Trip Report: Grasstops Collective Kick Off Retreat
The third cohort of Outdoor Alliance’s Grasstops Collective recently gathered in Fort Collins, Colorado at New Belgium Brewery to begin five months of training on policy, advocacy, and leadership in the conservation space. The Grasstops Collective is a leadership and advocacy development program that trains grasstops leaders to build relationships with policymakers and advocate for conservation priorities.
Grasstops advocates are leaders in their local recreation community. With training and resources from Outdoor Alliance, advocates become a trusted resource for policymakers, providing perspective, input, and guidance that is both representative of their local outdoor recreation community, and advances Outdoor Alliance’s mission to unite the voices of outdoor enthusiasts to protect the human-powered outdoor recreation experience and conserve America’s public lands.
During the retreat, 20 grasstops leaders familiarized themselves with each other, Outdoor Alliance, and the curriculum to come, including the Outdoor Alliance policy platform and the importance of recreation voices in the conservation policy space. The cohort heard from two Colorado policymakers that emphasized the importance and role of sharing their story with others in their position to improve the policymaking process and final result.
“Building relationships with policymakers can feel daunting, but these policymakers, and the rest of the retreat, emphasized the importance of this type of civic engagement and the positive impact it can have on policies that affect our ability to conserve the places that matter most to communities across the country,” said Taylor Rogers, Grasstops Advocacy Director at Outdoor Alliance.
Time together as passionate recreationists would obviously not be complete without an opportunity to spend time together outdoors on our public lands, so leaders headed out for a hike to explore the trails around Fort Collins before meeting with Outdoor Alliance partners and funders for an evening get together.
"The Outdoor Alliance Grasstops Collective is some of the most passionate and inspiring outdoor advocates across the nation,” Ti Eversole, Cohort 3 advocate, said. “Having the opportunity to connect with this group in person allowed me to expand my perception and understanding of the greater outdoor state, while also recognizing how our unique perspectives can converge to help affect change within our respective communities. I’m fired up for what’s to come in the months ahead as we learn and grow together ahead of our fly-in to D.C. in September."
“The Kick Off Retreat was an amazing couple of days, meeting passionate human-powered outdoor recreation advocates from around the country was inspiring and energizing,” said Will Taygan, Cohort 3 advocate and Executive Director of Chugach Mountain Bike Riders. “The care that the Outdoor Alliance has taken into developing this program to guide these advocates into true leaders is astonishing. It showed us that human powered outdoor recreationists have a unique voice to speak for public lands, since we are some of the people that know them the best.”
Next up for these leaders is five virtual training sessions before heading to Washington, D.C. for our Fall Fly In in September. There, they will receive a full day in person training and lead meetings with their lawmakers on Capitol Hill to kickstart or deepen their relationships with relevant offices. They’ll complete their training virtually after the fly-in to become fully trained Grasstops Collective advocates, bringing their recreation voices to improve conservation policy.