The Mountaineers Currents

We have been busy...

In the past year The Mountaineers' has partnered with many local and national recreation and conservation organizations in our work to protect our outdoor spaces. During this time The Mountaineers:

Received National Forest Service Award for Community Awareness for our work on Watershed Health and Habitat Restoration (The Mountaineer - December, 2009)

Awarded the Forest Service's Rise to the Future Award for Community Awareness for our work on the Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Act.
As a charter member of the Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative we worked to raise awareness and funding to repair 820 culverts that were blocking fish passage, improve 3,170 miles of trails, and fix 166 bridges. This worked helped restore 1,147 miles of stream habitat in addition to tens of thousands of acres of watershed nationwide.
Helped move legislation for the addition of 22,000 acres and Wild & Scenic River designation for the Pratt and Middle Fork Snoqualmie Rivers in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness (The Mountaineer - May, 2009)

Joined with wilderness-advocacy partners to bring the 22,000-acre expansion one congressional step from fruition
Two Wild and Scenic River designations for 40 miles of stream is included in the proposal
Kicked off "Conservation on the Ground" hiking series to investigate ("ground truth") proposed alternative motorized routes for the new Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest Motorized Travel Management Plan (The Mountaineer - August, 2009)

Led 20 volunteers on "ground-truthing" hikes of proposed alternative routes to survey motorized incursion along proposed alternative routes that dead end at or intersect with trails in designated wilderness areas. Participants learned about threats to aquatic resources and sensitive plants and animals and other resource damage due to illegal motorized use.
Protected 9,000 acres along the borders of the Wild Sky Wilderness Area from resource and wildlife damage due to illegal off-road vehicle use (The Mountaineer - March, 2009)

Vigilant volunteer "ground-truthing" and yearlong participation on the Department of Natural Resources Reiter Foothills Advisory Committee resulted in the protection of 9,000 acres from motorized use in the swath of state forest trust land between two state parks and along the borders of the Wild Sky Wilderness Area.
Provided over 5,250 hours of leadership advocacy (January - December 2009)

Our volunteers partnered with other local and national conservation and recreation organizations to form powerful coalitions to advocate for wildlife, state parks, national parks, wilderness and Wild & Scenic River designations in Washington State. These volunteers researched public land use regulations, reviewed environmental impact statements for proposed projects on public lands and provided comprehensive comments for federal, state and local land managers. Volunteers attended public meetings, conferences and workshops, planned and hosted conservation events and fundraisers , organized hikes, wrote newspaper and magazine articles and just about anything you can think of to raise public awareness about conservation issues.
Saved Washington State Parks and Department of Natural Resources Lands from Closure (The Mountaineer - June, 2009)

Mountaineers volunteers and professional representatives in Olympia worked to secure funding solutions for huge gaps in the Washington State Parks and Department of Natural Resources recreation budgets. The budget gaps threatened closure of popular recreation destinations on our state lands. Working with our local partners, were able to dodge the bullet in 2009, but in October 2010 the new state budgets will be released and we expect serious shortfalls once again. We need your help to let our lawmaker's know that even in times of economic downturn recreational opportunities hold great value for our communities.
Empowered 43 environmental advocates through our Northwest Environmental Issues Course (January - March 2009)

Advocates earned independent-study college credit through our Northwest Environmental Issues Course on Climate Change. This course covered green house gasses and human influence, projected impacts on the Pacific Northwest, the science behind climate modeling, climate change effects on ecosystem services, calculating carbon footprints and green building as mitigation measures and action individuals can take to address climate change
Supported two individuals who became Leave No Trace™ Master Educators (March 2010)

These individuals are now certified to teach Leave No Trace™ ethics to at the trainer level for other non-profit trainers and have poised The Mountaineers Program Center to become a regional center for "master educator" certification.