We NEED YOU to attend our Mountain Bike Rally Day in Olympia!

It's easy, fun and no experience is necessary!

Just register here, and we’ll set up meetings with your state senator or house representatives.

Evergreen staff will provide a briefing beforehand and can attend your meeting with you, so you’re informed, comfortable, and ready to go (and your legislators are very friendly people!)

WHAT: Evergreen Legislative Rally Day - March 7, 2019.  

WHERE: The Woman’s Club of Olympia. Check-in starts at 8:00 am. 

WHO: Everyone who likes to ride! And bring your kids and their bikes (strider bikes welcomed!)

Strong attendance at our rally day is critical to show your legislators how important the outdoors, our sport, and recreation funding for public lands is to you—and the health and well-being of your community. Join us March 7th for a fun-filled and inspiring rally day at the Capitol!  

Read below for a detailed overview of our 2019 legislative priorities.  THANK YOU for your ongoing and unwavering support in making Washington the best place to ride!

Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program (WWRP)

Without the successful and innovative Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, many of our trail projects would never have come to fruition. Evergreen enthusiastically supports the WWRC’s request to fully fund: 

• $130 million capital budget to support the WWRP.  

WWRP is a critical to developing new and maintaining existing mountain bike trails. This program supports the largest amount of funding for hiking, biking, equestrian, and winter ski trails in Washington State.  Evergreen believes that this full program is critical to a healthy recreation economy in our state – maintaining high quality of life for residents statewide, encouraging healthy lifestyle, fostering rural economic development, and bringing critical capital projects to fruition.

Department of Natural Resources

Evergreen has developed a strong partnership with the Washington Department of Natural Resources in recreational resource development in their working forests and Natural Resource Conservation areas. We strongly support full funding of the Washington Department of Natural Resources’ recreation request, including: 

• $3.9 million for the Outdoor Recreation and Community Engagement program
• $444,000 operating budget for the Natural Areas Program
• $8.5 million capital budget for the Sustainable Recreation program.

DNR has taken innovative leadership in establishing new recreational resources in working forests and has opened more than 60 new miles of trails to mountain biking statewide.  The agency has shown great leadership in addressing the underserved trail needs for our mountain bike community and has partnered with Evergreen to set new standards for how to build mountain bike trails that have gained national recognition and awards. With a fast-growing recreation community, State investment is imperative to completing several planned new recreational resource projects, including new trail development, trail maintenance, trailhead development, and funding for skilled employees to manage, oversee and maintain trails and facilities on DNR lands.

Washington State Parks

Interest and initiative in developing new trails and trailhead resources for the mountain bike community within our State Parks has grown steadily in recent years. Several state parks have become the State’s most popular riding destinations, such as Squilchuck State Park in Wenatchee, the new Olallie trail in North Bend and Moran State Park on Orcas Island. Evergreen enthusiastically supports the Washington State Parks’ 2019 funding request to keep this momentum going, including:  

• $196 million operating budget
• $120.6 million capital budget requests.  

Specific requests we endorse include State Park’s $9.05 million operating budget request to protect and maintain park properties, $4.78 million operating budget to improve customer service related to park user experience, $951,000 operating budget to engage more youth and service communities, as well as their $130.2 million capital budget for new projects and critical funding appropriations. Funding State Parks at their full ask is crucial to reducing their $500+ million deferred maintenance backlog relate to trail maintenance, equipment upgrades, and having adequate staffing levels to keep up with fast increasing park user numbers.   

Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) – No Child Left Inside Grand Program (NCLI)

We want to bring more youth to trails and the outdoors. No Child Left Inside has proven to be invaluable for delivering grant funding to communities, who are focusing on getting kids outside experiencing and learning about the natural world. This has been specifically beneficial to underserved youth and rural communities. Evergreen endorses full funding of the following Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) request:  

• $1.5 million operating budget for RCO to implement the NCLI grant program. 

Evergreen has worked hard to provide scholarships and access to opportunities for youth to discover the outdoors and learn invaluable bike handling skills. These lifelong skills both build confidence and understanding of the value of simply spending time having fun with their peers in the outdoors.  With this program youth will learn trail maintenance and soil science, while having fun outdoors. This program is one of the most important grant resources offered by RCO, that Evergreen can really make an impact with.