BlueRibbon Accomplishments

How we accomplish our vital mission

By participating in the political process as a national voice, the BlueRibbon Coalition is able to advance opportunities for motorized recreation and true multiple use.

BlueRibbon Coalition has proven its ability time and time again to mobilize its membership. We can develop broad-based opposition to legislative threats and build support for progressive legislation aimed at improving access opportunities for all.

Working with federal land administrators and public land mangers, BlueRibbon promotes fair use policies and true multiple use philosophies, which have proven their effectiveness in preventing problems, such as user conflict and solving specific problems when they do occur.

By promoting cooperation between trail riders, resource industries, and other types of public land users, BRC has enjoyed many successes in resolving problems, preventing closures, and promoting fair land use policy for all.

Over a decade of work!

The BlueRibbon Coalition was founded in 1987 by Clark Collins after he realized the significance that Wilderness Designation would have on motorized and non-motorized recreationists. Upon being told by a former Idaho Governor that recreationists were "politically insignificant," he began organizing individuals and clubs to prove the Governor wrong.

BlueRibbon recognizes that 4X4 enthusiasts, ATVers, equestrians, hunters, motorcyclists, mountain bikers, snowmobilers and other recreationists have a right to enjoy public lands in their own way. Today, the Coalition represents over six hundred member organizations and more than half a million recreationists and resource users nationwide.

For well over a decade, BlueRibbon Coalition has been "Preserving our natural resources FOR the public instead of FROM the public."

Achievements to date

• The BlueRibbon Coalition took a national leadership role in fighting closures in the Clinton Forest Land Legacies. We stopped radical environmental groups from getting a nationwide "closed unless posted open" mandate inserted in the Clinton-Gore Roadless Initiative. We joined in a lawsuit against the Forest Service over the Roadless Initiative.
• When Heartwood, a radical environmental group, and the Forest Service reached a closed door lawsuit settlement to change forest service regulations without public involvement, BlueRibbon intervened. Subsequently, the court vacated the settlement.
• Presented our views on the Roadless Initiative and recreation management to national environmental and outdoor media at the 2000 Outdoor Writers of America association's annual convention in North Carolina.
• Testified before Congress that land managing agencies are legally required to consider the impact of their proposals on small recreation related businesses. Congress subsequently notified the Forest Service that they would take 60 session days to evaluate the impact of the Roadless Initiative on small businesses.
• Worked with a broad spectrum of interests in the northwest to stop the top down one-size-fits-all mandates in the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP). Congress subsequently limited funding and required better documentation. Filed a protest against the final Environmental Impact Statement.
• The Intermountain Regional Forester granted our appeal of the Targhee National Forest Travel Plan and required environmental documentation for any road obliteration. Roads already obliterated must be reviewed before more obliterations can proceed on the forest.
• Together with the snowmobile manufacturers and other snowmobiling interests, filed suit against the National Park Service over their decision to ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in 2002-2003.
• Our pro-recreation access public service ads for radio and television were widely distributed and viewed nationally. The general public was exposed to our perspective.
• Together with Utah Shared Access Alliance, intervened in a suit filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) against the BLM. SUWA sought to eliminate OHV use on BLM lands in Utah. The court subsequently dismissed SUWA's claims.