Welcome to landuse, access, conservation, stewardship, and getting involved. This is your first stop in learning what to do, how to do it, and where to start.
STEP 1: JOIN whatever groups and associations make sense to you, national, regional, state, and local clubs. JOINING is absolutely the best first step. You will learn so much in so little time. Besides that, we need our voices heard where decisions are made, and organized recreation groups are the way to do that. Do not be just virtual in your membership. Get your name on the roster of a brick-and-mortar outfit that has numbers to show politicians.
STEP 2: LEARN from websites (like this one) that deal in landuse and access. Spend the time necessary to dig around and pick up all the tidbits you can. Be careful, though, some social networks are full of keyboard warriors and immature dummies. Avoid them. Pick out credible names/people, and follow their advice and sites.
STEP 3: GET TRAINING from folks like TreadLightly or the National Off-Highway Vehicle Coordination Council (NOHVCC). You can also take my Recreational Leadership Training Course (RLTC) online. Attend land use seminars at state association conventions. Sign up for Zoom meetings covering land use.
STEP 4: ATTEND a few club meetings (locally) and perhaps a state association convention or district meeting to get a sense of what takes place and how folks interact in saving trails and sustainable motorized recreation. Be a guest on a trail ride or event locally and see how things go down before you make any decisions.
STEP 5: STUDY the jargon and terms used in landuse so you know when to say what. For example, we don’t refer to the backcountry as wilderness because Wilderness (with a capital W) means closed to motorized and mechanized vehicles/bikes. We use terms like conservation, not preservation. We might say ‘protect your right to ride,’ but we use it carefully because protection is often used by those who do not like motorized access, and they want to protect the backcountry from us. Please read the blog and posts here to get a sense of the words we use.