Non-Profit Partners
EXPED is a small company full of people who love the outdoors. For many of us, this connection to wild places goes back to when we were kids, wandering and wondering with the wind in our hair. And it’s not just us; our community of loyal EXPED customers share our belief that wilderness and wild spaces are essential to life on earth as well as in our individual lives.
Over the years, EXPED USA has helped various non-profit groups through membership dues, product donations and our own volunteer days. Below are some of the groups we work with year-over-year. Please join us in supporting the work they do!
Washington Water Trails Association
Almost everyone on the EXPED USA team is a paddler. For some of us, paddling on our home waters of the Salish Sea in Washington is a multi-generational activity: Kids, parents and grandparents enjoying the on-water experience together. Some of us count these experiences as fundamental to our love of the outdoors and wilderness later in life.
So, Washington Water Trails Association was one of the very first groups we began supporting when EXPED USA started up in 2009. We’ve helped them out with EXPED gear for their fundraising auctions as well as closed the office for volunteer work party days over the years.
Without WWTA, access to the waters of the Salish Sea and other waterways in Washington would be severely limited for human-powered watercraft users.
From WWTA:
Through advocacy, education, and stewardship, Washington Water Trails Association protects and promotes public access to Washington waterways, shorelines, and marine trails for human-powered watercraft.
With our efforts, we want to inspire current and future generations to enjoy and take a greater role in protecting our water ways, and ensuring public access.
Northwest Avalanche Center
NWAC is a non-profit group that EXPED USA employees count as crucial to their backcountry safety in winter. Many of us are enthusiastic backcountry skiers/snowboarders and rely upon the snowpack analysis, avalanche forecasting and information sharing by NWAC - It is a service that helps keep us and our customers safe.
We contribute EXPED products to giveaways and other event-oriented fundraising.
From NWAC:
Mission
The Northwest Avalanche Center exists to increase avalanche awareness, reduce avalanche impacts, and equip the community with mountain weather and avalanche forecasts, education, and data.
Vision
We envision a community of backcountry users in the Pacific Northwest aware of avalanche risk, making informed decisions, and returning safely.
Northern Forest Canoe Trail
https://www.northernforestcanoetrail.org/
The idea of a long water trail that passes through communities along the way isn’t just a dream, it’s a reality thanks to the NFCT.
Completed in 2006, over 700 miles of connected waterways pass through New York, Vermont, Quebec, New Hampshire and Maine. The trail follows 23 rivers and streams, crosses 59 lakes and ponds, includes 45 communities and requires 65 portages totaling over 70 miles. It is the longest water trail in the country and a model for what can be done other places.
EXPED USA is a corporate member of the the NFCT and we contribute our products to a variety of fundraising efforts, including NFCT’s annual online auction.
From NFCT:
Mission Statement
We promote and steward our water trail and support communities, waterways and paddling across the Northern Forest.
Our Vision
An unrivaled network of paddling opportunities across the Northern Forest will inspire ongoing experiences and stories, enticing people to fall in love with the region. Their passion and commitment will contribute to the health of our communities, landscapes and waterways.
Women's Wilderness
https://www.womenswilderness.org/
We met a representative of Women’s Wilderness a number of years ago at a trade show and were so impressed with the great work they are doing that we pledged our support on the spot. The promise of “transformative outdoor experiences” is what’s needed to foster lifelong positive connections to the outdoors for women and girls.
We support Women’s Wilderness with gear for their many programs and in other ways when needs arise.
From Women’s Wilderness:
Our VISION is a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. Our MISSION is to support girls, women and LGBTQ+ people in accessing their power and improving their health through connections to the outdoors and community.
Save the Boundary Waters
https://www.savetheboundarywaters.org/
Here’s a fact that amazed us when we first heard it: Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, located in Northern Minnesota, is America’s most-visited wilderness area.
Its 1.1 million acres of pristine water and woodlands is under pressure from mining companies that want to mine sulfide-ore copper on the edge of the wilderness. Save the Boundary Waters seeks to put a stop to these mines and the inevitable flow of pollution from them.
EXPED USA has contributed to these efforts for years, and we encourage others to join the fight to save this special place.
From Save the Boundary Waters:
The Campaign to Save The Boundary Waters is leading the efforts to protect the Boundary Waters Wilderness from sulfide-ore copper mining.
The Campaign, led by Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, was organized by local residents in and around Ely, Minnesota, who are dedicated to creating a national movement to protect the clean water, clean air and forest landscape of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and its watershed from toxic pollution caused by mining copper, nickel and other metals from sulfide-bearing ore.
Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
The famous Fourteeners of Colorado are a destination for mountain enthusiasts worldwide, us included. Because of this, these 54 14,000 ft. peaks are at risk. The alpine environment is fragile, and the trails are subject to erosion.
Colorado Fourteeners Initiative does the difficult and necessary heavy lifting (literally) to keep these mountains open to the public and protected for today and for future generations. We’ve been helping with their gear needs for years, whether it’s outfitting volunteers or rewarding them at the end of a season of hard work.
From CFI:
Colorado Fourteeners Initiative protects and preserves the natural integrity of Colorado’s 54 14,000–foot peaks —the “Fourteeners”— through active stewardship and public education.
Colorado’s Fourteeners contain rare and fragile native alpine tundra ecosystems that are uniquely adapted to living on these high peaks. These tundra plants –some of which exist nowhere else on earth – are ill-adapted to being trampled by the estimated 415,000 hiker use days that occur on these peaks every year. In many places, resource damage is past the point of natural recovery.
CFI partners with the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and passionate volunteers and donors nationwide.
The Conservation Alliance
http://www.conservationalliance.com/
We have been a member of the Conservation Alliance since day one of EXPED USA’s existence and continue to support the collective efforts of this coalition of like-minded outdoor companies.
The financial grants and political influence Conservation Alliance has brought to bear have been impressive, preserving wild places for the critical role they play in the environment as well as the experiences they provide for our customers.
From The Conservation Alliance:
Our Mission
We harness the collective power of business and outdoor communities to fund and advocate for the protection of North America’s wild places.
Our Vision
A planet where wild places, wildlife, and people thrive together.
Our Why
The Conservation Alliance represents a coalition of businesses that fund and advocate for the protection of North America’s wild places. Through our work, we consolidate and redistribute power in the form of financial grants and political influence to grassroots environmental organizations working to permanently protect the outdoor spaces we love.