The Mountaineers
ELearning plays a critical role in our community's efforts to teach and learn outdoor skills and build a shared culture of conservation. Three conservation-focused offerings on our eLearning management system, Coassemble, are some of the many ways we educate Mountaineers about conservation and cultivate stewards and advocates for the places we cherish.
These courses share the knowledge you need to tread lightly on the landscape, understand how different types of federal public lands are managed, and effectively advocate for the outdoors. Each year, hundreds of Mountaineers complete the Low Impact Recreation course - commonly included as a graduate requirement for our skills-based courses - and Public Lands 101. We recently launched the third piece of our conservation eLearning journey, a new Advocacy 101 course, to provide a dedicated resource to train and activate our members as outdoor advocates. Learn more about all our conservation eLearning courses and sign up for one today.
Our Conservation eLearning Courses
Think of conservation eLearning as the 11th Essential for your outdoor experience. After completing these courses, you'll come away with a better understanding of the lands and waters where you recreate and be ready to speak up on their behalf. Here’s what to expect with each of our conservation courses.
Low Impact Recreation
Leave No Trace principles have been a cornerstone of our outdoor education efforts for decades. We created the Be An Outdoor Ambassador video series as an educational resource for our members and the greater outdoor community. Our Low Impact Recreation eLearning course provides a great baseline for how to recreate responsibly by sharing these videos on how to practice low impact hiking, eating, camping, and hygiene. It typically takes learners about 45 minutes to complete this course, including the several brief quizzes that check your learning. After completion, you’ll earn the Low Impact Recreation badge on your Mountaineers profile.
Public Lands 101
Sixty percent of Mountaineers courses take place on federal public lands like National Parks and National Forests, so our collective advocacy has a strong federal focus. Our Public Lands 101 eLearning course is a great way to learn about federal public lands, their varying recreational uses, and the agencies that manage them. In this 60-minute course, we unpack the four most common types of federal lands - National Parks, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and Bureau of Land Management lands. You’ll also learn about some of the bedrock conservation laws and management designations that protect and conserve federal public lands and waters. Earning your Public Lands 101 badge is also a good way to get ready for our Advocacy 101 course.
Advocacy 101
Our newest conservation eLearning course, Advocacy 101, will help you go from an outdoor enthusiast to an outdoor advocate. Through this advocacy training tool, you’ll learn the basics of advocacy and best practices for advocating for important conservation and recreation initiatives with lawmakers and land managers. Want to make your next personalized action alert or Letter-to-the-Editor more effective? Build your advocacy skills and earn the Advocacy 101 badge on your Mountaineers profile. Advocacy 101 takes about 60-75 minutes to complete for most learners.
Join our Conservation eLearning Journey
With our public lands and climate facing a unique suite of challenges, it’s more important than ever that outdoor enthusiasts make conservation a part of their recreation experience and grow their personal conservation ethic. Low Impact Recreation, Public Lands 101, and Advocacy 101 are available to Mountaineers members and non-members alike, and can be taken online at any time and any pace.
While there aren't prerequisites, we recommend starting with Low Impact Recreation, then diving into Public Lands 101, and finishing with Advocacy 101. Public Lands 101 will provide some important background on public lands management that will come in handy as you begin to engage with land managers through advocacy.
All of these courses can be found on the conservation eLearning page of our website and make great resources to share and integrate into any Mountaineers courses and activities you lead. Interested in incorporating these courses into your programs and activities but don't know where to start? Email our staff at conservation@mountaineers.org; we'd love to support your efforts to amplify conservation throughout our programs.
For more information on Advocacy 101, check out the Conservation Currents article in the spring 2024 edition of Mountaineer magazine.
