Yamaha’s Outdoor Access Initiative Surpasses $5 Million in Funding

Yamaha’s off-road vehicle portfolio includes motorcycles, UTVs, ATVs, and snowmobiles. It’s good for business when there’s land to use those rigs on, and when drivers understand best to use, tend, and improve that land. Yamaha created its Outdoor Access Initiative (OAI) in 2008 to support such land stewardship. With the close of the latest funding cycle this month, the OAI has now provided more than $5 million in conservation funding over the past 14 years to more than 400 projects across the country.

The funding in 2021 alone exceeded $600,000, a healthy jump over the $350,000 in support doled out in 2020. Recipients in 2021 included the Off-Road Business Association (ORBA); the Future School of Fort Smith, Arkansas; Three Rivers Land Trust in Salisbury, North Carolina; City of Caribou in Aroostook County, Maine; and the Lakeland ATV Club in Minocqua, Wisconsin.

The OAI helps large and small initiatives, not just the out-of-the-way stuff. The BlueRibbon Coalition received $11,740 in support in 2020 to develop a trail guide for visitors to Utah’s San Rafael Desert area. We touched on the BlueRibbon Coalition recently, it being heavily involved in the fight over UTV business regulation in Moab and for UTV access to streets of Moab.

Related: Yamaha Awards $115K in Q2 Through Outdoor Access Initiative

Said Steve Nessl, the marketing manager at Yamaha Motor Corp., “The surge in outdoor recreation is both gratifying and daunting. While we love to see families enjoying time spent outside, it amplifies the need to work together to preserve and protect the land so we can appreciate it today and in the future.”

If you’re part of a nonprofit or tax-exempt organization and would like to find out about getting a Yamaha OAI grant, the OAI accepts applications every quarter. Projects that protect, improve, expand, and maintain sustainable access to OHV areas will get the most attention, but that includes everything from making maps to creating staging areas and education programs, as well work on the trails. Check out the website, or for specific questions not answered there, call the OAI hotline at (877) OHV-TRAIL (877-648-8724) or email OHVAccess@Yamaha-Motor.com.

And for you folks who ride the dirt and the waves, Yamaha Marine has a division doing the same thing called Yamaha Rightwaters.