There is a new call for diversification within the ranks of environmentalists, whose demographics currently do not reflect those of the nation.

Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies Matthew Klingle offers some historical insight into the discussion regarding the need for more ethnic diversity in the movement, tracing the problem back more than a century.

Klingle reminds us that modern conservationism began with the elite aims of “setting aside wildlife for the worthy,” with regulations that favored sportsmen and, in some cases, even included racist rhetoric.