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Participants in the Hunters of Color program at Mashomack Preserve. COURTESY THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
Hunters of Color is among the many partnership programs at Mashomack Preserve. The group was founded in 2020 to increase access and opportunities for people of color to participate in hunting for the sake of conservation, food sovereignty, and to preserve ancestral traditions. The organization pairs participants new to hunting with mentors sharing their skills to pass it forward to a new generation. Mashomack Preserve hosted the group for the first time in 2021.
The program is designed to offer a safe and equitable place for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to learn how to hunt, harvest, and prepare white-tailed deer, which is consistent with the management goals at the preserve. Educating people about hunting as part of conservation — rather than something separate or antagonistic to conservation — is a goal Hunters of Color and The Nature Conservancy share. Hunting plays an important role in conservation, and the goal is to recruit and train the next generation of hunters so that hunting remains viable in the future, according to Paul Gallery, stewardship manager who oversee the partnership with Hunters of Color for The Nature Conservancy in New York.
Kim Covell on May 22, 2025