Photo credit: Alex Moliski, Olympic Peninsula

Over the last fifteen years, outdoor recreation visits have steadily increased on America’s public lands. Over the same time period, real funding for recreation has decreased at land management agencies like the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

This month, Outdoor Alliance and 34 outdoor recreation organizations and businesses joined together to ask Congress to fully fund outdoor recreation budgets at the Forest Service and Park Service. You can read our letter to lawmakers here, where we request $100 million for BLM’s Recreation Resources Management and $70 million for USFS Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness (the agencies’ core recreation accounts).

Persistent funding shortfalls affect outdoor recreation experiences and degrade our public lands and waters. Without adequate funding, public lands see greater maintenance issues, trail erosion, trash, and parking problems. Funding shortages even make it more difficult for volunteer groups to work on trail maintenance and other stewardship activities because of a lack of capacity at the agencies. Adequate funding is important for maintaining sustainable, equitable, and enjoyable recreation experiences.

Outdoor recreation is a significant economic driver, and a lack of adequate funding threatens the outdoor economy as well as our outdoor experiences. Nationally, outdoor recreation contributed $1.1 trillion to America’s economy in 2022, accounting for 2.2% of GDP (source). Investments in public lands and outdoor recreation see a huge return. Recreation on BLM lands contributed $11.1 billion to the economy and 73,000 jobs in 2022 while spending by visitors to national forests and grasslands contributes about $13.7 billion to the US economy and sustains about 161,000 full-and part-time jobs (source, source).

Investing in outdoor recreation programs at the BLM and the Forest Service will maintain this economic growth and provide a return to taxpayers.

In the past decade, public lands have benefitted from historic investments, including the Great American Outdoors Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Both the BLM and the Forest Service are putting these funds to good use through a wide range of projects, including deferred maintenance. While these funds are significant, they cannot be a substitute for regular appropriations. If Congress invests in recreation programs at both the BLM and the Forest Service, it will ensure that funding is quickly put into action to benefit the American public.

We’ve written before that adequate funding is one of the biggest obstacles to protecting public land, and it’s a problem that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. The process of appropriations is both complex and incredibly important, and voters have a key role to play in asking lawmakers to fully fund the budget items they care about. We have made it easy to ask your lawmakers to fund recreation on our public lands and waters:

Protect Public Lands with Proper Funding