Everything We Accomplished at the End of 2024

Image: Jeremy Bishop

Toward the end of 2024, Outdoor Alliance and our partners saw a number of significant conservation and outdoor recreation efforts across the finish line, including disaster funding for public lands, the EXPLORE Act, and historic action to protect our coasts from offshore oil and gas drilling.

Before turning our attention to a new Congress and administration, we want to reflect on some of the bigger successes of the last year for outdoor recreation, conservation, and public lands.

EXPLORE Act

The EXPLORE Act passed through Congress and was signed into law at the end of 2024. The EXPLORE Act was the result of a decade of effort from Outdoor Alliance, the outdoor community, and other key partners. The final bill, which passed with bipartisan support through both the House and Senate, codifies the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership, the Federal Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation, will help create new long-distance bike trails, clarifies protections for rock climbing in Wilderness, and will improve how land management agencies manage and protect outdoor recreation experiences.

Disaster Supplemental Funding

Toward the end of 2024, Outdoor Alliance advocated for Congress to provide funding to help the National Park Service, Forest Service, and other federal public lands agencies recover from natural disasters over the past year. Fortunately, Congress stepped up and passed a funding bill that includes more than $100 billion for disaster relief,, including about $10 billion in additional funding for recovery for public lands and waters that Outdoor Alliance and partners specifically advocated for. Among other things, this critical funding will help restore outdoor recreation resources in the southern Appalachians and help in the region’s economic recovery following Hurricane Helene.

Two New California Monuments

President Biden announced he would designate two new national monuments in California, Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla National Monument. These designations protect nearly 850,000 acres of public lands, including areas sacred to Native American tribes. The two California monuments were the result of strong local organizing, including through our Outdoor Alliance California network.

Protecting Coastal Waters

In a historic action, President Biden also withdrew more than 625 million acres of U.S. waters from oil and gas leasing, including the entire U.S. East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, and additional portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska. Surfrider Foundation, an Outdoor Alliance member, was instrumental in advocating for these protections, which will safeguard coastal recreation opportunities and local economies along America’s coasts and shorelines.

Along with these victories, there were a few losses, including the finalization of the Stibnite Gold Project, a massive gold mine at the headwaters of Idaho’s South Fork Salmon River, which threatens clean water, local fisheries, and one of the finest big water multi-day whitewater trips in the lower 48.

If you haven’t already, drop a line to thank your elected officials for end of year wins, including passing the EXPLORE Act. Thank you notes are one of the most effective ways to signal to your lawmakers that you are keeping tabs on what they are doing, and can encourage them to prioritize more outdoor recreation and conservation policy in the year to come.