Policy and Advocacy Resources
This section is home to a growing list of resources pertinent to both individual recreationists as well as our Grassroots Groups, including: trends and the economic impact of winter backcountry recreation, winter recreation opportunities on public lands, the environmental impacts of winter over-snow vehicles and other tools to help get you informed and effectively engage in the issues that matter your group or favorite backcountry area.
We are currently in the process of building out these resources, so if you don’t see what you are looking for a particular resource please Contact Us.
Memorandum of Understanding
Guide to Commenting in Land Management Processes
Winter Recreation Management On National Forests
- Winter Recreation Planning Case Studies, June 2014
- Best Management Practices for Forest Service Travel Planning, April 2015 (full report)
Best Management Practices for Forest Service Travel Planning (peer-reviewed articles published July 2016)
- Snowmobile Best Management Practices for Forest Service Travel Planning: A Comprehensive Literature Review and Recommendations for Management – Introduction to Snowmobile Management and Policy
- Snowmobile Best Management Practices for Forest Service Travel Planning: A Comprehensive Literature Review and Recommendations for Management –
Water Quality, Soils, and Vegetation - Snowmobile Best Management Practices for Forest Service Travel Planning: A Comprehensive Literature Review and Recommendations for Management – Wildlife
- Snowmobile Best Management Practices for Forest Service Travel Planning: A Comprehensive Literature Review and Recommendations for Management – Winter Recreational Use Conflict
Trends & Economic Contribution of Human-Powered Snowsports
Teton-West Yellowstone Region Backcountry Winter Recreation Economic Impact Analysis, 2013:
What the Science Says About Snowmobiles
Winter Recreation on Western National Forest Lands: A Comprehensive Analysis of Motorized and Non-Motorized Opportunity and Access
Leave No Trace Ethics for Backcountry Snowsports
(adapted in conjunction with Winter Wildlands Alliance and Vermont Backcountry Alliance, partners of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics)
From the Resort to the Backcountry – 10 tips for being safe and responsible in and out of bounds
Current Efforts
Shoshone Winter Travel Planning Is UnderwayAugust 7, 2020 - 7:10 pmThe public comment period is open until August 29th. Limiting snowmobile use before Memorial Day weekend on the Beartooth Pass is one of many issues in the plan.
- The Ambler Road Is a ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’August 5, 2020 - 4:22 pm
A 211-mile-long gravel highway proposed through the Brooks Range in Alaska will devastate the fragile arctic tundra’s landscape, biodiversity, and Native livelihood. We must stop the road—and the proposed mines it leads to—from getting built.
- CLIMBERS AND BACKCOUNTRY SKIERS ARE TAKING THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO COURT TO DEFEND NEPAJuly 29, 2020 - 10:23 am
Today, Winter Wildlands Alliance and the American Alpine Club joined forces with 20 other conservation and environmental justice organizations to sue the Trump Administration and stop it’s evisceration of the National Environmental Policy Act. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) ensures federal decision making is transparent, scientifically informed and that the public has an opportunity […]
Winter Wildlands Alliance is a national nonprofit organization promoting and
preserving winter wildlands and a quality human-powered snowsports
experience on public lands.
