "have historically been underrepresented in environmental and naturalist spaces."

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.