What We’re Thankful for This Holiday Season
The Mountains to Sound Greenway in Washington, protected because of your advocacy.
We’re headed toward the end of the year, and like many of you, reflecting on what we are grateful for over the last year. Though there have been a lot of challenges, there have also been a number of big victories.
Along with fighting back threats to our public lands system, we’ve been focused on a big, ambitious vision for the future. We’ve had some huge wins this year and we’re grateful to the outdoor community for making them happen, including:
The outdoor community’s advocacy passed a historic public lands package this spring. It permanently reauthorized the Land the Water Conservation Fund, which has been called America’s best conservation program. Permanent reauthorization means we don’t have to go down a siphon every few years of spending months convincing Congress to renew a program we all already like.
The public lands package also provided permanent protection for special landscapes we’ve championed for years, including the Mountains to Sound Greenway and Methow Valley in Washington, Oregon Wildlands, Emery County in Utah, Yellowstone Gateway, and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks.
Your voices were key in protecting the Roadless Rule, in standing up for public participation through NEPA, by advocating for more transparency in oil and gas leasing giveaways, and in speaking up for climate solutions.
None of this would have been accomplished without the outdoor community. Outdoor Alliance works to analyze what’s happening in DC and figure out how you can help, but without your voices speaking up to lawmakers and standing up for the places you love and our community’s values, none of this would be possible. Together, we’ve sent 92,719 messages to legislators and to land managers so far this year.
As we look ahead to 2020, we’re also thankful for over 4,000 of you who have already signed on to the Public Lands Pledge (see map below), telling lawmakers that you know we can do better for public lands. It’s time to pursue a proactive vision for public lands, and the outdoor community is leading the charge.
We’ve accomplished a lot this year, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Let’s keep the momentum going in 2020 and beyond.
Our goal is to collect the signatures of 10,000+ individuals, organizations, and brands that care about outdoor recreation. We will then deliver your comments to decision-makers in Washington D.C. in early 2020. Join us today, if you haven’t already:
Map showing Public Lands Pledge signatures. We have collected over 4,000 signatures, representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.