Tread Lightly!® is a national nonprofit organization with a mission to promote responsible outdoor recreation through ethics education and stewardship. The organization was launched in 1985 by the US Forest Service and became a nonprofit organization in 1990.
Tread Lightly!’s educational message, along with its training and restoration initiatives, are strategically designed to instill an ethic of responsibility in a wide variety of outdoor enthusiasts and the industries that serve them. The program’s goal is to balance the needs of the people who enjoy outdoor recreation with our need to maintain a healthy environment. Tread Lightly!’s core focus is on people that use or are affected by motorized and mechanized vehicles. The organization offers unique programs and services to help remedy growing recreation issues. The federal government officially recognizes the organization as a sole-source service provider of education and training on how to be environmentally and socially responsible while using motorized and mechanized vehicles.
Spectrum of Stakeholders
Stakeholders include government agencies, industry, media, conservation groups, recreation clubs and concerned individuals who share a common goal—to find a balance between humans and nature. Our federal partners include the National Park Service, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Education and Training
Tread Lightly! is the nation’s only source for a full line of motorized and non-motorized outdoor ethics training and education. Tread Lightly!’s educational materials include: guidebooks, quick-tip brochures, a hunting education curriculum, an online awareness course, how-to videos, teaching materials, and a line of children’s materials based on Tread Lightly!’s squirrel mascot, Lightfoot®.
Tread Lightly! also developed a nationally recognized program called Tread Trainer™. Tread Trainer is a training course designed to produce volunteer instructors of the Tread Lightly! ethic all over the country.
Communication
Tread Lightly!’s positive message of balancing outdoor ethics with recreation has reached nearly 50 million people through strategically-designed public service announcements for print, radio, television and the Web. More than $1 million in ad space is donated each year for these important messages. News coverage involving Tread Lightly! reaches an additional 10 million people per year.
Restoration
The Restoration for Recreation™ program was designed to keep the great outdoors beautiful, healthy, and accessible by providing much needed resources for backlogged maintenance, along with critical education and communication initiatives to allow for environmentally sustainable outdoor recreation.
Tread Lightly! Pledge
Travel responsibly. Respect the rights of others. Educate yourself. Avoid sensitive areas. Do your part
Tread Lightly! Principles
Travel Responsibly on land by staying on designated roads, trails and areas. Go over, not around, obstacles to avoid widening the trails. Cross streams only at designated fords. When possible, avoid wet, muddy trails. On water, stay on designated waterways and launch your watercraft in designated areas.
Respect the Rights of Others including private property owners, all recreational trail users, campers and others so they can enjoy their recreational activities undisturbed. Leave gates as you found them. Yield right of way to those passing you or going uphill. On water, respect anglers, swimmers, skiers, boaters, divers and those on or near shore.
Educate Yourself prior to your trip by obtaining travel maps and regulations from public agencies. Plan for your trip, take recreation skills classes and know how to operate your equipment safely.
Avoid Sensitive Areas on land such as meadows, lakeshores, wetlands and streams. Stay on designated routes. This protects wildlife habitats and sensitive soils from damage. Don’t disturb historical, archeological or paleontological sites. On water, avoid operating your watercraft in shallow waters or near shorelines at high speeds.
Do Your Part by modeling appropriate behavior, leaving the area better than you found it, properly disposing of waste, minimizing the use of fire, avoiding the spread of invasive species and repairing degraded areas.
