More than Wildlife Conservation: Black Ecological Care in Baltimore

This article reframes the discussion of Black underrepresentation in conservation from a question of absence to a question of presence. Based on twenty-seven months of ethnographic research in Baltimore, I develop Black ecological care as an analytic to name the practices that Black communities employ to make and maintain livable worlds within, alongside, and beyond designated conservation spaces. These practices include the planting of native forests, restoring streams and ponds, removing invasive species, capturing stormwater, beekeeping, and the remediation of the soil across vacant lots, church grounds, and backyards. Grounded in Black ecologies and Katherine McKittrick’s concept of livingness, I argue that naming Black ecological care asserts presence where institutional frameworks see only absence. In doing so, I advance a broader and more nuanced understanding of Black conservation.