The Mountaineers
For nearly 120 years, The Mountaineers has been a regional leader advocating on behalf of the natural world, and our successes would not be possible without the dedication and thoughtful advocacy of our entire community. On Thursday September 18, we gathered for An Evening of Advocacy, an annual event that highlights and invites people to support the work of our Conservation & Advocacy program.
Thanks to the incredible generosity of our community and donors, we raised $35,000 to support our Conservation & Advocacy program, exceeding our goal for the evening. We are also thrilled to announce high participation in our Advocacy Pledge, with attendees committing to deepen their support for public lands through advocacy action with The Mountaineers. We are so grateful for your support. We couldn't do our important advocacy work without everyone who chose to make an impact.
And, the work continues….One of the main takeaways from the evening was the urgency of collective action in sharing our voice to defend our public lands. As a leader in this space, we hope that you can support our work with a donation or a pledge toward advocacy.
Didn’t get a chance to give? Consider a donation today.
100 members, conservation partners, and local advocates gathered together at the Seattle Program Center for the 2025 An Evening of Advocacy.
This year’s event was held at The Mountaineers Seattle Program Center where nearly 100 conservation advocates, Mountaineers members, and engaged donors joined together for a delightful reception. Guests enjoyed a delicious PNW-sourced meal by Liiv For Catering, as well as beverages donated by sponsors Athletic Brewing, Ghostfish Brewing, Georgetown Brewing, and Tinte Cellars. The room was packed with energy as attendees caught up with one another, shared stories, and networked across partner organizations. As folks sipped Chef Liiv’s spiced elderberry lemonade, they also had a chance to check out the conservation engagement tables and register for stewardship opportunities, learn more about being an advocate by signing up for our Advocacy 101 e-learning course, or sign thank you notes to our WA Senate delegation for their recent support in our advocacy actions.
Rich Heine with Dave Foong, Stephen Hall, David Frey and Rich Draves at the An Evening of Advocacy reception.
Defending Public Lands
Mountaineers Conservation & Advocacy Director Betsy Robblee kicked off the speaking program by welcoming attendees and sharing gratitude for the community support and deep partnerships that have bolstered our advocacy to defend public lands this year. Then Betsy was joined on stage by Louis Geltman, VP of Policy and Government Relations for Outdoor Alliance (one of our key advocacy partners), former Forest Service Chief Vicki Christensen, and U.S. Senator Patty Murray’s Washington State Director, Shawn Bills. Together, they unpacked and reflected on the highs, lows, and latest policy developments facing federally managed public lands over the last several months.
The panel discussion included these policy insiders’ take on what’s different about the present moment when it comes to the federal landscape and how outdoor policy issues are playing out with Congress and the administration. The upshot? Politics is not leading to good policy in D.C this year. Multiple panelists shared how ideology and politics have undercut federal agencies’ ability to lead with collaboration and innovation. Ideology played a strong role in motivating the short-sighted and widespread attempt to sell off public lands in Congress this spring.
Vicki Christensen summarized how the sweeping politically-driven staffing cuts have left remaining Forest Service staff with the tall task of doing more with less amidst chaos and an extremely intimidating environment. As you’ve likely experienced first-hand, a significantly reduced land manager workforce has impacted public lands with overflowing garbage, unmaintained trails, and other outdoor access challenges in Washington and beyond this year.
Shawn Bills - a longtime presence in Senator Murray’s Office - shared his legislative perspective and how the Senator has responded to federal land manager staffing cuts, efforts to undermine public lands, and other environmental attacks by the current administration. The good news? The Senator cares deeply about these issues, and impact stories shared by The Mountaineers and our Outdoor Alliance partners, constituents, , and advocates like you are giving Senator Murray the support she needs to continue standing up for public lands and the outdoor experience that Washingtonians cherish.
After we took stock of the challenges and troubling outcomes we’ve seen for the outdoors this year, the conversation flowed to strong bipartisan support for the core values behind public lands and record-breaking levels of engagement through grassroots advocacy this year. Louis from Outdoor Alliance spoke to the recreation community’s resounding rebuff of public lands sell-offs and how efforts to build relationships with Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04) by The Mountaineers and Outdoor Alliance Washington helped spur the Representative to say “no” to public lands sales.
The panel closed with reflections on where we go from here. Advocating from a solutions-oriented agenda, finding opportunities to collaborate with non-traditional advocacy partners, and starting with the many values public lands provide rose to the top of the conversation. We all have a role to play in the ongoing work to defend public lands, and your voice as an outdoor enthusiast has been critical to our successes and will be instrumental to our future collective advocacy.
SUPPORTING CONSERVATION AND ADVOCACY
Mountaineers Board of Directors member, Sam Sanders closed the event with a heartfelt call to action, urging attendees to actively support The Mountaineers conservation efforts.
“The Mountaineers is unique in this space as an organization powered by people who both recreate and teach on the land. We are a local organization, but have a national impact. Our advocacy team works to unite our disparate voices in the song for a single cause to actually make an impact in this State and across the States.”
Sam invited attendees to join her in making a pledge for conservation. She closed by thanking everyone for their commitment to protecting these essential spaces, reminding them that every action counts toward securing a future where nature continues to thrive.
“Your pledge of dollars goes directly to the team building relationships with lawmakers (whether driving down to Olympia or flying to DC), partnerships with land managers and other recreation groups to amplify our voices, for public education, and in helping make grassroots advocacy easy to keep our public lands accessible and protected. Your support matters.”
Thanks to donors at the event, we successfully raised $35,000 to support our conservation programs. If you feel moved by this work and want to help us continue this work, please consider a gift today.
TAKE ACTION FOR PUBLIC LANDS
We are so thankful for high participation in our Advocacy Pledge by event attendees. If you were unable to attend the event, here are four ways you can support our work and stay engaged:
- Support with a tax-deductible donation by the end of the month to power our advocacy to defend public lands. Donations will provide an additional boost to our work to engage our congressional champions and advocate to defend public lands in the other Washington.
- Take Advocacy 101: Sign up for our Advocacy 101 eLearning course to hone your skills before our next big call to action this year.
- Share your support for the Roadless Rule: The Roadless Rule public comment portal closes at 11:59pm on September 19. Feel free to submit your comments directly to the portal if you haven't already taken action with us. After the comment period closes, you can share your support for Roadless Areas with your lawmakers using this action form.
- Attend Our Fall Conservation Policy Update: Things are changing quickly! Join us virtually on Nov 5 to hear more about The Mountaineers advocacy to defend public lands. Updates will include a trip report from our trip to D.C. with Outdoor Alliance in Late October.
