How You Can Protect Our Trails and Environment with Tread Lightly!
As outdoor enthusiasts, we love nature so we should strive to protect and preserve it so that we can continue going on our adventures and doing our favorite hobbies but also to make sure that that we allow future generations to do so as well. There is an awesome organization, Tread Lightly!, that partners with other organizations, hosts events, provide educational resources, and teaches the public how they can play their part in supporting the upkeep of our trails and environment.
To visit their page and learn more about their awesome organization, head over to treadlightly.org
Who is Tread Lightly!
Tread Lightly! and its partners lead a national initiative to protect and enhance recreation access and opportunities by promoting outdoor ethics to heighten individuals’ sense of good stewardship.
Tread Lightly!’s goal is to balance the needs of the people who enjoy outdoor recreation with their need to maintain healthy ecosystems and thriving populations of fish and wildlife.
The scope of their work includes both land and water and is representative of nearly every form of outdoor recreation including, but not limited to hunting, recreational shooting, fishing, and boating. They also play a part in promoting the safe and responsible use of motorized and mechanized vehicles in the outdoors.
Tread Lightly! is also founded, created, and partners with individuals and organizations that love the outdoors just like we do, and want to protect and preserve our trails and environment so that we can continue to enjoy these things as well as allow future generations to enjoy them just as much as we do.
Their Impact
TreadLightly! has already made a huge impact nationwide by conducting events, stewardship projects, and educating the public. Here are their most recent results from 2021 Q3:
Stewardship
13 Stewardship Projects
190 Miles of Off-Road Trail Enhancements
5,456 pounds of trash removed from public lands
282 volunteers
430 volunteer hours valuing at $10,838
Members
During Q3 of 2021, TreadLightly! currently has 2,520 new and renewing members as well as has made 113,910,117 impressions on their social media pages, digital ads, media, and much more.
Education
They also offer tons of educational material to teach the public how they can protect our environment. These educational resources have made a big difference and are growing significantly every quarter. The impact from their educational materials and event for 2021 Q3 are listed below.
Having 227 online course participants
Offering 20 courses
40 new trainers
Attended 5 events
1,761 outreach impressions
9 volunteers
233 volunteer education hours valued at $6,671.
Educational Materials from Tread Lightly!
TreadLightly! has made educational materials for public awareness of their organization and its mission. They offer tons of materials available such as trail and sign posters, kiosk and trailhead samples, PSAS, and a huge archive for specific PSA’s, and tip cards available here. Tread Lightly! has made these resources available to the public so that everyone can educate themselves and others on protecting the environment while still enjoying all kinds of outdoor activities.
T.R.E.A.D Principles
These are the main principles of Tread Lightly! and what they actively encourage through their organization and outreach. Below are the T.R.E.A.D principles that everyone should follow.
T - Travel Responsibly
R - Respect the Rights of Others
E - Educate Yourself
A - Avoid Sensitive Areas
D - Do Your Part
Learn more about the T.R.E.A.D principles here.
Events
Tread Lightly! provides sponsorships to outdoor ethics events that promote responsible and sustainable outdoor recreation. Their goal is to educate the public on how they can reduce the impacts they make on our environment.
Their Offical Outdoor Ethics Sponsorships were awarded to the following events that actively encourage and promote the T.R.E.A.D principles:
Jeep Go Topless Day
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If you have an outdoor event that promotes Tread Lightly!’s mission as well as follows their T.R.E.A.D principles, you can apply for sponsorship here.
How You Can Do Your Part
No matter what your outdoor hobby may be, you can do your part in tons of different ways.
Apply the T.R.E.A.D principles to whatever you’re doing outdoors. If you meet other outdoor enthusiasts or have an influence in your community, you can encourage them to do the same.
Create and plan your own stewardship project to support your local trails. You can also apply for a grant for support.
Become a member or fundraiser to help support their mission. You can learn more and become a member here. You can also read their member FAQs
Overlandaholic’s Support
Here at Overlandaholic, we provide content on Overlanding and outdoor activities so of course, we feel it’s extremely necessary to protect our environment and trails. We believe that organizations like this are the backbone for Overlanding, hiking, fishing, camping, and so many more activities that we all love.
We, like most of you, are outdoor enthusiasts that love to spend our days out in nature exploring and seeing the wildlife and promoting the hobby of Overlanding. In order to keep Overlanding alive, we need to start taking care of nature and staying on designated routes and trails in order to be allowed to keep doing what we do best.
Since a big part of Overlanding is taking your vehicle out in remote areas, we unknowingly can cause a lot of damage to ecosystems and negatively impact wildlife in the areas that drive-through. Overlanding is becoming extremely popular so we believe it is very important to play our part by teaching our audience not only how to start Overlanding, but also how to do it sustainably.
Overlandaholic is a very big supporter of Tread Lightly! and everything they do. We highly encourage you to check out their website and get involved in making a difference.