TRAVEL COMMUNICATION UPDATES: Check out the latest Glacier Country Tourism information on communication response and resources.

Recreate Responsibly

Montana public and private stakeholders involved in tourism, land management and conservation have come together to create a Recreate Responsibly in Montana Initiative (RRMT). Organizations, businesses and agencies that most frequently interact with visitors across the state are working together to help visitors and residents alike be good stewards of Montana’s people, culture and land.

Our messaging has two audiences—consumers and Montana business partners. Consumer messaging builds upon standard Recreate Responsibly principles by explaining what those principles are and how to apply them. Partner messaging is encouraging businesses to join this initiative by integrating elements of the RRMT program into their business practices, marketing and interactions. For those who would like to become an official Recreate Responsibly Business Partner, we created an official business partner certification program.

The Montana Recreate Responsibly Business Partner program is for businesses that want to engage in this effort by committing to implementing messaging into their marketing, operations and customer engagements. Be sure to contact your local destination marketing organization, chamber of commerce or public land manager for information about what you can do at the community level.

The certification program includes a list of activities (some big, some small), and we ask that you do as many as you can, with a minimum of three activities to be considered certified. We trust our business partners, and the certification is based on the honor system.

Recreate Responsibly Business Partners will receive a decal that can be applied to a business window or vehicle. We encourage you to display it to spread awareness of the certification and distribute Recreate Responsibly marketing materials such as stickers, rack cards and flyers which you can either print in-house using the Montana Office of Business and Tourism toolkit or order materials our official partners have printed for distribution.

Recreate Responsibly Materials Order Free Materials

Here’s why you should get involved:

  1. To educate Montana’s visitors on key Recreate Responsibly principles, destination stewardship and to help preserve the public lands around us. Be a part of the solution! We all need to work together to educate our visitors (and locals, too).
  2. Front-line staff at local businesses frequently interact with visitors and will be key in disseminating these messages and marketing materials.
Recreate Responsibly Partner Sign Up

The stakeholders who have initiated this program have worked to create a variety of resources to make participation easy, effective and efficient. Most have joined the national #RecreateResponsibly movement that aspires for everyone to have a holistic outdoor experience by advancing all aspects of responsible recreation: keeping yourself, others and outdoor places safe; accessing outdoor benefits essential to the human experience; and building an outdoors for all through justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. To that end, they convene and connect a diverse network invested in advancing campaigns and resources focused on safe, accessible, inclusive, and responsible outdoor recreation.


Montana Office of Tourism Recreate Responsibly Toolkit

Montana Office of Tourism has developed a Recreate Responsibly Toolkit that includes customizable posters, flyers, social media posts, videos and media talking points available for all Montana businesses to access and use. They have also created Recreate Responsibly mini grants for lodging tax funded destination marketing organizations across Montana to integrate into their marketing and fulfilment programs.


To further enhance our ability to reach travelers and visitors, Glacier Country Tourism has also partnered with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics to support stewardship education efforts with tourism organizations, partners, businesses and consumers. Leave No Trace is the most widely used stewardship education program on public lands across Montana, reaching millions of people each year with effective education that has been shown to reduce recreation-related impacts. With Leave No Trace being a critical component of national Recreate Responsibly movement, our partnership further strengthens our commitment to responsible recreation education in Western Montana.  

Want to know more about how you can help? Watch this video on How Leave No Trace Can Help You Promote Responsible Recreation to Travelers and Visitors—presented by Andrew Leary, National Outreach Manager, Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.

Take action now by taking this online Leave No Trace awareness course "Take Action to Protect the Outdoors." This course takes about 45 minutes and will provide you with a better understanding of recreation-related impacts, the Seven Principles and how Leave No Trace skills and ethics can help protect the outdoor places we love. Feel free to link to this video from your online marketing tools, confirmation emails, enewsletters etc.

Leave No Trace Take the Course

Leave No Trace Resources


Additionally, Glacier Country Tourism partnered with Tread Lightly! whose messaging promotes responsible recreation ethics curated for specific motorized recreation sports. The mission of Tread Lightly! is to protect and enhance recreation access and opportunities for motorized recreationalist by promoting responsible outdoor motorized recreation through education on outdoor ethics and best practices.

Do your part by keeping trails clean and trash free, and educating yourself on ways to ride responsibly specific to your motorized activity by taking the free Tread Lightly! 101 Online Awareness Course. Feel free to link to this course from your online marketing tools, confirmation emails, enewsletters etc.

Tread Lightly 101 Take the Course

Tread Lightly! Resources

Glacier Country Tourism Resources

The staff at Glacier Country Tourism made me feel included from the first time I met them. Membership has provided me with great networking and educational opportunities that have positively benefitted my community and my business. I am very grateful for their expertise.

- Victoria Lee, Glacier Distilling Company