PRESS RELEASE: IMBA’s Public Lands Initiative (PLI) provides mountain bikers with new resources to promote a bicycle-friendly approach toward our nation’s legacy of public lands protection. The PLI campaign was recently bolstered by the launch of web-based microsites that mountain bikers will use to track advocacy efforts across the United States.
“One of the key issues that we face in our grassroots campaign work is that there is often no common repository of information for mountain bike advocates to share,” said program director Ashley Korenblat. “These PLI microsites provide a format for posting comments, contacting IMBA staff and sharing links to other web resources. They will be extremely valuable as IMBA increases our support for mountain bikers across the country.”
The new PLI web resources are just one component of a comprehensive effort to provide enhanced tools and staff support for critical hotspots where mountain bike access is at risk. The strategic elements of the campaign include:
* Identify high-priority trails across the nation and keep them open to mountain bikes
* Provide professional training sessions, enhanced communication tools and facilitated negotiations with stakeholder groups
* Track management plans and promote pro-bicycle policies at the local, state and federal levels
* Champion public land protection campaigns to protect trails from development and resource extraction
* Build and strengthen multi-user outdoor recreation coalitions
* Unite the bicycle industry, retailers and IMBA clubs behind key land protection campaigns
IMBA offers sincere thanks to more than 40 companies that now support the PLI. Special thanks go to founding partners Trek, Specialized, SRAM and Bikes Belong.
Click here to for the PLI homepage, then check the list of sites on the right hand side to see if there’s a trail near you that’s affected.
