VERMONT—Let’s travel back to 1995 for a minute. President Clinton was in office, Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” topped charts, “Friends” started its second season, and the New York Times ran an article titled, “Snowboarding Blazes New Trails; Traditionalists Give Way as a Fad Becomes an Olympic Sport.” 

That same year, the founders of industry leader Burton Snowboards started a nonprofit organization called the Chill Foundation to introduce young people to snowboarding and help them build life skills through a love of board sports. Simultaneously, the USDA Forest Service began building the Eastern Region Winter Sports Team, which aimed to improve customer service and increase consistency in the administration of the complex winter sports permits. Good things were happening.

In 2021, national forest lands were seeing a surge in new participants, and with that growth came an increase in visitor conflicts, often stemming from inexperience and a lack of understanding of responsible travel practices. Backcountry skiing and snowboarding equipment sales shot up like never before.

Fast forward to today: The Eastern Region Winter Sports Team and the Chill Foundation created the “USFS X Chill Lifts to Backcountry” program to expose Chill participants aged 16 to 19 to the equipment and techniques required to travel safely uphill and then snowboard back down. The curriculum aims to cultivate responsible community members and complements Chill’s programming, which is based on six core values. including respect and responsibility. The partnership began as a way for the Forest Service to engage with historically underserved populations while adding value to existing programming.

“It’s great to see new people picking up a board and trying something different,” said Justin Preisendorfer, winter sports team leader. “But with any sport or community, there is an understanding among people who participate regularly about what is acceptable and what is not. That understanding doesn’t come with new equipment; community members have to extend that knowledge and that is what this partnership helps to do.”

Chill provides free equipment, transportation and instruction to youth who otherwise would be unlikely to engage in board sports. The Forest Service introduces participants to basic land management concepts such as multiple use management and helps introduce them to public land opportunities on the forest and at ski areas. Together, the partners shape a cohort of new recreationists who think responsibly about their sport.

“Honestly, does anyone get into snowboarding or any outdoor recreation activity with the intention of disrupting others or the environment?” asks Preisendorfer. “Of course not. People first participate for a wide variety of reasons, but many aren’t aware of their impacts. Chill participants were super engaged, and I look forward to seeing their faces in the backcountry.”

Funding through the Forest Service Urban Connections program helped establish the collaboration between the Forest Service and the CHILL Foundation. Urban Connections is based on a simple idea: reaching out to urban communities and building alliances that complement the Forest Service mission.