Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the nation's largest statewide mountain bike association, representing thousands of riders through eight regional chapters. Evergreen is committed to trail building and maintenance, sustainable recreation, advocacy, education, and volunteerism. We are an important partner with public land managers, contributing over 29,000 hours of trail work per year.
Our Mission
To create, maintain, and protect sustainable mountain biking opportunities in Washington.
Evergreen Today
With Eight Regional Chapters, 9,500+ members and 66,000+ followers, Evergreen is internationally known for developing world class trails, delivering quality projects, and effectively advocating for trail and public lands protection to benefit the mountain bike industry.
From its first project, the Colonnade in Seattle in the mid 2000s, to the award-winning Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park in 2010, to the 20+ mile Raging River trail system in 2018, Evergreen has grown to deliver more than 220 miles of new mountain bike trails to its members and WA state riders over the past 8 years.
Created in 1989 as BBTC, Evergreen was originally a grassroots solution to local trail networks closing to riders, and has excelled in its mission to advocate for new, and care for existing, mountain bike trails.
Our Vision
Make Washington one of the best places in the country to ride a mountain bike. Here's how:
- Donating thousands of trail building and trail maintenance hours to make sure we always have stellar trails open to ride, and hosting trail building clinics to educate the public
- Advocating for sustainable recreation and working with landowners and land managers to gain and retain access to trails
- Teaching MTB clinics and classes for mountain bikers of all abilities, and getting more kids out riding through our summer camps and education program.
- Empowering the community and volunteers to get involved to help amplify our voice and our power in the work we do
- Offering events and group rides to build community and connect with like-minded mountain bikers doing what we love!
Our History
In 1988 several mountain bicyclists joined together in response to trail closures that were rapidly occurring in the Northwest. This group, originally called Concerned Off Road Bicyclists Association (CORBA), officially incorporated with Washington State as a non-profit in April 1989. By the spring of 1990 another mountain bike group had formed, the Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club (BBTC), which was also working on mountain bike access issues. By June 1990 these two groups merged and adopted the latter name. In 2008 BBTC was renamed Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance.
Originally oriented towards political advocacy, the organization expanded over the years to include education and recreation opportunities. Thousands of riders have acquired trail maintenance skills, responsible riding techniques, and trail safety knowledge through the trailwork parties, classes, communications and group rides offered year-round.
As an organization, we are proud of our successful shift from a reactive stance, fighting for public trail access, to a proactive approach geared towards building positive, cooperative relationships with federal agencies, public and private land managers, environmental organizations and other trail user groups – all while consistently taking care of the trails we ride on!
Check out the timeline of our key milestones: