July 23, 2007

As of January 1, Jason began his new role as Communications Coordinator for Wildlands CPR. By elevating the frequency and effectiveness of how Wildlands CPR communicates with the media, Jason will help us attract broad support for protecting and restoring public lands from the scars left by unmanaged off-road vehicle use and unnecessary roads. While a full transition from his duties as forest campaign coordinator for the Natural Trails & Waters Coalition (NTWC) will take up to six months, opportunities to broadcast Wildlands CPR’s values and goals are already coming out of the woodwork.

For instance, check out the half-hour interview that Jason did with Pacifica Radio-Houston (unavailable now) and a shorter interview with the Great Lakes Radio Consortium on a controversial off-road vehicle mega-route proposal can be heard here.

Jason’s communications focus will aid Wildlands CPR’s restoration program by building a diverse network of leaders representing business and industry, labor and sportsmen, state universities and conservation. This group calls itself “Restore Montana” and is founded on the belief that increased support for and coordination of restoration projects will create green-collar jobs and add value to damaged public lands and waters.

Jason recently organized the last three in a series of eight briefings on messaging produced for NTWC and Wildlands CPR by Resource Media. Their recommendations are helping Wildlands CPR and the broader conservation community frame the off-road vehicle debate in a more productive and inclusive way. We’ve already seen these messages effectively applied in letters to the editor in several states.

In December, NTWC delivered the final two workshops on “effective collaboration” led by the University of Virginia’s Institute for Environmental Negotiations. Jason organized an over-sold workshop in Missoula and provided support for a workshop held in Bend, Oregon that was hosted by the Sierra Club. Some of the most critical outcomes were summarized by one of our partner organizations:

• Relationship building with conservationists, agency planners, off-roaders, and potential allies (backcountry horsemen, anglers, hunters);
• Breaking down misconceptions of conservationist and motorized recreationists’ goals and tactics;
• Providing a legitimate outside source to set a standard for what is authentic collaboration among a cross-section of interests and agency staff;

In order to make the workshops as useful as possible, NTWC partnered with in-state conservation organizations to serve as co-hosts. In written evaluations from the mix of 165 stakeholders who participated, the workshop was rated at 8.4 on a 10-point scale!

Jason has also finalized an outreach effort to organizations that are obvious candidates for membership in NTWC. Membership benefits include access to the NTWC online, members-only campaign room that contains valuable information and serves as a portal to NTWC listserves. As of January 4, 149 organizations are members of the coalition; we communicate with 311 individuals affiliated with these organizations. From among this organizational membership, 160 individuals representing 85 organizations have asked for and been granted access to the campaign room and listserves.