Conservation Begins with Conservation
Conservation Northwest / Jun 24, 2026 / Work Updates
At Conservation Northwest, we believe conservation begins with community. In honor of Pride Month, we are highlighting LGBTQIA+ conservationists who have made a great impact on the Northwest. Together, we celebrate and advocate for the protection of diversity in both the communities we work with and the nature we serve.
Jas Maisonet (They/Them), Founder of Tender Terra and QPOC Hikers
“In the quiet company of the forest, we remember who we are. One love, one Earth, one heart.” — Jas Maisonet
Jas Maisonet is the founder of two nature focused organizations rooted in connection. QPOC Hikers is an organization that facilitates community and creates space for queer people of color to gather in nature. Tender Terra focuses on reconnecting people with nature through therapeutic practices and activities. Maisonet’s work in the conservation field creates inclusion and promotes unity and tranquility.
Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd (They/It), Co-Founder of Queer Nature
“This is why I often say that, as a trans neurodivergent Indigenous person, my existence itself is a form of resistance.” — Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd, from Nature is a Human Right by Lenny Moynihan
Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd is the co-founder of Queer Nature, a project that creates community for LGBTQ2+ individuals through place-based workshops to enhance skills and engage in naturalist studies. In addition to co-founding Queer Nature, they are an artist, researcher, mentor and eco-philosopher. Sinopoulos-Lloyd draws inspiration for their work from their culture, identity and admiration for nature. Their accomplishments include a Track & Sign Professional certification from Tracker Certification North America, being the 2020 recipient of Audubon National Society’s Environmental Champion and R.I.S.E Indigenous 2020 Art & Poetry Fellowship recipient. Sinopoulos-Lloyd is also a founding Council Member of Intersectional Environmentalist; trans ambassador of Native Womens Wilderness; and a founding member of Diversify Outdoors coalition.
So Sinopoulos-Lloyd (They/Them), Co-Founder of Queer Nature
“In ecological thought and the evolutionary sciences, it has become a truism that everything is what it is because of its relationship to everything else. We’ve long felt that this also applies to gender, and it’s central to both of our experiences of being trans.” — So and Pınar Sinopoulos-Lloyd, from “Beyond the Human” Atmos Volume 6: Beyond.
So Sinopoulos-Lloyd is the co-founder of Queer Nature, along with their spouse Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd. In addition to Queer Nature, Sinopoulos-Lloyd is a naturalist, photographer and writer. Their work is inspired by, “ecology, identity, mysticism, & so-called apocalypse.” They are also an accomplished Track and Sign Specialist and Expert Rifleman.
Mel Hanby (He/Him), Rainbow Conservation Crew of the Northwest Youth Corps Co-Leader
“It is hard to express what being queer in conservation means to me because it is rightly difficult to define my own understanding of queerness and conservation. I believe that my identity, like nature, is always fluid and changing. In my life, both as a queer, transgender individual, and as an outdoor enthusiast passionate about nature, I am seeking respect, understanding, and meaningful relationships.
Queerness, like nature, is nothing new. The web of human relationships between ourselves and our more-than-human neighbors on this planet is complex and dynamic. It is expected that these relationships ebb and flow. However, histories of capitalism, colonization, and industrialization have produced unnatural and inequitable heiraches that seek to destroy overwhelming human and nonhuman communities. Embracing queerness and conservation, along with other efforts for social and ecological justice, are the necessary responses to this destruction. These efforts are not always perfect. Many Western traditions of conservation have been complicit in the destruction of Indigenous communities in the name of protecting nature. In my understanding, humanity and nature cannot be separated. This may conflict with some definitions of conservation. And, myself, my body, and my expressions of love are also in conflict with many definitions of humanity. So, what does being queer in conservation mean to me? Simply, it means protecting what and who I love.” — Mel Hanby on what being queer in conservation means to him
Mel Hanby formerly co-led the Rainbow Conservation Crew of the Northwest Youth Corps in conservation efforts throughout the Pacific Northwest. The Rainbow Conservation Crew was the first LGBTQ+ youth conservation corps in the nation. The group provides opportunities for LGBTQ+ youth to have paid experiences restoring public lands.
Rachel Carson (She/Her), Marine Biologist and author of Silent Spring
“Like the resource it seeks to protect, wildlife conservation must be dynamic, changing as conditions change, seeking always to become more effective.” — Rachel Carson (1948). “Guarding Our Wildlife Resources”
Rachel Carson was a Marine biologist and author of several books including her revolutionary Silent Spring, a book that caused shockwaves in the pesticide regulation movement.
Community Wildlife Monitoring Project Apprenticeship Program
In addition to highlighting queer conservationists this Pride Month, we would like to spotlight our Community Wildlife Monitoring Apprenticeship Program for their diversity and inclusion efforts. Conservation Northwest’s Community Wildlife Monitoring Project harnesses the power of more than 100 volunteers each year to maintain dozens of remote camera sites in Washington and southern British Columbia, as well as to conduct winter snow tracking in the Interstate 90 corridor near Snoqualmie Pass to inform wildlife crossing projects.
The Community Wildlife Monitoring Project offers an apprenticeship program which is a cohort of up to 7 individuals from historically underrepresented communities with the goal of providing an opportunity for career development and outdoor research and tracking skills.
As a leading organization in our region, we actively work to promote environmental justice, continue to interweave DEI into our external work, and be an ally for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and English as a second language communities. Our work crosses many identities and cultures; interweaving radical empathy will make our work in those spaces more effective. We each need to be able to listen to others’ experiences with humility, find what we have in common, and connect with each other’s humanity.