We stoke joy.

Cultivating access and community for anglers of color so that together, we can reimagine fishing as a gateway to environmental justice.

Building community,
reimagining conservation.

Brown Folks Fishing focuses on expanding access to fishing opportunities for anglers of color as a gateway to engaging our communities in stewarding the waterways we hold dear. Fishing has deep cultural and ancestral roots for many of us, offering connection to land, water, health, and community. By reclaiming these roots, we can expand the narrative around who is, can, and should be on the water — who can bring their full selves to the water.

To be reflected and visible is to be seen more wholly. Representation matters not just as reflections of what is real but because the things we see shape our view on the world. To bring more voices into the sport through an ecosystem-minded, justice-oriented lens means more people to advocate for our shared waters. More seats at the table enrich the voices already there and expand the possibilities for creative and innovative collaboration toward novel solutions for the environmental crises that affect us all. In the words of the late water protector, Norm Harry, “what's good for the fish is what's good for the people.”

What we do

Our storytelling, programs, events, and initiatives are led by a team of volunteer angler-organizers in areas across the US, including Oregon, California, Colorado, Alaska, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Texas, and Hawaiʻi. We focus on cultivating a relational quality to all of our programs and initiatives because we know deepening those relationships is the best way to understand how we can continually improve and be more responsive to evolving needs. This work is guided by the belief that community moves at the speed of trust, and that the people who are most impacted by any of these efforts are the ones with the best ideas and solutions for any needs, problems, or challenges they face.

  • Single day local events hosted by our team of angler-organizers that include fish-a-longs, casting instruction, fly tying, and more.

  • An annual guided trip to the Kenai River in Alaska for beginner and intermediate angler-organizers interested in supporting our work locally.

  • A fellowship program that provides resources, mentorship, and learning opportunities in support of aspiring angler-organizers to develop and implement events locally.

  • A vetted directory of BFF recommended and endorsed guides. COMING SOON!

  • Angling for All is a national community-based participatory research initiative that will engage directly with communities across the United States to understand what barriers or challenges people face in starting and sustaining a healthy, joyful, and fulfilling relationship with recreational fishing and the angling community.

  • The Angling Pledge is pledge-based framework to advance an intersectional vision across the fishing and conservation community that is rooted in hard truths, expansive imaginations, and do-right-by-each-other sense of solidarity.

  • We have equipment libraries and gear sponsorships to help new anglers exploring different mediums and opportunities, and to support angler-organizers with programming.

reimagining conservation

The conservation narrative is often devoid of the downstream impacts, focused instead on the ideals of a pristine, untouched wilderness — an approach to environmentalism historically rooted in racism. Sport fishing can too easily become extractive, reduced to a competitive or individualistic pursuit. Instead, we choose to take a relational view. Imagine if gaining depth in technique came with more nuanced ecological knowledge and a deepening of community. Any conservation approach should be imbued with an anti-racist class analysis — water issues in southeastern Oklahoma, on the Klamath, and in the heart of Los Angeles touch us all the same. We owe this ethos to those who have made this road by walking it, shouting the impossibility of tackling climate without

tackling systemic inequality. Communities of color, lower income households, rural communities, and other systemically marginalized people bear the greatest impacts of climate disasters, natural or anthropogenic. Power plants and refineries that cause poor air quality are disproportionately located in predominantly Black, brown, and Indigenous neighborhoods. Lack of access to clean drinking water continues to impact at a higher rate communities of color whose neighborhoods have historically been displaced, redlined, razed, and otherwise excluded from investments in adequate water and wastewater infrastructure. The crisis of racism is deeply intertwined with the climate crisis, and the solutions to both should be as well.

2026-28 BFF Lab fellowship

A new round of applications for the fellowship program will re-open in Fall 2025. Stay tuned!

 

In-person events

We currently host in-person fishing events in the Portland Metro Area, Eugene, Los Angeles, NYC, Austin, Minneapolis, and more. Follow us on Instagram at @brownfolksfishing or reaching out at brownfolksfishing [at] gmail [dot] com to find out more.

Make an impact today

We are a volunteer-based organization that’s fiscally sponsored by the Oregon Wildlife Foundation. All of our programs and initiatives are supported by grants and individual donations. You can support our mission by making a tax-deductible contribution through OWF at THIS LINK. Please email brownfolksfishing [at] gmail [dot] with any questions.

Oregon Wildlife Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. EIN: 93-0797904