Improving Outdoor Access and Advocating for Public Land Funding with The Mountaineers

This article was written in collaboration with The Mountaineers

The Pacific Northwest has it all when it comes to outdoor recreation opportunities: an idyllic coastline, jagged peaks, and golden larches. For the last eight years and counting, we’ve been proud to have The Mountaineers as a member of Outdoor Alliance.

Based in Seattle, Washington and founded in 1906, The Mountaineers is a nonprofit outdoor education, conservation, and recreation organization working to help people explore, conserve, learn about and enjoy the lands and waters of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Within Washington’s robust recreation community, The Mountaineers brings together recreationists across a diverse array of outdoor activities to teach and learn outdoor skills. They’re about more than youth and adult outdoor programming; as a thriving community of more than 16,000 outdoor enthusiasts who adventure with purpose as a part of a long tradition of stewardship and conservation powered by outdoor recreation.

The Mountaineers has engaged deeply with Outdoor Alliance over the last few years, and has seen real results for its advocacy work.

Outdoor Alliance Washington with U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal

Leveraging Washington State’s Robust Outdoor Community for Advocacy

In 2021, we announced that The Mountaineers would lead Outdoor Alliance Washington (OA Washington), a state-based network of groups representing more than 75,000 members of Washington’s human-powered outdoor recreation community. Outdoor Alliance Washington brings together the regional chapters of national Outdoor Alliance member organizations, as well as Washington Trails Association and Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, to invest in shared advocacy for important recreation and conservation priorities.

Over the last three years, OA Washington engaged lawmakers and land managers on our policy priorities including investing in the outdoors through increased land manager funding, protecting our special outdoor places through landscape protection campaigns, and ensuring a sustainable future for outdoor recreation by shaping recreation planning and management in Washington.

Washington state’s congressional delegation is a powerful force for conservation and recreation in part because of the recreationists who take action for the lands and waters we love. Some of the congressional districts with the highest number of outdoor advocates are located here in Washington. The state’s 7th congressional district, which includes most of Seattle and several nearby municipalities, has more than 8,000 Outdoor Alliance advocates, the largest Outdoor Alliance constituency nationally.

Tackling the Maintenance Backlog

As the recreation community knows all too well, eroded trails, ancient bathrooms, washed out roads, and other challenges can prevent outdoor enthusiasts from experiencing the restorative power of our public lands. We’ve seen this disturbing trend play out across the country, and it is definitely true for public lands in Washington. Implementation of the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA)—a landmark conservation law passed in 2020 to restore and maintain public lands—is making great strides to tackle different maintenance on federal lands like national parks and forests.

GAOA brought a five-year infusion of resources for land managers to tackle critical deferred maintenance projects and those resources have already made a difference in Washington. Currently, 17 projects funded by the GAOA are have been completed or are scheduled to be completed along the Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area along Interstate 90 between Seattle and Ellensbug, Washington. One of those projects that just wrapped up includes Denny Creek and Franklin Falls. These two extremely popular hikes near Snoqualmie Pass are open again after a five-month closure. If you’ve visited Mount Rainier National Park this summer, you’ve enjoyed a reopened and improved Stevens Canyon Road. These pivotal enhancements to the user experience at Washington’s most popular national park were made possible by the GAOA.

GAOA will expire next year, and The Mountaineers and Outdoor Alliance are working to highlight and celebrate GAOA successes as we begin a campaign to reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund.

Improving Outdoor Access on Federal Public Lands

The Mountaineers and Outdoor Alliance have worked for nearly a decade to improve recreational permitting. This matters for the guided trips that The Mountaineers leads for its members, and for facilitating access to the outdoors across the country.

Most recently, the Simplifying Outdoor Access to Recreation (SOAR) Act would improve the unpredictable recreational permitting system that creates barriers for people who want to experience the outdoors through Mountaineers courses and youth programs. Not only is the permit process complex and labor-intensive to navigate, but it actively limits our ability to expand our programs and introduce more people to the wonders of the outdoors. This is fundamentally an issue of equity, as many people feel more comfortable experiencing the outdoors with a group like The Mountaineers. You can learn more about this issue in our spring 2021 Mountaineer magazine article. We’re thrilled that the SOAR Act is included in both AORA and the EXPLORE Act.

House passage of the EXPLORE Act is a win in itself, but it’s not the end of the story for a federal recreation package. For these important policies to become law, they must pass the full Senate as well. We see an opportunity to capitalize on support for a recreation package before year’s end, as well as passing the EXPLORE Act in the Senate, but we’ll need your help to do it!

Whether you’re an avid climber, whitewater kayaker, backcountry skier, or an outdoor enthusiast who wants to improve recreation management on federal lands, you have a story to tell that can translate into compelling advocacy for public lands and the outdoor experience. Before your next outdoor adventure in Washington’s great outdoors, take a few minutes to urge your Senators to pass the EXPLORE Act, ensuring sustainable, transformative outdoor opportunities for future generations of Mountaineers

Stay engaged with ways to be a part of and support Outdoor Alliance Washington by signing up for The Mountaineers conservation newsletter. You can also sign up to receive Washington state-related updates from Outdoor Alliance using the form below: