IATC Advocacy Committee - We’re Recruiting!
“Advocacy is super important. This new committee will really make a difference and I’m looking forward to working closely with everyone and sharing my 40+ years of experience with them.”
Advocacy is at the heart of what we do at IATC. We are driven by our passion for the land and trails, and work with our partners to ensure equal access for all and that the proper resources are available to grow and maintain what’s already here. We are more than trail users. Our Advocacy Committee was recently established to lead our efforts in this area. The Committee is in startup mode and we have a number of positions on the Committee to fill. If you share our passion and have special knowledge or experience in an area such as land use, conservation, wildlife habitat, biology, outdoor recreation, non-profits, or the legal profession, then we would love to hear from you!
Scroll to the bottom of this page to access the form to register your interest, or read on for more information before deciding.
advocacy at IATC
Photo credit: Mark Griffith
For IATC, "advocacy" is defined as an activity whose intended outcome is related to one or more of the following:
Land - The preservation, conservation, or protection of certain land from development or disruption deemed harmful.
Trails - The construction, maintenance, or restoration of a connected, comprehensive trail system, including trailheads.
Access - Improved access to the Issaquah Alps.
Resources - The allocation of resources for the proper management and care of the land and trails of the Issaquah Alps.
Examples of our current advocacy initiatives include land conservation opportunities on Cougar and Tiger Mtns. (with Save Coal Creek as the prime example), and trail restoration and development on Squak and Tiger Mtns. But advocacy is an ever-changing landscape with new objectives arising and existing ones evolving from low-level to higher levels of activity, and vice versa. Key to our long-term success with advocacy has been the people with their eyes and ears to the ground and a community of like-mined individuals willing to do what is needed to succeed. We interact tribal governments and with many public agencies at the state, county, and city levels, plus other conservation and recreation organizations, commercial businesses, private citizens, and landowners. With true grassroots origins, IATC has had tremendous success with our advocacy efforts. With the establishment of the Advocacy Committee, we have taken the step to ensure that our efforts and the best outcomes will continue into the future.
A new committee
“The Issaquah Alps Trails Club has been a leader in public lands advocacy for 40+ years. As the chair of the newly formed advocacy committee, I hope to build on the work of Harvey Manning, David Kappler, and others who have been doing this work from the beginning, while bringing in the next generation of advocates who will carry this work forward.”
The Advocacy Committee was formally established by the IATC Board at our September meeting with the adoption of its charter and appointment of its first three members, all of whom are also Board members. A critical early step for the Committee is to recruit new members, and anyone from throughout the Issaquah Alps community is encouraged to get involved.
we would like to hear from you
We have setup an online form for registering your interest in joining the Committee. We also want to hear from people who don’t think that they can fulfill the obligations of Committee members, but who still want to volunteer to help as needed with various initiatives. Whichever level of involvement interests you, please take the 10 minutes or less needed to complete the form and we will follow-up with you. We will be agile in the process going forward, with the goal of adding up to six new Committee members by January 2023, with terms for one, two, or three years.
Current Advocacy Committee Members:
- Kelly Jiang, Chair
- David Dunphy, Vice Chair
- David Kappler