August 2023
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Whether you know suncups or not…
…we’re grateful you’re here with us! At Winter Wildlands Alliance, we protect all types of America’s snowscapes and appreciate your support.
Please take the next step and become a member of our Alliance. If you’re already a member, consider gifting a membership or becoming a monthly sustainer!
We are skiers and snowboarders. Snowshoers and mountaineers. Dog sledders and fat bike riders. We are YOU and we give a voice to solitude together. Join us to celebrate winter, take action, and keep winter wild.
Welcome Emily Scott
Please join us in welcoming Emily (she/her/hers) as our newest team member! In her role as WWA’s Operations Coordinator, Emily supports and organizes staff projects, helps manage our membership and outreach programs, and supports events that celebrate winter.
Office Headquarters Flood Fund
During an unprecedented storm in downtown Boise, Idaho, our office’s roof filled up like a swimming pool and water flooded into the building’s ventilation system, which then circulated water instead of air throughout the building. The result was that almost everything in our office was destroyed!
We lost many of our SnowSchool supplies (including our SnowEd NASA kits we were planning to distribute to a variety of SnowSchool sites), all of our tabling and event materials, our entire stash of letterhead and envelopes, sticker cache, computers, printers, and much of the other minutia of organizational existence.
We estimate the damages to be $7,500.
Kootenai National Forest: Sign On to Our Comment Letter
The Kootenai National Forest is actively seeking public input on its preliminary Proposed Action during a scoping comment period that runs through August 21, 2023. You can submit your own custom comment and/or review and sign on to our comment letter to share your voice about the proposed winter travel plan for northern Idaho.
Coffee and Dawn Patrol: A Solid Alliance
Dawson Taylor’s Dawn Patrol is the perfect coffee blend of eye opening flavor and support for America’s snowscapes. Every year from the first day of winter until the first day of summer, the Dawn Patrol coffee blend benefits our work and is best brewed with melted snow and enjoyed in the predawn hours en route to adventure. It’s hard to espresso how much this beans to us!
Member Profile: Michael Lanza
Writer, Photographer, Skier, and WWA Member based in Boise, Idaho: Michael Lanza shares his connection to our work and why it matters.
Bridger-Teton National Forest Recreation Assessment Survey
The Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) is starting its forest planning process, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape how our forests are managed. When you share how you experience, recreate on, and enjoy the BTNF in this brief survey, you will shape how the US Forest Service understands and protects the forest’s important recreation areas, natural resources, and special landscapes.
Kaniksu National Forest: Winter Travel Plan Update
The Idaho-Panhandle National Forest recently published the Kaniksu Over-Snow Vehicle Travel Plan for final review and objection. While we would have liked to see a couple of additional areas protected for quiet recreation, we recognize that this plan – like all land management – is a compromise and we appreciate the members of the motorized community who participated in the Working Group with us.
NEPA: Phase 2 Update
This week, CEQ published a proposed Phase 2 Rule to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We are still analyzing the Rule and will have more info in the coming weeks. For now, we wanted to share a quick summary as we work through all the details.