Tread Lightly!

Tread Lightly!
Nonprofit Organization
Industry Outdoor
Founded

Launched in 1985 as a public awareness program

Became Nonprofit in 1990
Founder US Forest Service
Headquarters Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Key people

Lori McCullough Executive Director
Dianne Olson Assistant Director
Evan Robins Education and Stewardship Manager

Jerrica Archibald Membership Development Manager[1]
Website www.treadlightly.org

Tread Lightly! is a nonprofit organization in the United States with the mission "to empower generations to enjoy the outdoors responsibly through stewardship to further the goals of responsible and ethical recreation."[2] As a nonprofit, Tread Lightly! is a member-based organization. Individual, small business, corporate and other nonprofit members support and help spread the Tread Lightly! message. With more than 40,000 members and supporters and more than 80 official partners, Tread Lightly! continues to grow and have a more powerful educational impact.[3]

History

Tread Lightly! was started by the United States Forest Service in 1985 as a public awareness program.[4][5] In 1990, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Tread Lightly! became a nonprofit organization. Today, Tread Lightly! is recognized as a credible, non-partisan organization with a unique network of partners delivering critically needed, cost-effective solutions to the nation’s most pressing issues surrounding outdoor recreation.[6]

Land Rover Great Divide Expedition

Land Rover’s inaugural Great Divide Expedition in the fall of 1989 helped launch Tread Lightly! as a non-profit focused on supporting and encouraging stewardship on America’s lands and waterways. Since the expedition 25 years ago, Tread Lightly! and partners like Land Rover have built and led a national initiative to protect and enhance recreation access and opportunities by promoting outdoor ethics to heighten individuals’ sense of good stewardship.[7] To celebrate the 25 year anniversary of The Great Divide Expedition, Tread Lightly! and Land Rover reunited for the 2014 Great Divide Expedition. Land Rover auctioned off a fully restored 1990 Range Rover Great Divide Replica as well as the opportunity to be a guest of Land Rover on a nine-day adventure. [8] The auction raised more than $55,000 for Tread Lightly!, the largest single donation in the nonprofit's history.[9]

About

The organization is "managed and financed by companies like Ford Motor and Toyota." It leads awareness workshops and restores trails: "Our mission is to empower people to enjoy the outdoors responsibly," said Executive Director Lori McCullough.[5] The Washington Times noted in 2001 that "most manufacturers of off-highway vehicles — including Land Rover, Jeep, Subaru, GM, Ford and Toyota are active in this effort."[10]

McCullough told the Associated Press in July 2003 that the organization "has been working with auto manufacturers to try to change the off-road images used in TV commercials" and that "Toyota, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz have asked Tread Lightly to review their ads, and at least one company spiked a TV spot the organization didn't like."[11]

Tread Lightly! "offers extensive online tips and guidelines on being more responsible in hiking, camping, boating, hunting, horseback riding, ATVs and more," the Deseret News has reported.[12]

Criticisms

Some off-highway enthusiasts, though, according to the New York Times, have been opposed to the concept, with Brad Lark, the publisher of the website extreme4x4.com, calling Tread Lightly! "a veiled form of extreme environmentalism." An anonymous writer on offroad.com was quoted as saying: "I don't Tread Lightly. I trample. From tree-huggers to their totalitarian signage that follows. I trample all in the path of freedom's future."[5] Brad Ullrich, the site's land-use editor, described the column as "tongue in cheek."[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Tread Lightly Meet Our Staff!". treadlightly.org. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  2. ↑ Tread Lightly Official website. Retrieved April 2009.
  3. ↑ "Tread Lightly - About Us". treadlightly.org. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  4. ↑ "TreadLightly.org "About Us"". Retrieved 2009-01-03.
  5. 1 2 3 Jason Tanz, "Driving: Making Tracks, Making Enemies," New York Times, January 2, 2004, website screen 4
  6. ↑ "Tread Lightly! - Our History". treadlightly.org. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "Tread Lightly! Kicks Off Year-Long Celebration of 25th Anniversary with Historic Land Rover Charity Auction on eBay". businesswire.com. Business Wire. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  8. ↑ "Tread Lightly! Kicks Off Year-Long Celebration of 25th Anniversary with Historic Land Rover Charity Auction on eBay". businesswire.com. Business Wire. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "Range Rover donation, auction raises more than $55,000 for Tread Lightly!". dealernews.com. Dealer News. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  10. ↑ Christopher Keane, "Learn to Tread Lightly Off-Road," Washington Times, February 16, 2001 Registration required.
  11. ↑ Gillian Flaccus, "Renegade 'Mud-Boggers' Plague Nation's Public Lands," Poughkeepsie Journal, July 13, 2003, page 1 Registration required.
  12. ↑ Lynn Arave, "Outback Ethics: Motto in the Wilderness Should Be 'Tread Lightly,' " Deseret News, October 24, 2009. Registration required.
  13. ↑ Tanz, website screen 5
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