The Mountaineers
eLearning plays an important role in our community's efforts to teach and learn outdoor skills and build a shared culture of conservation. Think of our three conservation eLearning courses as the 11th essential for your outdoor experience. Low impact Recreation, Public Lands 101, and Advocacy 101 will give you the tools you need to tread lightly on the landscape, understand how different types of federal public lands are managed, and advocate to protect public lands and the outdoor experience.
After completing these courses, you'll come away with a better understanding of the lands and waters where you recreate and how to protect them. More than 800 Mountaineers completed these courses last year. Will you start off 2025 by making conservation part of your Mountaineers journey through eLearning?
Our Conservation eLearning Courses
Our courses are open to all Mountaineers members and non-members alike, and are taken online, at any time, and at your own pace. While there are no prerequisites for these courses, we recommend starting with Low Impact Recreation, then diving into Public Lands 101 and finishing with Advocacy 101.
Low Impact Recreation
Leave No Trace (LNT) has been a longtime foundation of our outdoor education. Teaching recreationists how to tread lightly on the land is an ethos woven throughout The Mountaineers, from our courses and trips to our books and articles. Our Low Impact Recreation course - featuring our video series - teaches how we as recreationists can lessen our impact in the outdoors while still enjoying our favorite activities. Low Impact Recreation is frequently included as a graduate requirement in our activity-based courses. Test your LNT knowledge and earn the Low Impact Recreation badge for your Mountaineers profile today.
Public Lands 101
The majority of Mountaineers programs, activities, and advocacy focuses on federal public lands, like National Parks and National Forests. Our Public Lands 101 course offers recreationists like you a great overview of the different types of public land and how they’re managed. Completing this course and earning the Public Lands 101 badge will help you be better informed while recreating and prepare you to get in the outdoor advocacy game with Advocacy 101.
Advocacy 101
In 2024, we launched our third conservation eLearning course, Advocacy 101, because we need more outdoor advocates to speak up to protect public lands and the outdoor experience. You don’t have to be a policy expert or have tons of time to make a difference for the lands and experiences you love. Nearly 100 Mountaineers have already used this dedicated advocacy training tool to learn the basics of advocacy and best practices for advocating for important conservation and recreation initiatives with lawmakers and land managers.
Advocacy 101 doesn’t just talk about advocating, course-takers take action as part of the course. After completing the course and earning your Advocacy 101 badge, you’ll be ready to continue advocating for an issue or place you care about on your own, and with fellow outdoor enthusiasts at organized lobby days and other opportunities.
Start Your Conservation eLearning Journey Today
We’re excited to continue growing a community of Mountaineers conservation supporters and advocates through these courses again this year. The 2025 versions of our conservation courses are now open and ready to help you practice low impact recreation, better know our public lands, and become an outdoor advocate. If you’ve previously completed these courses, there’s no need to take them again unless you’d like a refresher.
Interested in incorporating these courses into your Mountaineers 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 Mountaineers programs. We appreciate efforts by our course leaders to help us grow a culture of conservation throughout The mountaineers.
All of these courses can be found on the conservation education page.
