Six Ways Outdoor Recreation Can Be a Part of Economic Recovery

During these really stressful days, a profound source of comfort for a lot of people has been the opportunity to get outside to local, state, and federal public lands, and all states with shelter-in-place orders recognize outdoor exercise as essential activity. At the same time, it’s clear that far too few of us have access to recreational opportunities and green space near home, especially in cities. In a lot of ways, this crisis has been a reminder both of how important it is to be outside and of how limited access is for way too many people. As our country tries to work its way through this crisis, addressing this is a necessity, but also an opportunity. Developing recreation infrastructure (alongside other work on public lands, like environmental restoration) is an opportunity to put people to work, and also an opportunity to invest in resources—like trail systems and river access points—that will benefit the quality of life and economy of communities across the country for years to come.

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While the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, policymakers in D.C. are beginning to consider what long-term stimulus measures will help the economy recover. Outdoor recreation is a significant part of the GDP in the U.S., and access to the outdoors provides innumerable benefits to Americans.

This week, Outdoor Alliance and our partners at the Outdoor Industry Association and The Conservation Alliance sent a letter to Congressional leadership outlining six ideas for how to invest in the outdoors as a way to create jobs, restart the economy, and create long-lasting green and recreation infrastructure for all Americans. You can read our full letter to Congress by clicking on the letter at right.

As our country works to weather, and then recover from, this pandemic, we can address the urgent need and valuable opportunity to create greater and more equitable access to the outdoors. The six ideas we outline in our letter to Congress are:

Pass S.3422, the Great American Outdoors Act. The Great American Outdoors Act will provide permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and begin to address the maintenance backlog on National Parks, National Forests, BLM, and other public lands. The legislation is thoroughly vetted, enjoys tremendous bipartisan support, and would provide immediate benefits by putting Americans to work addressing urgent maintenance needs and developing equitably distributed, close-to-home recreational opportunities from local parks to trails systems and beyond.
Invest in coordinated conservation corps efforts to rebuild outdoor infrastructure. A program could be modeled as a modern version of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that would build out green and recreation infrastructure where it’s needed most.
Pass the Recreation Not Red-Tape Act to improve close-to-home recreation and assist outfitters and guides. Recreation Not Red-Tape will help reduce obstacles to getting people into the outdoors and improve the special use permitting process for facilitated access. It will also help land managers identify and develop a system of National Recreation Areas to build greater access to close-to-home recreation.
Increase funding for programs that support outdoor recreation. Congress must provide greater funding to the Park Service, Forest Service, and other land management agencies to accommodate the demand for outdoor recreation, especially from new participants.
Provide funding to states, counties, and municipalities for parks and recreation. Congress should provide funding to state and local governments to ensure access to parks isn’t impaired by economic hardship to state budgets.
Protect public engagement and environmental values to align stimulus measures with climate protections. We’re not the only ones with ideas about how to put people to work, and we’re concerned that the fossil fuel industry and the like are keen to use this crisis to shortcut public participation and environmental review. Protecting NEPA and aligning government investment with climate and environmental goals is key.

Public lands and waters can play an important role in the physical, mental, and economic health of individuals and communities. As your elected officials look for opportunities to rebuild the economy, you can help make sure they make investments in outdoor recreation and the environment a priority.

We’ve made it easy to send a note to your congresscritters encouraging them to build recreation infrastructure into long-term stimulus measures. Use the tool below to send a note today: