Remembering Adena Cook, A Champion For Snowmobiling

The snowmobiling and off-road recreation communities lost a giant Thursday, April 5, when Adena Cook passed away. She was 71.

Adena Cook

Cook is best known in snowmobiling and off-roading for her many years of service with the BlueRibbon Coalition, a powerful land access organization. According to the BlueRibbon website, she was among a group that aided organization founder Clark Collins in turning the Idaho Public Land User’s Association into the nationally-focused Blue Ribbon Coalition in 1987, and she joined the organization full-time in 1989 as Public Lands Director, a position she held until her retirement in 2002. Even post retirement, however, she has stayed involved as an advisor.

Also in 2002, she was inducted into the Snowmobile Hall Of Fame for her tireless efforts defending access. Her induction paperwork included this passage:

“Although Adena’s responsibilities required a national perspective, she brought her experience to bear countless times across the country to deal with local land access problems. In all these efforts, Cook was known for always seeking to improve opportunity for recreationists through close cooperation with other land users. Her efforts to improve local and national land managers’ perceptions of motorized recreation were very effective, but Cook never flinched from demanding fair treatment and demonstrating political clout when it was necessary.”

For more on Adena Cook, visit the websites of the BlueRibbon Coalition – including quotes about Adena from leaders in the BRC — and click here to see her Snowmobile Hall Of Fame details.

 

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