LIK Operation Roam (Rapid Ongoing Advance Missions) is to provide an opportunity for BIPOC leaders to step into the realm of public land and freshwater conservation efforts and disrupt the historical system that allowed BIPOC voices of not being invited to government spaces where the decisions were made about land and wildlife and indigenous conservation policies.
Love is King will take BIPOC Leaders to an environmentally threatened and fragile environment (a place that will be determined in collaboration with participating conservation group sponsor). This BIPOC group will experience and live on this land for two weeks, learn the threats the land is facing, meet with members of indigenous communities and various government and local stakeholders living there. Participants will become environmental warriors of this land ready to protect it and advocate for it. After returning home, they will use their voices, talents, and skills to speak up and fight for this land, its inhabitants and its wildlife. They will create projects, blogs, webinars, meet with members of Congress, use social media in creative ways to elevate their voices of advocacy and influence and hold space for diverse representation in conservation and helping policy efforts for public lands, freshwater and wildlife.
Love Is King squashes the fear in the outdoors and provides equitable access and resolute safety to ensure an enriching and exhilarating experience in nature.
It’s our moral obligation to take action to ensure that people of color are guaranteed freedom to roam in nature with the assurance of a welcoming and safe experience in the outdoors: recreating, hunting, fishing and in backcountry wilderness, public lands and urban parks.
We’re on a mission to activate, inspire and empower a humanitarian movement that will mobilize citizens of all colors to carry out our 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.
We realize race and income are significant factors in blocking easy and safe access to the outdoors. We also realize that representation of people of color really matters. We will ensure people of color’s stories, image, experiences, history, culture and leadership are valued and represented. It’s our obligation to inspire new conversations, new points of view and shift perceptions that help to guarantee freedom to roam in nature for all people of color.
Love Is King squashes the fear in the outdoors and provides equitable access and resolute safety to ensure an enriching and exhilarating experience in nature.
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Love Is King squashes the fear in the outdoors and provides equitable access and resolute safety to ensure an enriching and exhilarating experience in nature.
Love Is King squashes the fear in the outdoors and provides equitable access and resolute safety to ensure an enriching and exhilarating experience in nature.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the finest examples of wilderness remaining anywhere in the world. Places like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon define what it means to be American. The Arctic Refuge is one of these places. To that end, members of Congress must join Indigenous leaders and a majority of Americans who support protecting this national treasure.
Alaska Wilderness League in alliance with Love is King is proud to announce the historic launching of the Alaska Wilderness League Activation Council. This marks a unique partnership between a BIPOC organization and a traditional conservation group to unite and cultivate BIPOC leaders to activate their leadership and build advocacy around protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“We are combining our human capital to defend the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from destructive oil and gas development,” said Chad Brown, found of Love Is King. “We’re learning from and following the leadership of the Gwich’in, who have lived in this place since time began.” Alaska is home to Native Tribes who have, for millennia, relied on Alaska’s lands and waters for their way of life. Alaska is home to an irreplaceable diversity of peoples, wildlife, and ecosystems.
This partnership is uniquely positioned to engage, enlighten and activate Congress to take action to restore long-standing bipartisan protections that have protected the Arctic Refuge from oil and gas development for decades. The Council will help establish dialogue channels and launch conversations with decision makers that have not traditionally been a part of the efforts to protect the Arctic Refuge. Our purpose is to continue to protect and strengthen our current environmental laws, preventing legislative attempts to undermine our environmental progress.
Love is king ROAM leaders, Alaska Wilderness League Task Force
Matt (He/Him) has been doing conservation and restoration work for nearly 5 years. He got started doing internships at the nonprofit Wisdom of the Elders, eventually moving on to crew leading and working full time for years with their LLC. He joined the Green Workforce Academy program to further his skills, which eventually led to him doing the Adult Urban Forestry Program with Friends of Trees and Vancouver Urban Forestry. Matt also has worked as a seasonal hire, working for Portland Parks and Rec: Urban Forestry with their science and outreach division. He now works for Forest Park Conservancy as a Land Stewardship Manager.
Matt is a volunteer member of Multnomah County Search and Rescue, fisherman, a mushroom hunting enthusiast, forager, writer, and a proud citizen of the Metepenagiag Mi’kmaq Nation. Being raised off and on reserve throughout his life made him both connected and disconnected at times to the natural world. Increasing urban and non-urban indigenous peoples’ access and direct stewardship/ownership back to our lands is both a passion for him and an ecological requirement for the world moving forward.
Lisa Collins (she/hers) is an educational professional with 25 years of experience. She holds degrees in psychology and education and works as an assistant professor at Lewis and Clark College and as a business consultant. As a learning and development professional, Lisa supports talent management and business partners to solve workforce challenges. She brings a gender and equity lens to her working environments. Lisa can see multiple perspectives and creates a community. Lisa serves on the Oregon Assembly of Black Affairs, the advisory board for Strategies of Trauma Awareness and Resilience with Eastern Mennonite University, On The Inside, art-based services for incarnated women, and has served on Oregon School Employee Wellness Conference Committee.
Lisa is an environmental justice advocate; she participated in the 2022 Love Is King Project Roam, which allows BIPOC people to step into the realm of public land and freshwater conservation. As a climate advocate, Lisa participated in the Shades of Water. She advocated for the passage of the River Democracy Act, introduced by Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, to protect Oregon rivers. Creatively, Lisa is a playwright with works produced in New York (Manhattan Repertory Theater) and Portland (Hipbone, and Portland Center Stage, the Armory). Her short film, Be Careful What You Ask For, serves as a discussion platform for racial healing discussions and has been accepted into several film festivals.
Chad founded Love is King in 2020 in the midst of the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing. It was Chad’s response to the question so many people were asking him then: “What can I do in the fight against racism? How can I be part of the solution?” Love is King leads with the mission to dismantle the hate, bigotry, ignorance and racism in the outdoors for BIPOC and all marginalized groups to have the opportunity to roam further and bolder in the outdoors and create wonderful memories for themselves without having to face any aggression. The focus of Love is King is increasing the access and safety in the outdoors. Brown is also the founder and president of Soul River Inc., a nonprofit organization that focuses on connecting veterans and introducing diverse urban youth of color to the outdoors, nature conservation and growing young leaders into advocacy for our public lands, wildlife and freshwater. He is also a Navy veteran, accomplished documentary style portrait photographer where he has been commissioned to shoot for the New York Times and operates as a creative director/ head photographer for Chado Communication Design. Chad often pursues adventures in the back country overlanding, and he has been selected as part of 2022 Team Ford Bronoco athletes. He is passionate about off-roading; he is an outdoorsman, bow hunter, conservationist and leading outdoor leadership teams into the Arctic Circle. He is especially passionate about working closely with indigenous nations, as well as working for environmental justice on public lands, raising awareness through education, providing access, inclusivity, and safety for everyone but especially for people of color in the outdoors. Brown is a board member of the Alaska Wilderness League and a has been featured on BBC, CBS, and National Geographic / Natgeo Wild’s survival reality TV series “Called to the Wild”, as well as in national publications such as Outside Magazine and The Drake, and in various Pacific Northwest publications. Additionally, Brown was the first recipient of the Breaking Barriers Award presented by Orvis, as well as the Bending Toward Justice Award from Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.
“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Love Is King squashes the fear in the outdoors and provides equitable access and resolute safety to ensure an enriching and exhilarating experience in nature.
