Outdoor Allies: Dani Poirier — Outdoor Alliance

Ever wondered how you can do more for public lands but you aren’t sure where to start? Outdoor Alliance’s Outdoor Allies series explores how other outdoor adventurers got their start in advocacy work and their advice for how you can harness your passion for the outdoors into advocacy for the land and water you love. Dani Poirer is the Director at Wasatch Backcountry Alliance, where she advocates for community access in the Central Wasatch Mountains in Utah. When not participating in winter sports, she enjoys rafting, climbing, and mountain biking. Dani is also part of Outdoor Alliance’s Grasstops Collective, a program that trains outdoor advocates to build relationships with policymakers and advocate for conservation priorities.

What do you like to do outside and how did you first get connected with the outdoors?

I’m very fortunate that I grew up in a family that liked to be outside. I remember camping, hiking, and playing in the backyard with my sister. My dad was a ski coach, so we got free passes to the local mountain growing up, which enabled me to get into skiing, which is not so easy to do otherwise. I love all different types of skiing, nordic and downhill skiing, and in college I had the opportunity to go on a yurt trip. It was a weekend trip that was affordable, and that was my first experience backcountry skiing, which I got totally hooked on.

You started out as an intern at Wasatch Backcountry Alliance (WBA) whose mission is to protect and advocate for backcountry terrain and access in the Wasatch range. What led you into this work and your role there now?

When I was a student at the University of Utah, a mentor of mine suggested I do an internship there. They were a relatively new organization, without paid employees. Historically, WBA has been 100% operated by volunteers. After spending several years volunteering, I was asked to join their board of directors. A few years ago we started having conversations on how we could be more productive as an organization, that led to me to be their first paid employee, which has truly been a dream job.

What are some of the big advocacy issues that you’ve worked on as an organization?

The goal of WBA is to maintain the existing balance between undeveloped and developed terrain in our mountains. WBA was formed 11 years ago, to halt a proposal to connect the Central Wasatch range with gondolas and aerial trams. The idea was to make it all one massive ski resort but these connections were going to take place on public lands, where a lot of outdoor recreation takes place, including hiking, backpacking, and backcountry skiing. There was a huge outcry and opposition to this plan, which would’ve destroyed land, habitat, and backcountry terrain.

In 2015, there was another iteration of this plan, and now we’re facing the gondola proposal that Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is working on for Little Cottonwood Canyon. That's been a big issue that Wasatch Backcountry Alliance along with a lot the community and other nonprofits have been working to prevent. It's just another iteration of unnecessary development that would ruin the health of our public lands, water sources, and the overall character of our canyons, mountains, and undeveloped terrain. It would also impact parking, and being able to maintain access to these areas, which is a persistent issue.

There’s already a delicate balance between developed terrain and undeveloped terrain in the Wasatch. That is what pushed our organization towards this, the desire to maintain that balance, rather than have development chip away at these areas that are so important for so many of us.

What would you tell someone who is looking to get more involved in protecting a place they love, but doesn’t know where to start?

I think for those that have time, volunteering is always super helpful. That's what I did for nine years which led to the position I’m in now. The other thing I would encourage is to tune in and have an awareness of what's going on. It can be difficult to engage in advocacy when you're not aware of all the key players and all the strange nuances. Issues can be complicated, even I struggle to connect the dots and stay up to date on what’s going on, but do your best to just kind of stay aware, follow your local nonprofits and advocacy organizations. The Action Center at Outdoor Alliance is a great way to stay in the know on what’s happening with public lands and conservation policy. Also, engage with your local community, touring buddies, barista at the coffee shop, whoever you connect with when you’re in the mountains or in a mountain town. Sometimes just having that conversation to spread awareness, connect on the issues and share how to take action can be really helpful.

What are some good resources that people can plug into to know what’s going on, both on a local and national level?

I think what's really cool about outdoor advocacy in the United States is that it's tiered. If you're curious about stuff on a national level, Outdoor Alliance is a great organization to get started, and then start looking for those smaller tiers. If you care about outdoor recreation, but maybe skiing isn’t your thing, maybe it's rafting or biking, you can engage with one of the ten member orgs at Outdoor Alliance, many of whom have local chapters you can join. If you ski, you can join Winter Wildlands Alliance. They do national level advocacy on protecting land and water, and they also often focus on smaller more local issues.

You’re a member of our first cohort of our Grasstops Collective here at Outdoor Alliance. As we’re wrapping up our training this year, what is one thing you’ve learned that you’d like to share with others?

I would say I’ve learned a lot about how to work in collaboration with land managers, like folks at the U.S. Forest Service. The agencies hold a lot of power, and it's not always a given that one land manager feels the same as another, or a previous one in their position. This experience has emphasized the importance of relationship building, and really sharing your network and community with land management. They might share your same values and maybe there’s a problem you can solve together. Build those connections and try to maintain positive relationships, but also share your voice. I think that’s a huge strength that we're all working on in the Grasstops Collective.

How can agencies like the U.S. Forest Service better work with recreation organizations like the Wasatch Backcountry Alliance?

Dani addressing members of the Central Wasatch community

Treating us as a valuable stakeholder in the conversation and decision making process is a great place to start. We might not always agree, but having a seat at the table is a valuable way to collaborate, and maybe come up with solutions that are best for the public. We're lucky that we do have a good relationship with our Forest Service managers, and they'll sometimes reach out for our opinion, to find out how a certain policy might impact backcountry users.

Finding ways to also maintain access is important. In 2016 we created a backcountry shuttle. We did it one day a year to demonstrate that micro transit solutions are a viable option for the general public, not just resort skiers. Then we started offering our backcountry shuttle every Saturday in Little Cottonwood Canyon, and it's been a huge success. We've been able to expand into Big Cottonwood as well, and it really demonstrates that you can have a flexible, scalable transit solution using existing infrastructure, and that a gondola isn't necessary. It’s common sense, it’s not intrusive to the land, it's way more community driven, and it’s affordable.

We're demonstrating a real example of what can be achieved when you collaborate. We're not an organization that says no to everything. We realize that there are issues that need to be addressed in our mountain range but we’re making sure we're doing it in a way that serves all users, not just those participating in resort skiing.

You’ve been in Washington D.C. with Outdoor Alliance twice, meeting with lawmakers and developing those relationships both nationally and locally. Any tips you can share about making the most of those meetings and ways to follow up after?

Outdoor Alliance’s Grasstops Collective & Staff

I was really fortunate to go to DC with Outdoor Alliance last year. In our meetings with Utah Reps, we were in John Curtis’ office (UT-3) and he has this glass coffee table that has a bunch of socks in it, and on the walls there are posters of the big ski resorts in Utah. I figured we needed to show them that there's this huge voice and a whole crowd of people who love the Wasatch, but for the Wasatch backcountry, not just for the ski resorts. And so when we came this year, I stopped by the office and asked if we could add a pair of Wasatch Backcountry Alliance socks to the collection. It was fun, and they said yes! I think people assume meeting a member of Congress is big and scary, and super formal, but it doesn’t have to be like that. Sometimes leaving a lasting impression is silly and frivolous as, “Hey, here's a pair of our socks. When you look at your sock table, remember we’re the Wasatch Backcountry Alliance, and we have a big and passionate voice.”

Lightning round (one or two word answers):

Most used piece of gear: My water bottle, I don’t go anywhere without it.

A place you want to go: I would love to visit the Alps.

Another advocate you admire: Yvon Chouinard, I worked for Patagonia in college and I think he was foundational for me in terms of advocacy, and seeing what the company was doing not just in business, but also in protecting the environment.

Favorite close to home spot: Little Cottonwood Canyon.