BOULDER CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE TAISHYA ADAMS IS SUPERCHARGING LOCAL POLITICS TO TALK ABOUT CLIMATE AND CULTURAL RESILIENCE, JUSTICE AND JOY, AND THE IDEA THAT WATER AND WILDLIFE DESERVE A SEAT AT THE TABLE. WE BELIEVE IN HER. YOU SHOULD TOO.
We don’t usually get overtly political in Elevation Outdoors, but this year we want to not just endorse but also call your attention to a very special candidate. Taishya Adams is running for Boulder City Council. It’s a small political step, but an important one since the home town of this magazine has been and is positioned to continue to be a national leader in discussions and policy when it comes to climate, public lands, the outdoor industry, and—we have a lot of work to do here—equity. Adams has stressed that her campaign is focused on making Boulder a climate and culturally resilient city and she wants to implement policies that help build a just and joyous community. She has an eye on business and using data to achieve these ends.
She also has the pedigree to get it done. She was a governor-appointed commisioner to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. She was a member of the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Business Advisory Council, the policy and education director for Outdoor Afro, an equity specialist at the American Institutes for Research, a member of the Boulder Police Oversight Panel. She climbs. She fly fishes in Boulder Creek, practices at Yoga Pod. But what I love most about her and her vision is that she wants us to think about wildlife and even water as part of this community, as deserving of protection and polices that take them into account. While so many of us understand this mindset is one we must adopt to heal and care for a shrinking and troubled planet, few politicians of her gifts are willing to make it part of their platform.
I talked to her about this interconnectedness to give her the chance to expand on her ideas. “When I think of the challenges we face, they are usually related to a disconnect of some kind, right?” she says. “Whether it be disconnect with each other or disconnect with the land. What I love about the outdoors is that it is this place where we can all drop in, where we all play a role, whether or not we are aware of that role or not. It’s a place of joy. That’s one of the reasons I moved to Boulder—because of this incredible outdoor commitment, this love of the outdoors and this desire to preserve and to protect. I’m very mindful and I’m really grateful that the outdoor industry is addressing some of climate issues and also working hard to address cultural issues (by culture, I mean some of the disproportionate representation of racial and ethically diverse people, people with disabilities, LGBTQA+).”
“What I love about the outdoor industry is that it’s intimately tied, intimately connected,” she says. “It literally cannot exist without land, wildlife and waterways. This is something humans need in order to survive. With that line of thinking, the outdoor industry is a critical industry for that human-nature connection. At the same time, we know the gear that we’re using, and the carbon footprint of getting to places we play has reached a point that has negatively impacted the earth’s ability to continue to have humans on it. So this is a reckoning for our economic system, but the outdoor industry is not the only one facing it. Every industry has a reckoning right now.”
Taishya Adams is an outdoor indusutry candidate. She is speaking to where we come from and where we need to go. I hope you join me in supporting her. adamsforboulder.com
