Yamaha Motor Corp., USA marked the 14th anniversary of the Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative (OAI) with an employee volunteer event in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in Georgia, helping The Great Outdoors Fund fulfill its OAI grant project on the Oakey Mountain Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) trail system. In a fitting celebration of the OAI program awarding more than $5 million in grant funding to date, a contingent of employees and volunteers joined the effort north of Yamaha’s motorsports headquarters and factory in Georgia to clean up and restore an area decommissioned to public motorized access.
“It’s immensely gratifying to help communities and improve rider access across the nation through Yamaha’s Outdoor Access Initiative, especially when seeing a consistently positive outcome after the program’s 14 years of dedication and determination,” said Mike Martinez, president of Motorsports at Yamaha, who led the company’s attendance at the event on April 30, 2022. “When grant recipients are local and our employees can provide hands-on assistance, like on the Oakey Mountain trail in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, it only further reinforces the vital need to keep our nation’s public lands open for all to enjoy through the Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative.”
The 2022 Yamaha OAI program is underway and riding clubs, land stewardship associations and public land managers are encouraged to work together with Yamaha dealers to identify projects and apply for support.
“With the demand for these spaces being at an all-time high, the resources and energy required to protect, maintain and improve access to public land has never been greater,” said Steve Nessl, Yamaha’s Motorsports marketing manager. “Therefore, we strive to make it an easy process to receive the necessary assets through the Yamaha OAI program to fulfill projects and keep trails open; from our perspective, the sooner we get the funds working on the ground, the quicker the impact on what matters most.”
To help those thinking about applying for a grant, the Yamaha OAI has answered the most popular questions about the program at YamahaOAI.com and offers recaps of some typical projects as inspiration.
The first quarter grants for 2022 have been awarded to five applicants, including:
- FireFrost ATV Club, Halstad, Minnesota
- Friends of the Flathead Avalanche Center, Whitefish, Montana
- San Juan Mountains Association, Durango, Colorado
- Turin Ridge Riders, Constable, New York.
The Southern California Mountain Foundation also received a grant in the first quarter of 2022, extending a decade-long partnership that historically includes frequent Yamaha employee volunteer events on the San Bernardino National Forest, providing hands-on support for trail clearing, erosion control and facilities improvements in one of the country’s most popular areas for outdoor and motorized recreation.
The application deadline for consideration in the second quarter of the 2022 funding cycle is June 30, 2022. Submission guidelines and an application for a Yamaha OAI grant are available at YamahaOAI.com.
