2024 Mid-Year CAMTB Advocacy Update
Now that we’re halfway through the year, we want to take a few moments to catch you up on all that CAMTB and its advocacy community have up to these past six months. It’s been a wild, fun, and impactful ride with many firsts for the coalition. We also want to thank you all for the support and encouragement you’ve provided along the way. We certainly couldn’t have done without your help!
Cover Image (l-r): Marin Bikes CEO, Matt VanEnkevort; Marin Dreambike Winner Chris Spalaris; Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship Executive Director, Matt DeYoung; Mexico to BC rider Annie Ford; and Marin Bikes Brand Director, Chris Holmes, handing off the Marin Dreambike, which raised over $8,000 to support CAMTB’s statewide advocacy for cycling, trails, and public lands.
Report on our Q1/Q2 efforts to support more and better bike-friendly trails in California
The 2024 Legislative Trail: Top Priority Legislation Passes
A core component of our work is tracking, influencing, and for the first time, authoring legislation that supports cycling, trails, and public lands. Our 2024 Legislative Agenda includes state and federal legislation that aims to:
- Increase funding for trails
- Promote equitable access to trails, public lands, and open spaces for all
- Preserve, protect, and expand public lands and open spaces
- Expand the capacities of the trail stewardship community and remove inherent barriers to their success as agency partners
Our top-priority legislation, ACR 152: California Mountain Biking Month, and AB 1567 / SB 867: Climate Bond both passed. ACR 152 was a major milestone for CAMTB this year, as it served as our first piece of authored/sponsored legislation. This bi-partisan and bi-cameral legislation officially recognized June as California Mountain Biking Month. The Climate Bond, now Proposition 4, will be put before voters this fall, and includes, among other things, $700 million in funding for park creation and recreation.
Election News: CAMTB Makes Its First Candidate Endorsement of the 2024 Election Season
As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, CAMTB is also here to help pro-bike and pro-trails legislators get elected and stay in office. With 2024 being a major election year, we activated our Election Committee and began planning for and working on our 2024 Candidate Questionaire and Endorsements. Our first candidate endorsement of the season was for John Bauters, in the primary race for Alameda County Supervisor. Bauters, an outspoken advocate for cycling, trails, and the environment, won the primary and has moved on to the general election race in November.
Membership News: CAMTB Welcomes Three New Member Organizations
CAMTB welcomed three new member organizations to the coalition in the first half of the year, expanding our membership to 35 bike-friendly trail stewardships. Redwood Coast Mountain Bike Association stewards trails in the Eureka and Arcata regions, including Blue Lakes. Chico Velo stewards trails in the northern Sierras, including Upper Bidwell Park, and Colby Mountain. Ukiah Valley Trail Group preserves, enhances, and establishes trails in the Inland of Mendocino County.
New Partners: Rivian & Ibis Cycles Join the CAMTB Partner Team
Over the past four years, CAMTB has been supported by mission-aligned corporate partners, including SRAM, Sierra Nevada Brewing, e*thirteen, Crankbrothers, Athletic Brewing, Canyon, and many more. This year we added two new national California-based partners, Ibis Cycles and Rivian Automotive, both of which supported CAMTB with capacity-building resources.
In June, Rivian help CAMTB go fossil-free for California Mountain Biking Month by providing a sparkling R1S electric vehicle. The partnership helped us boost awareness and garner support for more and better bike-friendly trails in California.
In addition, thanks to the in-kind and promotional support of Ibis Cycles, CAMTB, and its member organizations, raised over $70,000 via the Ibis Dreambike Giveaway to support local and state advocacy for cycling trails and public lands. Approximately $36k of the funding directly benefited sixteen of our participating member organizations. This critical funding allows CAMTB and its members to maintain its presence in Sacramento while supporting on-the-ground maintenance and construction of bike-friendly trails across California.
Land Manager Engagement
CAMTB now maintains three land manager initiatives – Local, State, and Federal – to inform and influence agency policy that aims to remove the inherent barriers nonprofit stewardship organizations face in the state.
CAMTB’s Land Manager Engagement Framework, which helps shape our policy work with land managers operating in California, has continued to evolve along with the policy itself. The framework includes a series of phases including Research & Discovery, Assessment, Work Plan Development, and Activation, followed by regular Review, Reporting, and Refinement. Three years ago we launched our state agency initiative with CA State Parks. 2023 marked the launch our our federal agency initiative with the US Forest Service. And now in 2024 the coalition has initiated a Cities & Counties Initiative, which aims to help our coalition managers create a playbook for effectively engaging local and regional land managers in the state. The knowledge base of our 35-member trail stewardship coalition is both deep and wide, and the coalition serves as a medium for that insight to flow more easily from place to place.
CA Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force Activation
Last year, CAMTB attended its first California Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force meeting, which took place in Redding, California. The task force was created by the office of the Governor to directly confront the near-perfect storm of climatic and human-caused conditions that have brought the threat of devastating wildfire and its far-reaching effects to the doorstep of nearly everyone in our state, and beyond.
The Task Force is a collaborative effort to align the activities of federal, state, local, public, private and tribal organizations to support programs and projects tailored to the priorities and risks of each region, and bring the best available science to forest management and community protection efforts.
