Operation ROAM heads to the Arctic Refuge

By Monica Scherer | July 17, 2021

This July, Alaska Wilderness League, Love is King and Operation Roam are launching our inaugural expedition. The destination: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Alaska Wilderness League board member and founder of Soul River Inc, Chad Brown, recently launched a new non-profit, Love is King. This organization aims to eliminate fear and establish safety for Black, Indigenous, and all people of color while on our public lands and is committed to creating a reimagined outdoor environment focused on participation, representation and inspiration.

Love is King and the Alaska Wilderness League are excited to announce a formidable partnership. We see knowledge and conversation as some of the most valuable tools we have in the effort to implement long lasting change. We believe in the interconnectedness of daily human life, social justice, environmental justice, and climate change. We can no longer afford to separate these critical conversations into silos. The issues of environmental justice and social equity are disproportionately impacting people of color including Black, Latino and Indigenous communities.

Our mission is tragically simple, connect individuals who would normally not have an immediate stake in each other’s interests, culture and future, and find common ground and converge their movements for the greater good.

This July we’re launching our inaugural expedition. The destination: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We are excited to have an amazing group of community leaders who will join forces with Gwich’in Steering Committee executive director Bernadette Demientieff and the Gwich’in community to personally experience the vulnerable natural environment and natural resources of the Arctic Refuge.

Our purpose is to probe, to discover, and to ignite a meaningful dialogue that intertwines justice for vulnerable communities, vulnerable ecosystems and social inequalities, and bring about change and continue to build support for the Arctic Refuge and communities of color across the country.

Chad Brown and his companion Axe on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.
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