In Ogden, a nature center wanted to welcome Black birders for free this week. Mike Lee and others called it racist.

Looking back, Ogden Nature Center director Laura Western thinks the organization made an error when it first promoted its planned Black Birders Week celebration.

Their April 1 Facebook and Instagram posts said Black birders and their families would receive free admission to the nature center from May 27-31. Right-wing social media circles quickly took note.

On social media platform X, a post from Libs of TikTok caught the attention of Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who called the event racist and said racism is illegal. Meanwhile, the center found itself barraged with phone calls and emails demanding a change.

“It should have said Black birders, your family and friends,” Western said, so anyone who wanted to celebrate the week could be admitted without cost. “You just have to own your errors.”

Criticism from former Salt Lake City police officer Eric Moutsos drew more than 100 comments alone. Moutsos became a conservative figure in Utah after he was placed on administrative leave in 2014, when he asked to trade assignments because he didn’t want to participate with fellow officers in the local Pride parade. He resigned and later created the Facebook group Utah Revival.

There, he shared the nature center‘s post last month, saying the event was illegal and telling followers to “let the Ogden Nature Center know what you think.”

Western said they received around 100 phone calls and emails from around the country. It consumed their time, she said, adding that many messages were hurtful and that she was personally shocked that some people used racial slurs.

Moutsos told The Salt Lake Tribune that he doesn‘t agree with people who chose to harass the nature center. He said he tries to promote civil dialogue and encourage his followers to do the same.

When he called the nature center himself, he said, he asked how things would go if they offered free admission exclusively to white families.

“There would be national outrage,” he said. “If we’re going to move forward trying to heal our communities, we just shouldn‘t talk about race the way that we do, because it continues to divide us.”

Though he said he believed the center had good intentions, “it came off horrible.”

The event, Western said, was not meant to judge the center‘s guests by their race or skin color, but to invite community members who historically haven‘t always had access to or felt welcomed by the birding community.

As the “nasty language” rolled in, though, they decided to alter their celebration — instead offering everyone free admission on Saturday, May 31, to celebrate Black Birders Week.

‘A way to fix what‘s been broken’

Birdwatching hasn’t always been welcoming to Black people “not because the hobby itself is exclusive, but because of deeper systemic issues,” said a spokesperson for Black AF In STEM, a national collective that created Black Birders Week.

The collective seeks to support Black people in science, technology, engineering or math fields that intersect with the environment. The idea for Black Birders Week started in an internal group chat, the spokesperson said.

The group wasn’t aware of the Ogden Nature Center controversy or directly involved with the center‘s original plans, the spokesperson said. Across the country, there are now many different events planned each year at many different places and organizations to celebrate the week.

The week’s first iteration happened in late May 2020, shortly after a woman in New York City’s Central Park called police on Christian Cooper, falsely accusing the Black birder of threatening her when he took issue with her unleashed dog, The Associated Press has reported. The woman was later charged with filing a false police report, though the case was ultimately dropped after she completed a counseling program that prosecutors felt would teach her the harm of her actions.

The collective’s spokesperson said there are “countless” more stories of Black people who have been questioned, harassed or followed while being in nature. The week calls attention to how rare it has historically been that Black birders are represented in media, birding-related leadership roles or in field guide work.

“A lot of people don‘t realize how much Black folks have contributed to birding and environmental science, so Black Birders Week shines a light on that history,” the spokesperson said. “At its core, it‘s both a celebration and a way to fix what‘s been broken in the birding world for years.”

A love of birding born at the Ogden Nature Center

Self-described as “bird-obsessed,” Nickole Hogan’s 12-year-old son, who is half Black, said he is excited for the Ogden Nature Center‘s Saturday event.

The boy first fell in love with birds at the Ogden Nature Center about four years ago during a naturalists program for children, his mother said.

Ever since, he’s become a devoted birder: He set up a bird feeder at home to better observe birds. He’s gone back to the nature center to help volunteer for a wildlife program geared toward toddlers. And he won first place in his sixth grade science fair for studying which weather conditions align with when birds eat the most. (The answer, he found, is right before “bad” weather, he said.)

His favorite thing he’s learned? That birds have different personalities, just like humans, he said.

“I have footage of birds actually being bossy. Some of them are really energetic. Some of them are grumpy,” he said.

So far, he said, he’s seen “probably about two” Black people at Ogden Nature Center; one was someone who works there, he thinks.

He was excited by the prospect of seeing more kids who look like him enjoying birds, too.

“I really think it‘s cool that a lot of young, mixed[-race] and Black kids get to experience nature,” he said.

When his mom saw people online were upset with the Ogden Nature Center, she said she reached out to support the organization.

“As I was reading through the messages, I was just sick to my stomach over most of them,” she said. “It was almost like they were taking the event as a personal attack. … They don‘t know the basis of it. They don‘t know why.”

She said she thinks most commenters likely had no intention of visiting the center, which has always been inclusive and inviting, she feels. If it were her decision, she said, she probably would have stuck with the originally advertised event, though she understands why the center decided to change its plans.

Birding, she said, is a “gateway” for kids to discover other environmental fields and interests, regardless of their ethnicity. Her son, for example, has become interested in conservation efforts through his love of birds, she said.

Moutsos said he feels promotions like the one the Ogden Nature Center originally planned are a way for organizations to use people of color to appear more diverse — an idea he sees as racist.

The Black AF In STEM spokesperson warned against organizations holding that mindset, saying institutions that want to meaningfully support Black Birders Week should make sure Black birders and their stories are intentionally included, and that organizations are accessible and welcoming all year.

“This isn‘t a one-week performative thing,” they said. “Keep showing up year-round.”

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