While in attendance in Redding, and in the quarterly meetings since, we’ve noticed two things. First, is the low rate of participation in the Task Force by the recreation stakeholder community. And second, is the challenge of integrating recreation into forest health and post-fire recovery efforts. We believe these two things to be inextricably related and our goal now is to compel the Task Force Executive Committee, including CNRA Secretary, Wade Crowfoot, and USFS Region 5 Regional Forester, Jen Eberlien, to commit more time and resources to address the latter so that our fellow recreation stakeholders can begin implementing the Joint Strategy for Sustainable Outdoor Recreation & Wildfire Resilience.
Teen Ambassadors: Cohort 2 Launch and Ambassadors In Action Around the State
The CAMTB Teen Ambassador program was developed in partnership with the NorCal Interscholastic Cycling League and the SoCal Cycling League. It provides a peer-based education model for high school junior and senior student-athletes interested in building their resumes while riding, connecting, and taking meaningful action with other California-based student-athletes. Combined, CAMTB has now engaged 17 teen ambassadors from across the state who are supporting more and better bike-friendly trails in California! We believe next-gen engagement is the critical link, and a way for us, in our own small way, to ensure that the future of cycling, trails, and public lands remains bright.
In addition to meeting with legislators and agency representatives, including CA State Parks Director Armando Quintero and his leadership team, our ambassador crew participated in Sea Otter Classic, California Trails & Greenways, and CAMTB’s Lobby Day at the Capital in Support of ACR 152.
Other Community Engagement Highlights
In addition to our regular in-person check-ins with members throughout the year CAMTB participated in many education and community-related events this spring including:
Sea Otter Classic
CAMTB and several of its affiliate member organizations, including OCMTBA, SDMBA, BTCEB, Redding Trail Alliance, hosted a shared booth at Sea Otter 2024 to help put trail stewardship and advocacy on the map for attendees.
Washoe Meet & Greet at the Hung A Lel Ti Community
CAMTB brought delegates from the cycling and trails community out to Hung A Lel Ti, a Washoe Tribal Community near Woodfords, CA to break bread with leaders from the Washoe Tribe and to discuss how our stewardship community might be able to support health and wellness projects for the tribe, including a possible pump track and bike skills area for local youth.
California Trails & Greenways Conference
This year CAMTB hosted a half-day legislative workshop and multiple advocacy panels, including one on engaging the next generation of trail advocates. Also on tap was our 3rd Annual After-Hours mixer, which provides conference attendees a fun space to catch up following an engaging and inspiring day of trail-related content.
Singletrack Summit: NorCal
One of the state’s best regional gatherings of local trail stewards in California, this year’s Singletrack Summit was hosted in Weaverville by the Watershed Center, and included participants from the Sierras, the Bay Area, and Northern California. Next year CAMTB will be helping support expansion to SoCal and the Sierras.
National Outdoor Recreation Conference
CAMTB attended the National Outdoor Recreation Professional’s NORC conference for the first time in 2024. In anticipation of the release of the Reimagining Recreation initiative, the turnout by USFS was unprecedented, which provided our USFS policy team access to both R5 and Washington Office leadership like never before.
California Mountain Biking Month
CAMTB’s first piece of authored legislation, ACR 152, established June 2024 as California Mountain Biking Month – a statewide celebration of bike-friendly trails and advocacy in California.
Earlier we shared the news about the passing of Assembly Concurrent Resolution 152 (ACR 152) by the California State Assembly and Senate. ACR 152 designated June 2024 as “California Mountain Biking Month” and it recognized the deep roots mountain biking has in California as its birthplace.
June 1, National Trails Day provided a most-fitting start to California Mountain Biking Month as a way to give back to trails. Dig Days and community celebrations were aplenty across the state. June 1st also marked the rollout of the California Mountain Biking Month Pledge and the CAMTB Month Trailforks Ride Badge, which was a way for the larger community in California to demonstrate their love and commitment to the life and culture of mountain biking. Combined we generated over 10,000 engagements!
During the Month of June, CAMTB and its member organizations hosted over 50 events, including group rides, bike skills clinics, dig days, movie nights, and the like, in celebration of California Mountain Biking Month. CAMTB attended many of these fossil-free thanks in part to its partnership with electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian. Check out picks from the summer tour below!
What’s On Tap For The Rest of 2024?
The upcoming election is our top advocacy priority this fall
With intention, CAMTB was established as a 501(c)4 so that it could take political action in ways that its coalition members, all of which are 501(c)3’s cannot. Namely, that means endorsing candidates in key races local, state, and federal races during election years, and even campaigning on their behalf as needed. However, it also includes advancing key legislation going before voters, such as Prop 4: The Climate Bond, which if approved will provide $700 million dollars in funding for trails. BTW: Check out our post on Prop 4 for the latest!
This summer and fall, CAMTB will administer a Bike, Trails, and Recreation questionnaire for candidates to help us inform our endorsements. From the questionnaire, we will also be developing a Recreation Voter Guide to help the public identify candidates who support outdoor recreation. We aim to identify champions for bike-friendly sustainable trails, help get them elected, and then keep them in office to advance our legislative public policy agenda. Stay tuned in the coming months for the election-related news and announcements.
How can you support advocacy for cycling, trails, and public lands?! We’re glad you asked…
- Become a Member of Your Local Bike-Friendly Trail Organization! Find yours from our list of local CAMTB affiliates HERE.
- Vote this November: Check your voter registration status with the California Secretary of State HERE.
- Become a Sustaining Supporter of CAMTB: Help us continue building our presence and influence in Sacramento and around the state with a one-time or recurring gift today!
