The Next Big Public Lands and Recreation Package

Washington’s Olympics. Photo credit: Jachan Devol

The outdoor community has been building momentum for a package of public lands protections and improved outdoor recreation policy. This package brings together long-standing efforts to protect important places from the imminent threats of mining and other development, with a vetted package of recreation policy that will improve how we protect and manage outdoor recreation on public lands.

 Public lands are home to some of the most popular and accessible outdoor recreation opportunities in the country. Along with moving a package of recreation policy, Congress is also considering 15 landscape protection bills that would conserve 5.1 million acres of public lands and 6,000 miles of rivers across 8 states, permanently protecting some of the country’s most incredible trails, peaks, crags, and rivers for everyone to enjoy and conserving wild lands and waters that have abundant climate, wildlife, conservation, and economic benefits.

A 2022 public lands and recreation package could provide permanent protection for fifteen landscapes across the country, ranging from California’s coastal redwood forests to Colorado’s 14ers to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters to beloved trails and rivers in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge.

These proposed landscape protections are the result of years of work from the outdoor community, and Outdoor Alliance and our coalition partners have been deeply involved in the creation, vetting, and mapping to ensure these protected landscapes will continue to provide access to outstanding outdoor recreation and preserve the conservation values and wild landscapes that make these places special. Protecting more public lands and waters is also a key strategy to mitigate the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. Conserving intact landscapes will help to address these issues while also preserving recreation access.

You can learn more about the proposed protections by reading our policy team’s full letter of support for the package here or exploring the maps and more about the landscapes here. The package could include protections for:

  • Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation, and Working Forests Act

  • Central Coast Heritage Protection Act

  • San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act

  • Rim of the Valley Corridor Preservation Act

  • Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act

  • Colorado Wilderness Act

  • Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act

  • Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers

  • Grand Canyon Protection Act

  • Smith River National Recreation Area Expansion Act

  • Oregon Recreation Enhancement Act

  • River Democracy Act

  • Bonneville Shoreline Trail Advancement Act

  • Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act

  • Mt Hood and Columbia River Gorge Recreation Enhancement and Conservation Act

Congress has a recent history of passing a number of year-end lands packages to protect important places, including the recent John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act, which permanently protected more than two million acres of iconic public lands and rivers. These packages pass because of enthusiastic and ongoing support from the outdoor community. YOU can make more protections possible by writing your members of Congress today, and we’ve made it easy:

Action Alert, NewsTania Lown-Hechtpublic lands package, AORAComment