![\"little-black-girl-with-braids-holds-snake-,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/little-black-girl-with-braids-holds-snake-.jpeg\"\/ "\\"little-black-girl-with-braids-holds-snake-,")
![\"little-black-girl-with-braids-holds-snake-,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/little-black-girl-with-braids-holds-snake-.jpeg\" "\\"little-black-girl-with-braids-holds-snake-,")
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by JR Valrey, the People\u2019s Minister of Information<\/p>\n
Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard is one of the jewels from Oakland when it comes to teaching Black people in the Bay and beyond about nature. As a child, he was an explorer who realized that he had the uncanny gift of being able to feel comfortable with and communicate with nature. After traveling the outbacks of the Bay Area and beyond, he now is on a trek to educate others \u201cin the trap,\u201d aka the hood, about what he has soaked up and learned from his stoop in Oakland, California.<\/p>\n
JR Valrey: What is Trap Nature? Why did you name it that? And how did it start?<\/p>\n
Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard: Trap Nature is a nature-branded business surrounding nature and wildlife topics from a hood perspective. That includes education and experience.<\/p>\n
JR Valrey: What interested you most about nature growing up?<\/p>\n
Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard: It was a passion that I always had. I just got distracted like so many others due to the lack of availability. That was really all I wanted to do as a child. Now that I\u2019m older, I take full advantage.<\/p>\n
JR Valrey: Where have you been in the wilderness of the Bay Area?<\/p>\n
Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard: Everywhere in almost every Bay Area city and county.<\/p>\n
JR Valrey: Where have you hiked and camped outside of the Bay Area?<\/p>\n
Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard: Mount Shasta was my favorite, but I\u2019ve been to different states as well. I\u2019ve been to Arkansas documenting water moccasins. I\u2019ve been to Texas catching speckled kingsnakes. I\u2019ve been to a lot of places looking for wildlife, and that\u2019s what I love about this. I can travel almost anywhere and do what I do.<\/p>\n
JR Valrey: What kinds of animals have you encountered on your excursions? Which animals have you interacted with?<\/p>\n Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard: I\u2019ve damn near seen it all. Mountain lions, wolves, bobcats, badgers, tarantulas to countless reptiles and amphibians. I\u2019ve encountered many, but my favorite is rattlesnakes. I\u2019ve been interacting with and studying their behavior for over 15 years now. I also like to educate people about my findings because I feel they are very misunderstood animals.<\/p>\n JR Valrey: Can you explain why you feel comfortable interacting with wild wolves, snakes, etc.?<\/p>\n Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard: Because everything is always about energy, understanding and, of course, knowing what you are doing. What I do is not for everyone, but there are some people out here who just have a certain gift with wildlife or even domesticated animals. I also have a gift with training strong-breed dogs. It takes a lot of energy and understanding to train certain breeds of dogs. When I had my wolf experience, that was when I realized how similar they behave to dogs.<\/p>\n JR Valrey: Who is your target audience with Trap Nature?<\/p>\n Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard: Those who don\u2019t have access to knowledge when it comes to the science of nature. I feel it\u2019s important that everyone knows their roles in nature because ignorance can have negative impacts. I also highlight how we can be positive impacts just by becoming connected.<\/p>\n JR Valrey: How could people book you for speaking engagements or hiking tours?<\/p>\n Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard: I have a website www.OfficialTrapNature.com<\/a> and follow me on instagram @officialtrapnature<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n SF Bay View Editor-in-Chief JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5FM KPOO or KPOO.com<\/a> from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com<\/a>. You can reach him at JR@sfbayview.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by JR Valrey, the People\u2019s Minister of Information Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard is one of the jewels from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2113,184,2680,6774,72586,2268,143,145,144,59034],"class_list":["post-418716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-animals","tag-bay-area","tag-black-people","tag-energy","tag-mount-shasta","tag-nature","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-trap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n<\/a><\/p>\n![\"trap-nature-5,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trap-nature-5.jpeg\"\/ "\\"trap-nature-5,")
![\"trap-nature-5,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trap-nature-5.jpeg\" "\\"trap-nature-5,")
Photo 2:\u00a0 Scid \u201cTrap Nature\u201d Howard at peace with a snake friend \/ photo courtesy of Trap Nature\u00a0<\/p>\n