As a former student of linguistics, and someone who reads as much as he writes, alliteration has always been one of my favorite literary tropes. Alliteration is when the first letter of each word in a sentence or phrase is the same. So in the case of this article’s subtitle, “Collaboration, Cooperation, and Compromise” is an alliterative phrase. Alliteration is usually not that difficult since the prefix of a complex word often dictates, or at least influences, its meaning.
In this case the prefix “co-” means “together”. If we break down these three words into segments we can unpack how they are similar, as well as how they are subtly different. We have “co-labor-ation,” “co-operate-ation,” and “co-promise.” With the first two words we can see not only do we have a shared prefix but also a shared suffix. In this case the suffix “-ation” which means “action.” When we line these three words up together we get the basic meanings, “creating together,” “managing together,” and “agreeing together.” I think this is one of the most important trifectas for a community of outdoor enthusiasts, as well as for our industry as a whole.
Pictured Left to Right: John (J^2), Jonathan (J1), Walt, and myself
Without jumping into the deep end of politics, and regardless of your particular flavor of politics, we can all agree these are very tumultuous times. Many government agencies, both at the state and federal levels, were already on shoestring budgets and things have only gotten tighter. This has led to a trend lately of closing access to, or at least increasing restrictions on, public lands. With a decreasing number of staff to monitor acres of land and miles of trails and countless campsites and other resources there simply isn’t enough manpower to keep things neat and tidy. So the standard operating procedure these days is to put up gates. No one wants that. That’s where *WE* come in. We, the community and industry members, need to step up and find ways (collaborate) to work together (cooperate) on sensitive issues so that all parties involved come away with a win (compromise). The alternative is everyone loses. No one wants that.
Last week was a perfect manifestation of how Collaboration, Cooperation, and Compromise can have a positive impact in our community and on public lands. I volunteered my time for not one, not two, but THREE Tread Lightly projects in the span of four days. The first was a joint project between Tread Lightly, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Hatfield-McCoy Trails. This project was replacing a culvert on an ATV trail that crossed the Pinnacle Creek and had washed out in recent storms. The second project was a joint project between Tread Lightly and the US Forest Service. This project was revisiting a prior project location on Tank Hollow Road in George Washing & Jefferson National Forest. The third and final project was a joint project between Tread Lightly, the US Forest Service, and the Virginia Four-Wheel-Drive Association. This last project has become an annual project for me which involves cleanup and infrastructure maintenance on the Bald Mountain Jeep Trail and the connecting access road, Coal Road.
Pinnacle Creek – Matoaka, WV
The Pinnacle Creek project was a great example because it not only brought together three different agencies, but is was a perfect illustration in how compromise can keep a trail open. This area is a very high traffic area for ATVs and side-by-sides. It’s also a very sensitive area for an endangered species or crayfish. A lot of people get triggered by the mere mention of an endangered species, but that’s where cooperation and compromise come into play. Simply put, there were really only two options. First, they close the trail. Second, they put in a larger more stable culvert that can handle the higher runoff flow rates of larger storms. Through cooperation and compromise the culvert option was chosen to keep the trail open and mitigate silt from getting stirred up and sent floating downstream if it was left as a water-crossing.
Tank Hollow – Natural Bridge Station, VA
I first visited Tank Hollow Road in George Washington and Jefferson National Forest back in late 2022. During that project we not only cleaned up trash along the road, as well as at the river-access campsites along the James River, but we also retrieved a bunch of appliances that had been dumped over the hillside. This year my buddy Walt was approached to manage a revisit of the appliance dump site to see what was needed to retrieve some of the harder-to-reach appliances we were unable (and unwilling due to safety issues) to get last time. With a background in technical rope rescue and rock climbing Walt was a natural at coordinating the more technical aspects of this project. As such it was his call to keep the group small and limit it to experienced and trusted people. Given the proximity of Tank Hollow to Bald Mountain it made sense to do this project the day before the Bald Mountain one allowing us to maximize our time and effort on both projects.
Bald Mountain Jeep Trail – Stewarts Draft, VA
The third and final project for the week was the annual cleanup and maintenance project on the Bald Mountain Jeep Trail with Virginia Four-Wheel-Drive. This has been a repeat project every year that I can remember and is a high-traffic area for not just four-wheel-drive enthusiasts, but dispersed campers, hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrian enthusiasts. As such it does not take long for the impact to be felt. There is also a lot of trash that gets dumped by locals. This means everything and anything from household trash to furniture, appliances, and everyone’s favorite — tires. Our group alone managed to pull 19 tires from our location and there is probably just as much, if not more, that we didn’t have time to get. Needless to say, we will be back.
And no, that strap did not hold
Individual write-ups with more details about these three projects can be found here:
- Pinnacle Creek – with Tread Lightly, US Fish & Wildlife, and Hatfield-McCoy Trails
- Tank Hollow 2025 – with Tread Lightly, and US Forest Service
- Bald Mountain Jeep Trail – with Tread Lightly, US Forest Service, and VA4WDA
These kinds of complex projects require a lot of behind-the-scenes work that often goes unnoticed. Hours, days, weeks, months, even years of work go into planning some of these projects. Even annual ones such as the Bald Mountain project require behind-the-scenes work to ensure things like dumpsters are in place and the group has permission to camp. Luckily, with time and constant communication, these kinds of complexities are taken in stride. With that in mind I’d like to give a few shoutouts.
Riley – US Fish & Wildlife: For the information and invitation to the Pinnacle Creek project
Doug – Tread Lightly: For hitting he ground running with being Tread Lightly’s new executive director and wasting no time getting his hands dirty on projects here on the east coast and for all he is doing to get Tread Lightly back on track
Walt – Tread Lightly: For taking the time out of his busy work schedule to not only take the lead on the Tank Hollow project but also come down for the Pinnacle Creek project and lend a hand during the Bald Mountain project.
The Johns J1 & J^2: John’s (J^2) initial invite to the 2017 Bald Mountain project reignited my love for stewardship projects and Jonathan (J1) for not only being a dedicated hard working during the projects on Tank Hallow and Bald Mountain but for brining his trailer for us to use on both projects and being my driver on Friday.
Jesse & Sanda – VA4WDA: For all their work with the VA4WDA throughout the year and in particular “herding the cats” of volunteers on the project day getting them all in the right places and all the logistical support to make the project a success. Bonus points for feeding the volunteers Saturday night after the project concluded and organizing a raffle for participants.
Plinio & Brain – USFS: Without the hardworking of the USFS staff we wouldn’t have woods like George Washing & Jefferson National Forest to play in. Between identifying high-impact sites that need attention to ensuring we had a place to camp for the night we cannot thank the hardworking staff of the US Forest Service enough for all their do.
Also, please considering joining Tread Lightly!. Not only do they organize and fund projects like these, but they also have an educational mission advocating for responsible use of our public lands. Now more than ever we as a community need to show our support and demonstrate we want to take care of our public lands as much as we want to enjoy them.
BECOME A TREAD LIGHTLY! MEMBER HERE
If you enjoyed this article and want to support the ECOA mission to Educate, Encourage, and Inspire as well as support stewardship projects like these and others throughout the year please consider joining the ECOA Patron Support Team. These funds are put directly to use for projects like this as well as education and training opportunities at events during the year.
