The 10 biggest human-powered conservation wins of the last 10 years
Over the last ten years, the outdoor community has evolved from a consistent but not always organized voice for conservation to one of the driving forces behind some of the country’s biggest conservation wins. Outdoor recreation is popular among Americans of all stripes, and it is one of the primary ways Americans come to know their public lands and waters and develop a stewardship ethic. This connection to place is fuel for advocacy, and in the last decade, it has become more coordinated and become a much bigger influence over federal policy for public lands and waters.
This week, Outdoor Alliance is gathering nearly 75 outdoor recreation advocates to advocate in Washington, D.C. for more land protections, better funding for the outdoors, and for the swift passage of the EXPLORE Act, which is landmark outdoor recreation legislation. This historic recreation package is ten years in the making, and if it passes, it will be another significant victory from the outdoor community. Over the past ten years, the outdoor community has notched some big conservation wins—here are ten of the most significant.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has been a marquee issues for the outdoor recreation community. LWCF, a grant program that creates parks, public lands, and green spaces across every state in America using funds reinvested from offshore oil and gas drilling, has been called “America’s best conservation program.” The outdoor recreation community was pivotal in reauthorizing LWCF when it expired in 2015, and then again when it was permanently reauthorized in 2019. In 2020, the outdoor recreation community helped ensure that LWCF would also have full and permanent funding.
John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (Public Lands Package)
In 2019, the outdoor recreation community helped conceive and pass a historic public lands package. The John D. Dingell Act was the largest conservation bill of the last decade, and included more than 14 million acres of total land protection and 1.3 million acres of Wilderness.
Saving Slickrock and Securing Oil & Gas Reforms
The iconic Slickrock trail and Sand Flats Recreation Area, along with 85,000 acres of land outside Moab, Utah were threatened by a proposed oil and gas lease. Outdoor Alliance, along with local partners, advocated to the BLM, which removed the parcels from a lease sale, citing recreation conflicts and public concerns. Beyond Slickrock, Outdoor Alliance has successfully advocated for oil and gas leasing reform, so that other conflicts, like Slickrock, do not threaten public lands and outdoor recreation.
Defending National Monuments—Protecting Bears Ears
National monuments are home to abundant climbing, hiking, backcountry recreation, camping, mountain biking, paddling, and more. The outdoor community has been a key voice in support of monuments, and in defending them when President Trump proposed rescinding protections on up to 27 national monuments, and ultimately—whether legally or not—rescinded protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. The outdoor community, and climbing community in particular, rallied to protect national monuments, including Bears Ears in Utah, which was first designated as a monument by President Obama in 2016. During the proposed rollbacks, Access Fund and other climbing organizations rallied behind tribes to sue the President for shrinking the monument. The outdoor community was then instrumental in restoring Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in 2021.
The Great American Outdoors Act was passed in 2020 to provide billions of dollars in funding for trails, parks, and public lands and waters across the country. It includes permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and funding for the maintenance backlog on National Parks, National Forest, and other public lands. In total, the bill means as much as $2.8 billion a year on public lands, outdoor recreation, maintenance and restoration, and new green spaces. This victory was the result of years of work from the outdoor community, the conservation community, and hundreds of other partners
In 2020, Outdoor Alliance and REI Co-op co-founded the Recreate Responsibly campaign, which brought together thousands of partners to share resources for how to get outside while caring for places and people. Originally born out of a need to protect public health and outdoor spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, the campaign has evolved to include all aspects of responsible recreation and shared stewardship and has reached more than 5 billion impressions.
Climate change is having profound effects on the natural world, including on outdoor recreation activities. The outdoor recreation community has been a vocal advocate for climate action and was one of the early supporters for 30x30, the goal of protecting 30% of our land and water by 2030. Outdoor recreationists also rallied for a comprehensive climate funding package, which passed in 2022 as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) after outreach from outdoor recreation leaders in West Virginia helped secure the crucial support of Senator Manchin. The IRA included $369 billion in climate provisions, and independent analysis estimated that it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 44%.
The Roadless Rule was established in 2001 after enormous public outreach and is a popular conservation tool that protects many of our most valued backcountry recreation areas. Over the years, the Roadless Rule has come under threat in Colorado, Alaska, and Utah. The outdoor community has rallied to defend the rule, successfully in all cases, and was even able to expand protections under the Roadless Rule by 1.5 million acres in Colorado. The Roadless Rule is important not just for backcountry recreation, but also for clean air, clean water, and climate.
Putting “Public Lands” on the Map
In 2015, a growing movement among state governments attempted to seize control and potentially sell off federal public lands and waters. These efforts united the outdoor community in opposition and started a movement to protect public lands that put the very concept of “public lands” on the map for millions of Americans who get outside each year. A petition to protect public lands had more than 100 close partners and 100,000 signatures. Over subsequent years, the advocacy of the outdoor community knocked down a number of more egregious efforts to seize or sell off public lands and has created a broader understanding among Americans about what public lands mean.
Building a Distinctive Voice for the Outdoor Community
Perhaps the most important conservation win is that the outdoor community is now one of the most distinctive, coordinated, and effective voices for conservation. Land managers, lawmakers, and the administration actively seek out the counsel and approval of recreationists as they build land conservation and recreation policy proposals. In large part, this is thanks to the increasing organization and coordination of the recreation community. Ten years ago, climbers, mountain bikers, surfers, and skiers coordinated only lightly on shared priorities. Today, ten of the largest outdoor recreation advocacy groups in the country are united, sharing consensus positions on hundreds of policy ideas. Outdoor recreation groups and outdoor businesses are also now formally united as Protecting America’s Outdoors and sharing consensus positions with Congress, the administration, and land managers to support conservation. It is this coordination that has enabled many of the biggest wins of the last decade.
Join us for another ten years of conservation powered by outdoor recreation.