The Mountaineers
The outdoor adventures made possible through The Mountaineers would cease to exist without conserved public lands and waters, climate-resilient landscapes, and sustainable recreational access. A critical component of adventuring with purpose is advocating to protect public lands, fight the climate crisis, and improve the human-powered outdoor experience. You don’t have to be a policy expert to make a difference for the lands you love. As someone who cares deeply about the outdoors, you’re well positioned to be an effective outdoor advocate - it just takes a little time and training.
We’re excited to add a new eLearning tool to our Mountaineers conservation education toolbox: Advocacy 101. We created this course to provide our community with a systematic way to learn the basics of advocacy and get started as an outdoor advocate.
Why Advocacy 101?
Advocacy encompasses a broad range of activities - including education, organizing, and lobbying - used to influence public policy. Throughout our 117-year history, our organization has been a part of every major conservation advocacy campaign in Washington state history, utilizing various advocacy tactics to help achieve landmark conservation victories. Today, our public lands and the transformative outdoor experiences they provide face a unique suite of challenges, underscoring the need for more advocates for our outdoor places.
Each year, hundreds of Mountaineers take our Low Impact Recreation and Public Lands 101 eLearning courses to grow their conservation and stewardship ethic. Public Lands 101 provides a foundational background every advocate should have, but it only scratches the surface on advocacy. Over the last two years, we’ve heard strong interest from our membership for new advocacy training opportunities through The Mountaineers. Our new advocacy course will help equip members with the skills they need to confidently advocate for the places they love.
What You’ll Learn
After completing Advocacy 101, 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. You’ll learn the basics of advocacy and best practices for advocating for important conservation and recreation initiatives, including:
- Best practices for engaging with lawmakers via letters and phone calls, social media, attending events, writing a Letter to the Editor, and participating in a lobby day.
- Best practices for submitting feedback and comments on land planning efforts.
- Opportunities to take action.
Get Ready to Advocate
Whether you’ve already taken our action alerts, participated in a lobby day, or are a total newbie, Advocacy 101 can help hone your skills regardless of where you are on your advocacy journey. Get ready to advocate by:
- Taking our new course and earning your Advocacy 101 badge.
- Brushing up on your public lands knowledge through our Public Lands 101 eLearning course.
- Sharing and integrating all our conservation eLearning courses into the Mountaineers courses and activities you lead.
Stay tuned on our conservation blogs and Conservation Currents newsletter for future opportunities to apply your advocacy skills and make a difference for Washington’s public lands and waters through The Mountaineers and beyond.
We greatly appreciate the time and valuable input from Mountaineers staff and volunteers - including members of our Conservation & Advocacy Committee , and our partners during the production of Advocacy 101.
