Political Action For Trails
The trails we run and hike on would not exist without community support and government agencies. Our elected officials need to hear from you, their voters, to know that trails and parks are essential! The trails need your help!
Ways you can help:
Additional Resources:
Washington Trails Association's Take Action page. Also check out their current campaign: Get state funding for Washington trails "across the finishline"
Runners for Public Lands' Toolkit
Outdoor Alliance's Take Action page
Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance's Blog
Washington State Parks' News & Announcements page
U.S Forest Service's Newsroom
Ways you can help:
- Stay informed. If you don't know what's going on with your trails and parks when it comes to government funding, staffing shortages and opportunities to voice your opinion it's hard to do your part. Follow national, state and local news. Sign up for newsletters from the organizations that advocate for trails and parks and follow them on social media. That goes for following the parks and trails systems themselves as well. For example agencies will announce updates to the management plans or project that will result in trail closures. Talk about these issues with your running buddies.
- Communicate directly to your representatives by attending community meetings, making phone calls, signing petitions and even scheduling appointments to meet with them in person. Common Cause makes it easy to find the phone numbers, email addresses and social media links for all your federal, state and local representatives. The organization 5 Calls helps to facilitate direct communication with our federal representatives. When you do reach out keep it brief and to the point and of course civil and friendly. Resistbot is another great app for communicating with your elected officials and much more and once you get the hang of it it's easy to use!
- Contribute to organizations like Runners for Public Lands and Washington Trails Association that have staff who work directly on campaigns to advocate for trails and work to keep us informed and make it easy for our voices to be heard.
- Other ideas: attend rallies and protests, use your long runs and races to draw attention to critical issues, get creative and get into "good trouble". Go to work for one of these parks or trail organizations or become a politician yourself!
Additional Resources:
Washington Trails Association's Take Action page. Also check out their current campaign: Get state funding for Washington trails "across the finishline"
Runners for Public Lands' Toolkit
Outdoor Alliance's Take Action page
Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance's Blog
Washington State Parks' News & Announcements page
U.S Forest Service's Newsroom
Email us at [email protected] if you have other additional resources to add to the list