We protect what we love

FRIDAY . 04.11. 22.

Good afternoon, folks! We trust this finds you well on what we hope is a sunshine filled November afternoon - it feels like the unrelenting rain is finally taking a day or two off and letting those soggy trails dry out in time for a weekend ramble!

You always know it's Hilary behind the newsletter when it drops into your inbox in the late stages of Friday afternoon - I'm a sucker for procrastination, and could proably learn a thing or two about time management off the always organised Elanor! But nevertheless, the newsletter is finally here, and brining you good news from the world of FWP.

We've had a few wins lately, with three succesful grant applications! This means some FWP events are popping up on the horizon. In addition to The North Face Explore Fund, we are thrilled to be bringing seven TRACTION: Trail Action events to Victoria in the coming months. This ties in perfectly with our new role as a Take 3 Community Partner, which means we will be brining the Take 3 message to the trails, and organising a range of clean up and trail action events over the coming months, and into the new year.

In addition, we've been working away to bring together a Collective Membership offering, which encourages businesss, brands and organisations to support the ongoing work of For Wild Places. Your workplace or business can join our inner circle of likeminded, passionate trail lovers and users as we collectivley work towards building respnosible and sustainable practices to help protect wild places.

And last but certainly not least, in a few weeks we have the inspirational (or some might say insane!) Erchana Murray-Bartlett joining us for Trail Chat #7, as she makes her way across Australia on a 6000km journey from tip to toe. So grab yourself an afternoon coffee, tea, kombucha or maybe tipple, and catch up on the latest from FWP.

TRAIL CHAT #7

with Erchana Murray-Bartlett

On Wednesday 16th November, we are excited to welcome Erchana Murray-Bartlett, aka Tip to Toe 2022, to the virtual trail couch. Erchana will be 89 days into her journey from Cape York to Melbourne, having clocked up an incredible 3,755 kilometres. Along the way, Erchana is raising funds for our friends at The Wilderness Society, to stop the extinction crisis and raise awareness about the incredible critters and fragile ecosystems we need to conserve. So far, Erchana has raised $33,993, having just tipped over the halfway mark on her goal to raise $62,000. If you'd like to support Erchana, you can donate here and follow along on socials here.

If you'd like to hear more about this world record attempt, we did a Q&A with Erchana before she set out on this epic adventure, and you can read that newsletter here.

Erchana will join us after her morning marathon, and we are sure there will be plenty to chat about! If you'd like to join us, please RSVP via this link, and we will see you at 1pm AEDST on Wednesday 16th November.

🏃🏼‍♀️ 🦘 🐨 👏🏼

TAKE 3 COMMUNITY SUPPORTER

Taking 3 for the trail

For Wild Places are super excited to be an offical Take 3 community supporter! Many (hopefully all!) of you will have heard of the take 3 for the sea initative - the simple act of picking up 3 pieces of litter when you are at the beach. The simplicity of this ask has allowed it to grow into a worldwide phenonomon, and For Wild Places is excited to help spread this movement to the trails.

Not only do we want to stop littering along our trails, we want to educate people of all ages and from all backgrounds on how we can use less plastic in our everyday lives. Just over a week ago, Victoria banned single use plastic bags at the checkout, with an eyewatering $49,500 fine for individuals or retailers providing bags. NSW is now the only state or territory to not have a bag ban. In addition, Victoria is banning problematic single-use palstics from sale or supply from 1st February 2023. This includes plastic drinking straws, cutlery, plates, drink stirrers, cotton bud sticks and food service items made from expanded polystyrene.

Whilst it's great to see governments implemting these bans, as consumers we can accellerate this shift to reducing, reusing and repurposing. Recyling should be the final option, not the only option. Take 3 have some great resources on plastic facts, and an online learning program designed by teachers to educate kids about the problem with plastic.

We are super stoked to be joining the ranks of Take 3 as a Community Supporter, and are excited to help clean up our waterways, trails and parklands over the summer months. Stay tuned for more details on these events shortly!

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COLLECTIVE MEMBERSHIP

A new membership offering from FWP

In March this year, we brought you the FWP Individual Membership program. So far we have 62 awesome individuals who share and support our vision to protect wild places. We are now super excited to launch our FWP Collective Membership which will allow brands, businesses and organisastions to colloborate with FWP and help us create a sustainable not-for-profit organisation.

For FWP not only exist, but to grow, we need reliable funding. Grants are fantastic, however they usually fund short term, one-off projects. Collective Membership contributions will cover base costs so we can focus our efforts on creating and executing events and initiatives well into the future that protect wild places under threat. By becoming a member, your brand or business will be giving us the security and support we need to keep For Wild Places thriving for years to come.

We are stoked to have a few wonderful brands and businesses on board already. The people behind these brands share our vision to protect wild places, and have been champions of For Wild Places since the very beginning. We are extremley grateful to have Tarkine, Trail Brew, Fractel and Paddy Pallin join us as Collective Members. Some of these wonderful brands are 1% for the Planet members, which means that 1% of their sales goes back to the environment. For Wild Places is a proud and grateful 1%FTP recepient, and welcome the contributions from partners to support the work we do now and into the future.

If your business or workplace is a 1% for the Planet member, has a charter to donate or support environmental causes, or simply wants to help do good, we want to hear from you! Head to the Collective Membership website to learn more, and check out our Membership Info Pack. We encourage you to reach out and ask any questions you may have, or any suggestions as to how we can expand or improve our Collective Membership.

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And that's it for today, folks! Thank you for your onoing support and interest, and we hope you can join us at our next Trail Chat, or at one of our TRACTION events over summer.

Until next time, keep it stoked and plastic free out on the trails and as always, thank you for taking the time, for wild places. ✌🏽

Hilary & the For Wild Places team

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UPCOMING EVENTS

16/11 Trail Chat with Erchana Murray-Bartlett | register

20/11 Great Forest Trail Marathon, Healsville | register

11/02 Trail First Aid Course, Arthurs Seat | register

25/02 takyana Trail, Waratah, Tasmania | register



We acknowledge the the First Nations people who have been custodians of land, waters and culture for tens of thousands of years. We pay respects to First Nations Elders past, present and emerging.

This email was written on Wadawurrung Country, of the Kulin Nation. To these people, we pay our respects.

Always was, always will be.