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 | | In the fourth newsletter of the year, we have a job opportunity at RPL, our 2025 Camp & Run is open for registration, and we’re celebrating our 6th anniversary with screenings of the Trail Running Film Festival. But first, a letter from Tia Bodington, RPL Board Vice President. |
| | | | As (retiring) Race Director of the Miwok 100K Trail Race, which traverses public lands in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Mount Tamalpais State Park, and Point Reyes National Seashore, I’ve spent over 20 years managing permits and volunteers, promoting sustainability and inclusion, and celebrating runners on the beautiful regional trails adjacent to one of the largest urban areas in the country. |
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| With public lands all over the U.S. now under threat, I am so fortunate to have connected with Runners for Public Lands. I’ll be able to continue working on these important issues, supporting RPL to promote awareness and activism to protect, and enhance access to, the trails, parks, and roads that millions of runners like you are out on every day.
RPL was founded six years ago this month to fill a vital need and with a lofty goal: enlist 60 million road and trail runners in the U.S. to work together for the protection and maintenance of the areas where we run. As board Vice President, I look forward to taking on special projects that bring all of us together as a powerful community of runners who now realize that access to public lands is not a given. Let’s advocate for where we recreate.
In stride, Tia Bodington RPL Board Vice President |
| | |  | Runners for Public Lands is looking for a part-time Digital Communications Manager. If you are someone who wants to impact both environmental and outdoor recreation spaces while developing experience in digital advocacy, communications, content creation, storytelling, and marketing, then this role could be the perfect fit for you. See some of the details below, but make sure to read the job description in full on our site here: |
| Position: Digital Communications Manager Status: 6-Month Independent Contractor, with the potential to continue to a year, and beyond. Pay: $28 – $32 / hour commensurate with experience Schedule: Part-time. Up to 24 hours per week. Location: This is a remote position, though occasional opportunities to attend in-person meetings or events may arise. Application Deadline: April 25, 2025. Submit your cover letter and CV to jobs@runnersforpubliclands.org.
What You Will Do: Using a variety of media platforms, the Digital Communications Manager will create and manage communications that educate our community, promote engagement, drive growth and revenue. This person will work directly with RPL’s Executive Director and be responsible for the organization’s digital presence.
Who Are We Looking For: Our team at RPL is excited to meet candidates who are passionate, willing to learn, eager to take initiative, and can work independently. The Digital Communications Manager will be expected to actively engage in RPL’s mission and maintain messaging that is consistent with our values. Additionally, they should work well with a wide population of people ranging from volunteer ambassadors, outdoor industry brand partners, and Board members. Our ideal candidate has a minimum of 3-5 years of communications experience. While it is not required that this experience be in the nonprofit sector, an interest in environmental justice, advocacy, outdoor recreation, and conservation is essential. |
| | | Upcoming Events: RPL’s Calendar |
|  | | 4/15: Community Run Ventura @ Harmon Canyon, 5:30pm 4/18: Trail Running Film Festival at Bermuda Club in Carlsbad, CA (rsvp here) 4/22: Colorado Trail Work Series kicks off 4/24: Flagstaff Trail Work Series kicks off 4/26: Ventura Trail Work: Horn Canyon 4/27: Santa Barbara Trail Work Series 4/27: Community Run @ Patagonia Cardiff 5/13: Colorado Trail Work Series: Mt Falcon 5/18: Santa Barbara Trail Work Series: Front Country Trails 5/20: Community Run @ Patagonia Ventura 5/25: Community Run @ Patagonia Cardiff 5/29: Flagstaff Trail Work Series 6/13-6/15: 2025 Leadville Camp & Run in Leadville, CO (register)
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| Stay tuned for more trail work events in Santa Barbara, San Diego and beyond! We hope to cross trails and paths with you sometime this year. |
| | | Event Spotlight: 3 Ways to Join |
| Looking for ways to get involved in RPL in the coming weeks and months? Below are three opportunities to connect with us online or virtually.
