Welcome Our Newest Grassroots Groups!

Winter Wildlands Alliance is starting off 2025 by welcoming two new groups to our Grassroots Network:

• Boise-Payette Backcountry Alliance (Boise, ID): is working to help create, preserve, and manage areas of public land across the Boise and Payette National Forests (and surrounding regions) for quiet, non-motorized winter recreation.
• Barkeater Trails Alliance (Lake Placid, NY): builds, maintains, and advocates for a system of community and backcountry trails for ski touring and mountain biking in the greater High Peaks region of the Adirondack Park.

In other grassroots news, we’re giving a congratulatory pole tap to Wasatch Backcountry Alliance for their recent news that they’ve secured backcountry skier access to Cardiff Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon this season. Learn more on their blog here.

One Week In…

As I write this, we’re into week two of the new Trump administration, and I know many are wondering what the changing political winds will mean for conservation and winter recreation advocacy. While there have been many political promises made, for the most part there has been little immediate on-the-ground change. Most policies will take time to play out. Here’s what we’re watching:

Public Lands In Alaska:

The Executive Order pertaining to Alaska directs the Secretaries of federal agencies to review, revise or rescind certain Biden Administration actions in Alaska, including those pertaining to the Ambler Road and roadless lands on the Tongass National Forest. However, this triggers no immediate on-the-ground action. Those fights are around the corner.

Federal Hiring Freeze:

The federal hiring freeze significantly impacts outdoor recreation management and planning in the near (and long) term as key roles go unfilled (for example, see this article about NPS jobs). Considering that many of the Forest Service projects we are engaged in are already stalled out because of a need to fill key job vacancies, this freeze will only exacerbate ongoing challenges for capacity-strapped federal agencies.

Fossil Fuel & Mineral Development:

We are also closely watching for fallout from the “national energy emergency” and “unleashing American energy” executive orders, which are intended to spur new fossil fuel and mineral development projects with little oversight or consideration of consequences.

Among other things, the President has ordered the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to reassess any mineral withdrawals for potential revision with an eye toward whether or not the withdrawal presents an undue burden to mineral development. Among the many things affected by this would be the Boundary Waters (MN) and Thompson Divide (CO) mineral withdrawals.

Climate and Environmental Justice:

Other early executive orders that have us concerned are those targeting climate and environmental justice policies. Regardless of any executive orders saying otherwise, we’re going to keep referring to The Great One by its proper name, Denali (a position that aligns with Alaska’s state and federal lawmakers).

Meanwhile in Congress…

We’re also keeping an eye on the other branches of government. The House kicked off the new Congress by voting to classify public lands sell-offs or transfers as “revenue neutral,” making it easier to justify selling off public lands. Legislation always comes with a budgetary score and this action allows the House to pretend that getting rid of public land is “free.” At the same time, the House is also considering federal land sell-offs as a possible way to generate revenue. Go figure.

Boundary Waters

U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum re-introduced legislation to permanently protect Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park from the threat of copper mining, guarding against the Administrative rollbacks mentioned above. Use this form to urge your lawmakers to support McCollum’s bill.

Meanwhile, Congressman Pete Stauber recently reintroduced a Boundary Waters bill that seeks the opposite outcome. Previous versions of this bill included revocation of the historic 2023 20-year mining ban, reinstatement of Twin Metals canceled mineral leases, the barring of judicial review of these leases, and the requirement of rapid approval of a Twin Metals mine plan. Click here to oppose Stauber’s bill.

Fix Our Forests Act:

The House also recently passed the Fix Our Forests Act. While this bill has some provisions we support, on the whole it undermines conservation and outdoor recreation interests on Forest Service lands by exempting certain forestry projects from review under the National environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (why bother analyzing which trees to cut down?) and the Endangered Species Act. These and other provisions would make it nearly impossible to challenge forestry projects.

Learn more and take action on Fix Our Forests with Outdoor Alliance, here.

Notes from the Field

‘Tis the season for winter recreation data collection, and Megan Fiske, WWA’s California Stewardship Manager, and Brittany Leffel, WWA’s CO Policy Manager, are hard at work leading these efforts in Colorado and California.

In Colorado, Brittany has been busy working with regional partnership initiatives and local groups in southwest Colorado to implement winter recreation monitoring plans and utilize the RIMS app to collect accurate, on-the-ground data to support thoughtful winter travel planning and advocacy.

Alongside data collection, Brittany is working with recreation stakeholder groups in the region to elevate opportunities to balance uses and minimize conflict through community plans that the Forest Service can adapt once they tackle winter travel planning.

In California, in addition to data collection on the Stanislaus National Forest, Megan is helping Stanislaus forest staff put up new winter recreation signs and is assisting with outreach efforts to winter visitors. She has also been coordinating data collection with our Winter Ambassadors in the Tahoe area and on the Lassen National Forest.

Megan is also working with the Forest Service and other winter recreation organizations on the Lassen and Tahoe National Forests to develop new signs and other materials to help educate the public about those forests’ new winter travel plans.