What if the saying “Many fingers make gentle work” utilized to inspiring actual, lasting coverage change for all times outdoors? Nicely, excellent news: It does, due to the REI Cooperative Motion Community, a change-making platform the place co-op members mobilize towards our shared targets of defending areas we love, increasing out of doors entry and supporting initiatives that deal with local weather change.
Since 2021, the Cooperative Motion Community has outfitted greater than 350,000 individuals—REI Co-op Members, workers, clients, nonprofit companions and extra—with the sources and data they should increase their voices and make a distinction. Collectively, we’ve despatched greater than 1.25 million messages to legislators and different decision-makers, leading to astounding wins for each individuals and the planet.
Listed here are only a few of the REI Co-op Member group’s victories.
Higher Trails
Get able to run and experience on improved native trails due to $45 million in funding for the Lively Transportation Infrastructure Funding Program (ATIIP), which gives grants to assist communities construct and join path networks for pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchair customers and extra. These path enhancements will assist scale back automobile dependency throughout communities and supply secure, clear methods for extra U.S. residents to get the place they should go, all whereas decreasing site visitors and air pollution and serving to individuals be energetic outdoor.
Along with our companions from Rails to Trails Conservancy, the Cooperative Motion Community mobilized greater than 18,000 REI Co-op group members to help the creation and full funding of this program by Congress – constructing on current infrastructure to make sustainable transportation and recreation a actuality.
More healthy State Parks
State parks in Texas welcome practically 10 million annual guests, and but the state has ranked 35th within the nation for park acreage per capita. In 2023, voters in Texas stated sure to the way forward for their state park system by voting to create the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, a $1 billion fund to increase and enhance public lands throughout the state, all with out growing Texans’ taxes. This fund will assist defend land and water sources, deal with areas strained by overcrowding, and customarily enhance parkgoers’ entry and expertise in these stunning locations.
In partnership with the Texas Coalition for State Parks and 90 different organizations, REI Co-op Members have helped assure that future generations of Texans and vacationers can take pleasure in world-class parks and guarded pure areas all through the Lone Star State.
New and Expanded Nationwide Monuments
America’s wild areas are extra than simply stunning; they’re culturally, traditionally and spiritually significant to numerous Indigenous individuals who have stewarded them for hundreds of years, and to various nature-deprived communities throughout the nation. For greater than a century, establishing, increasing and defending these websites with nationwide monument designation has been a strong technique to preserve these locations for the enjoyment of all.
“The mountains must be protected, as a result of they’re our operators for our prayers,” says Carletta Tilousi, Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition Coordinator and Havasupai tribal member. “They’re our antennas, in order that our prayers can attain out into the cosmos and onto the heavens.” The Havasupai have lived within the Grand Canyon for hundreds of years, and have been amongst a number of tribal and conservationist organizations that REI Co-op partnered with to encourage monument designation for seven important websites:
- Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon Nationwide Monument
- San Gabriel Mountains Nationwide Monument Growth
- Berryessa Snow Mountain Nationwide Monument Growth
- Chuckwalla Nationwide Monument and Growth of Joshua Tree Nationwide Park
- Nice Bend of the Gila
- Dolores River Canyon
- Sáttítla–Medication Lake Highlands
“A monument designation would imply that our animals can be protected,” Tilousi continuessays. “And in addition, our historical trails and our historical burial websites.”
In 2024, President Biden awarded nationwide monument designations or expansions to Baaj Nwaavjo I’ta Kukveni–Acenstral Footprints of the Grand Canyon; Berryessa Snow Mountain Nationwide Monument and Molok Luyuk; and the San Gabriel Mountains Nationwide Monument. You possibly can nonetheless use your voice to help the remaining monuments by becoming a member of the REI Cooperative Motion Community, tribal leaders and nonprofits throughout the nation in supporting the Mobilizing for Monuments coalition.
E-Bike Incentives
Lowering our dependency on automobile journey can bolster our planet’s well being in addition to our personal security and well-being: Transportation accounts for practically 30% of greenhouse fuel emissions yearly in the USA, and the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration reported 42,795 motorcar accident–associated deaths in 2022. The rising recognition of e-bikes is permitting extra individuals to journey effectively while not having to refill their fuel tank, and electric-bike know-how makes touring over longer distances and difficult terrain extra accessible. Nonetheless, e-bikes are significantly costlier than conventional bicycles, which might make them out of attain for a lot of.