April 19: Trail Running Film Festival in San Diego. We hosted the first of two watch parties for the Trail Running Film Festival on April 2 at Topa Topa Brewing Co. If you’re in the San Diego area, we’ll be hosting another watch party on April 19. Doors open at 5:30pm. This anniversary watch party also doubles as our annual fundraiser. If you have the means to support RPL, we’d love for you to make a donation on our website to help us continue our urgent work this year. RSVP here. |
|  | April 1 - April 31: Recover “Earth Month” Fundraiser: We were stoked that recover brand chose us as one of their non-profit partners for Earth Month. They designed a fresh, new RPL-branded tee, which you can see here. “Wear your impact this month” is their mantra for the fundraiser. You know we’ll be wearing ours. If you’d like to join us in this fundraiser for RPL, grab your own limited-edition and planet-approved RPL t-shirts. |
|  | June 13 - 15: 2025 Camp & Run: We are now open for registration for our 2025 Camp & Run. Join Runners for Public Lands, the Cloud City Conservation Center, Friends of Lake County, and the Lake County Tourism Panel for an inspirational weekend in Leadville, Colorado from Friday, June 13th through Sunday, June 15th! The weekend will include discussions with local experts, hands-on service projects, and time to connect with new friends. There will be opportunities to run, hike, swim, and explore the treasured landscapes of this iconic trail-running town throughout the weekend. |
|  | | Reimagining “Public Lands” |
|  | A few months ago, RPL Board President Vic Thasiah brought together a working group of RPL Board of Directors, professors, leaders and experts, to start a conversation around the definition of “public lands.” Why did RPL embark on this work, and what was the result? Read Vic’s article, “What “public lands” are, and why we’re for them,” on our site today. Below, get two perspectives on the work this committee did: |
| “The statement and definitions boldly reframe how we view, value, and interact with public lands. They offer a broader conception that encompasses all spaces open to the public, from federally managed National Parks to neighborhood parks, and everything in between. Public lands and public health are considered indivisible. And moving beyond the current legal frameworks, the statement and definitions prioritize access, belonging, solidarity, collaboration, and sustainability, recognizing the positive correlation between cultural diversity and biodiversity. They now serve as the basis of RPL’s programs, advocacy, and policy work.” — Vic Thasiah
“It’s important to connect around common understandings of what we value and what we mean. Not because we have to have perfect definitions or be in full agreement but because there is power in connecting our mental models and shifting those as needed in service of the change we want. So ‘defining public lands’ for me is less about crafting a prescriptive denotation, and more about offering the space for connection, mutual accountability, and alignment for how and why we work together to care for the land.” — José González, Founder of Latino Outdoors. |
| Gratitude to our working committee for their hard work: Committee Chairs Vic Thasiah, RPL Board President, and Khrystyne Wilson, Assistant Professor of Religion at California Lutheran University; Kat Baker, ED of RPL; RPL Board of Directors Tia Bodington, Alison Désir, Dustin Martin, Laura Alonzo-Ochoa, and Tim Tollefson; José González, Founder of Latino Outdoors and Equity Officer of East Bay Regional Park District in Oakland, California; Jeff Kuyper, Executive Director of Los Padres ForestWatch; and Andrew Pattison, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Colgate University. |
| | | Program Update: Trail Work Series |
|  | We’ve had the first 4 Trail Work Events in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Diego. We welcomed a total of 84 runners, who contributed over 250 hours of hands-on work. Thank you to all the volunteers who came out and to the Los Padres Forest Association, Coyote Two Moon, Sisar Canyon Run Club, Nature Collective, Coastal Run Club, and our educators from RPL and the local communities. Curious to see if one of our Trail Work Series is in your area? Check out our Trail Work Series page. A few updates and announcements below: Update for April 5 Ventura Trail Work event: Our upcoming trail work event in Ventura on April 5 has changed locations. We will now be meeting at the Horn Canyon Trailhead. RSVP here.
Colorado Trail Work series kicks off April 22: We are excited to partner once again with Jefferson County Colorado Open Space and Trail Runner Volunteers to present the 2025 Trail Work Series in Colorado. Click here for more information and how to register.
Flagstaff, AZ Trail Work Series kicks off April 24: Volunteer with other runners in maintaining the beautiful trails of the Coconino National Forest. RSVP and more details.
Our other programs are well underway — the next Ventura Trail Work Series is on 4/26 (RSVP here) and the next Santa Barbara Trail Work event is on 4/27 (RSVP here). |
| | | Announcing Soon: 2025 Ambassadors |
|  | Thank you to everyone who applied to be a 2025 RPL Ambassador. We are currently going through applications and will be in touch in the coming weeks with an update on the status of your application. We can’t wait to work with this new cohort of runners, advocates, and organizers. |
| | Run with public lands in mind. |
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