Advocacy and Government Affairs Services

Applying ample personal, academic, and professional experience in conjunction with applicable industry data, analysis, and strategic messaging on the back of voluminous client support to effect positive change.

To learn more about Forrest and how his passion and personal experiences tie into Outdoor Recreation advocacy and government affairs work, scroll through the pictures and click on the links.   

        Conatus Counsel and Forrest Merithew strive to raise the Outdoor Recreation (OREC) Industry so that all its segments and sectors have more recognition as to the valuable benefits they provide and to create lasting improvement across the board as to its sustainable economics and overall future.  His background living and recreating in both rural and urban environments around the country, traveling and recreating in over 40 states and internationally, and dedicated industry involvement through attendance of conferences and other work puts him in a unique position to foster and maximize connections with industry stakeholders throughout the country.  Forrest has discovered that his personal and practical experience in OREC activities, goods, services, and infrastructure, is extremely valuable to his many OREC Clients.  He believes that same intimate familiarity with many activities and all sectors of the OREC Industry also puts him in a similarly advantageous position to understand and help the Industry as a whole.  The multitude of practical experiences and connections allow Forrest to know, understand, and utilize the user passion and technologically advanced products that make the OREC Industry so great and unique in ways to provide and create more support for Industry causes, growth, sustainability, and wealth. 

        Through the last 10 plus years of running Conatus Counsel, Forrest has worked with and represented over a 100 OREC brands and companies.  This representation covers all sectors of the OREC Industry, including, but not limited to bike and e-bike, snowsports, hiking, paddlesports, camping and RVing, lifestyle vehicles and aftermarket parts, climbing and slacklining, offroad and 4x4, fishing and hunting, clothing and apparel, food and beverage, lifestyle, multimedia and film, Industry specific business service providers, and advocacy and stewardship NGOs, and recreation infrastructure itself. 

        Forrest believes that the strongest advocacy is backed by data and that strategic messaging that shares such data and the underlying objectives is key for successful adoption, implementation, and results.  He is educated in the areas specific to this work through his undergraduate studies in political science, economics, anthropology, history, wildlife biology, natural resources, and environmental studies resulting in a dual political science and environmental studies degree from Tulane University.  Then taking courses in administrative, regulatory, environmental, and business law, in addition to the core coursework, in law school.  Forrest’s academic studies and focuses prepared him for success not only in day-to-day business, but also to understand the bigger picture, including challenges, and brainstorm and advocate for solutions, whether that be government affairs and policy work, trade association development and growth, strategy, and implementation, or other NGO or commercial support.

        Forrest has also regularly provided volunteer and other pro bono efforts and commitment in support of things that support the OREC Industry.  This includes, previously serving on Asheville, NC’s Parks and Recreation and Greenway Advisory Boards, helping put on the Mountain Sports Festival (think small southeast GoPro Games), been an administrative resource for the Outdoor Business Alliance of WNC F/K/A Outdoor Gear Builders of WNC, spoken on panels at Outdoor Retailer and other OREC focused events and topics, and been an advisor and mentor for OREC Incubators.  Since being on a panel about strategic contracting at Venture Out in Outdoor Retailer in 2013, Forrest has regularly attended that and other national and regional OREC tradeshows, including Overland Expo, and a wide variety of applicable conferences (SHIFT, Mountain Ventures Summit, Outdoor Economy Conference, COILSx, and Outside Summit) all focused on bigger picture coordinated data collection and sharing, problem solving, and solution creation to improve the Industry. 

        Forrest has previously come up with and been involved in unique strategies to create bipartisanship support for OREC supportive rule making and funding causes while lobbying in Washington DC, and have researched and written published Op-eds and many LinkedIn posts specifically focused on growing and supporting the recreation Industry, from supporting new funding to advances in rule making that will assist funding and infrastructure to other targeted and strategic messaging using a combination policy, data, and market justification.  Forrest has been a business member and involved on steering committees for strategic advocacy and implementation with 1% for the Planet and Colorado Outdoor Business Alliance.  Forrest continues to spend and dedicate his own time and energies researching data, creating messaging, and expanding his network across all facets of the OREC Industry and infrastructure.  All of this not only shows Forrest’s passion and commitment to the Industry, and to many of the underlying the causes, but also his foresight and strategic involvement as to the many issues involved.

        Forrest originally created Conatus Counsel because he saw an important need in the OREC Industry for a trusted resource that could provide strategic cost-effective assistance where margins are tight and passion is the fuel (not only for the brands themselves, but the users and consumers as well).  Now is the time to take Conatus Counsel and the OREC Industry to the next step and effect lasting change to better it for all, not just users, but communities and society as a whole.  His experiences and engagement stories and other common experiences to connect and share with folks from around the country improving the efficacy of such connections and work.

         Forrest knows that there is good data, and more coming, that can be used to show the true value of OREC for all aspects of society, from individuals to proximate communities, and then important impacts on economics and related development, health and safety, the environment, including clean water and air, and much more.  His goal is to work with OREC business, trade associations, and government leaders to find, create, and secure opportunities that will improve the Industry’s opportunities across the board to improve its margins and create a sustainable economic ROI loop and ecosystem.  Forrest looks forward to opportunities, from grant writing to strategy sessions, from board positions to roles pursuing and developing funding, membership, and strategic relationships that will provide returns for all involved.  The users, values, and benefits as to and from OREC Infrastructure and Activities do not follow geographic or political lines but are realized across the country and our diverse population.  He believes that because of that, OREC advocacy and government affairs is special in that it is truly bipartisan and can improve the lives of all.

To learn more about Forrest and how his passion and personal experiences tie into Outdoor Recreation advocacy and government affairs work, scroll through the pictures and click on the links.