The REI Cooperative Motion Community has championed a bunch of metropolis and state measures to scale back the price of e-bikes. In 2023, legislators in Minnesota and Washington, D.C., handed incentive applications masking or reimbursing a share of e-bike purchases; in June of 2024, the Atlanta metropolis council handed its personal e-bike rebate pilot program.
This fall, voters throughout the nation accredited practically $26 billion in native bike initiatives, together with e-bike incentives. But there are nonetheless alternatives to help applications to increase entry for individuals of all revenue ranges entry to low-carbon transportation: Take motion right this moment by telling Congress to cross the E-BIKE ACT and provide a 30% federal tax credit score of as much as $1,500 on the acquisition of recent e-bikes, or in case you stay in New York and Oregon, let your leaders know you help e-bike incentives for residents.
Investing in Outside Futures
In keeping with the Belief for Public Land, greater than 100 million of us within the U.S.—notably these with decrease incomes, these residing in city areas, or who lack accessible transportation—battle to take pleasure in out of doors areas near residence. To fight this, REI Co-op has invested in and partnered with group organizations who actively work to guard public lands, create extra native parks and enhance entry for tens of millions of individuals throughout the nation.
In New Mexico, the passage of the bipartisan Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, established the first-ever devoted supply of everlasting funding for statewide conservation applications. Thanks partly to the advocacy of our group, a complete of $400 million can be devoted to supporting and bettering current initiatives and infrastructure.
“The legacy fund is ready as much as be type of like a retirement account,” explains Western Useful resource Advocates coverage supervisor Brittany Fallon, Ph.D., who teamed up with the Cooperative Motion Community staff in advocating for the challenge. “It generates compound curiosity over time, similar to your retirement account. The extra we make investments, the extra sources we’re going to have for on-the-ground initiatives that have an effect on New Mexicans, and this contains issues that have an effect on actually everybody within the state.” A noncomprehensive record contains wildfire and drought mitigation, initiatives to enhance river well being and guarantee New Mexicans have clear consuming water, wildlife habitat and inhabitants safety, path and different recreation infrastructure upkeep, cultural and historic website preservation, and expanded entry to the outside for all youngsters within the state.
REI Co-op was based on the concept that we are able to accomplish much more once we work collectively, and we proceed to be a special type of firm, devoted not solely to having fun with our time outdoor, however to defending and bettering entry to it for future generations.
Outside Recreation for All
Brief for “Increasing Public Lands Outside Recreation Experiences Act,” the bipartisan EXPLORE Act is without doubt one of the most consequential out of doors recreation acts proposed since 1963. It’s designed to boost and increase out of doors recreation alternatives throughout the nation, from adaptive trails to long-distance biking to mountaineering and past. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) launched the bundle—which took greater than a decade to draft in full—to the Home in November 2023, and it there in April 2024—with zero opposition. The EXPLORE Act handed within the Senate Dec. 19 throughout the post-election “lame duck” session that’s utilized by a sitting Congress to handle pressing payments and different issues earlier than the elected officers take workplace. REI Co-op—alongside the Nationwide Recreation and Park Affiliation, PeopleForBikes, Outside Alliance, Entry Fund, Worldwide Mountain Biking Affiliation, Outside Alliance for Youngsters and Belief for Public Land, amongst others—has been a important participant within the creation of this large coverage bundle.
EXPLORE builds on the momentum for out of doors coverage, which has skyrocketed over the previous 10 years due to elevated consciousness in regards to the myriad social, emotional, psychological and bodily advantages of spending high quality time outdoors.
In sum, the EXPLORE Act will enhance entry to our nation’s public lands and waters by:
- Enhancing out of doors entry for present and previous army service members, people with disabilities, and children.
- Streamlining the allowing course of for outfitters and guides, and decreasing charges for small companies.
- Coordinating federal businesses to help and promote outdoor-based missions, from recreation to conservation and administration.
- Defending rock-climbing in among the sports activities’ most iconic locations and creating new long-distance bike trails.
- Addressing outdated and missing infrastructure in gateway communities, and funding out of doors infrastructure in underserved communities.
Be taught extra in regards to the EXPLORE Act right here.
What’s going to you accomplish with the REI Cooperative Motion Community subsequent 12 months?
Go to REI.com/act to be taught extra and be a part of us in making optimistic change for the outside.
The submit Higher Collectively: The REI Cooperative Motion Community Group Celebrates Historic Wins appeared first on Unusual Path – An REI Co-op Publication.