Tracey Campos sat in a tree, on a platform more than 10 feet above the ground, patiently waiting for deer. Decked out in camouflage gear and holding a crossbow, she quietly listened to the leaves falling and the chipmunks scrambling through the branches. Her long curly hair was pulled back away from her face and tucked under her hood.

Campos had gotten up around 3:30 a.m. on a Sunday. Before the sun began to rise, she occupied her perch above the Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island. 

She was one of several mentee hunters who traveled from around the Tri-State area to join a weekend of deer hunting organized by the Nature Conservancy and Hunters of Color, which runs educational events, training, and hunting weekends like the one this past November that Campos participated in.

The morning before, on the way to various hunting stands, the team had spotted many deer on the road. But not a single doe or trailing buck made its way through the clearing by Campos’s tree.

“I’m going to text Doug to pick us up,” she whispered, quietly unlocking her phone. She didn’t dare speak loudly until the last minute of hunting.

Conservation and hunting are closely intertwined in New York State. The deer that live on the Mashomack Preserve don’t have any natural predators in the area, such as wolves or coyotes. When deer are too abundant, they graze away young trees that are supposed to help rebuild biodiversity in the area. Hunting is one of the few ways to manage populations and give biodiversity a fighting chance. Some of the money that comes in from hunting licenses is also used to support conservation efforts, such as habitat restoration and maintaining natural preserves for all sorts of outdoor enthusiasts.   

The 2,039-acre preserve hosting the Hunters of Color weekend sits between the Long Island forks and is filled with bumpy roads that go around the area. Mashomack doesn’t look very big on a map, but once you’re in one of the more woodland areas, it feels like being transported into something out of a historical fantasy novel. There were fields, denser areas with trees, marshes that featured ducks and at some point a pair of swans. The fallen leaves rustled as squirrels and chipmunks ran through them. Bright and warm during the day, after sundown the reserve is hauntingly dark away from the few houses there. The night sky was a dark-navy ocean full of stars.

Here, hunters can harvest deer during the height of the rut, the fall mating season for white-tailed deer in the region. Most of the group stayed in a large 19th-century (and possibly haunted) manor house that’s managed by the Nature Conservancy and a nearby guest house. A table near the entrance featured information pamphlets and tick removal kits. Some of the seasoned mentors and program supporters wore camo T-shirts and hoodies that read “The outdoors are for everyone!” in bright-orange letters.

While hunting can be an important conservation tool, the activity doesn’t draw a lot of diversity. A 2016 survey from the US Fish and Wildlife Service found that more than 95 percent of all hunters in the US are white. Many of the skills that come with hunting are often passed down within communities and families, making it harder for others to join.

That’s where Hunters of Color comes in. The nonprofit organization was founded in 2020, and the founders were inspired by their own experiences in outdoor communities. By 2021, the organization had held its first hunt on Mashomack alongside the Nature Conservancy. It builds relationships among people and now has chapters and ambassadors in several states including New York, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Alongside hunting deer on Long Island, mentors in New York have also helped mentees go turkey hunting upstate. Organizers also set up events such as archery practice.

Mentors and organizers with Hunters of Color acknowledged the lack of representation and why that inspired their mission to support access to outdoor activities and communities. Barriers to entry came up during table discussions that first night on Long Island, over a dinner of venison chili and grilled fish. Participants talked about why they decided to try hunting. Some expressed their interest in hunting for their own food and felt like there was no “intro” class that they could turn to. Others outlined how they didn’t feel welcome when they tried to ask questions online or worried about being accepted—suddenly, they felt like they could be themselves after finding Hunters of Color online.

Brandon Dale, a New York State ambassador for Hunters of Color and a mentor, joined the early-November weekend on Shelter Island. He’s a medical student who always seemed to have an abundance of optimism and just the right gear. Dale wore gold-rimmed glasses and, despite the 3:30 a.m. wake-up time, a smile that radiated energy. Born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana, Dale said hunting was a birthright. He learned it from his family and also connects that knowledge to Black American history.

“In the post-emancipation world, free people were literally still hunting and fishing as a means of monetary substance, because it was much better than sharecropping,” he said. 

Moving to the Northeast, Dale took some time to find a new hunting community. Connecting with Hunters of Color helped him pass on knowledge that he learned from people like his grandparents and his uncles—and filling the generational knowledge gap that others have. It’s become a bigger part of his life over time.

Dale credits his care for lessening the waste associated with his eating habits to his experience with hunting. In addition to eating the meat, he often uses animal bones for broth, glands from deer legs to lure in additional deer during mating season, and deer fat for soap, which he’s made with other hunters. “It’s very sudsy, and it’s very moisturizing,” he promised. As a mentor, he pushes himself and others to use most of the game they’ve hunted.

Dale rarely buys meat at supermarkets anymore. His New York City apartment has an extra freezer for the meat he hunts. The far ends of a spectrum often meet to form a circle, and Dale, a hunter, sees a point of connection with his vegan friends: "We both want to feel connected to our food and to know more about it," he said, even if they choose to pursue that connection differently.

Campos echoed Dale’s sentiment on wanting to learn more about what it took to put food on her plate. Though she grew up on Long Island, her family is originally from El Salvador. She has fond memories of visiting relatives who had small farms where they raised animals and produced some of their own food. “They lived off of what they had,” she said.

She went iguana hunting a few years ago in Florida and felt more connected to her family roots and empowered by the fact that she was an active part of attaining most of that particular meal. Although she already enjoyed outdoor activities like hiking, Campos struggled to find ways to keep hunting back on Long Island. She said that connecting with Hunters of Color mentors gave her the confidence to do more outdoors.

Felesha Ross, a mother of four who drove from Connecticut, also attended the deer hunting weekend. That first Friday evening when mentors displayed how to skin a deer and explained how to use deer bones for soup and dog toys, Ross grabbed a pair of gloves and jumped in to learn.

Ross wanted to connect with other communities of color and Black hunters who were also outdoor enthusiasts. Her van is full of fishing gear, and she grows fruit, vegetables, and herbs in her yard. She and her children had gotten their hunting licenses years ago, but she couldn’t figure out safety practices or gear until she connected with the group online.

“The hands-on experience gave me confidence. I went out into the [dark] wilderness, and I had a sense of 'I’m not scared,'” she said.

Ross explained that she had spent years trying to learn more about homesteading and living sustainability, but didn’t often see women who looked like her being part of those communities. Hunters of Color set up the hunting trip, and mentors walked her through what gear to buy and how to use all of it. Having that support made the hunting trip so much more fun.

“When you see someone that looks like you have access to these things … you can go on and ask questions,” she said. “You can be yourself.”