Advocates and western governors this month doubled down on a push to pass into law legislation aimed at improving outdoor recreation on federal lands.
The Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act — a package of more than a dozen policy measures known as the EXPLORE Act — passed the House in April on a voice vote. Wyoming’s Rep. Harriet Hageman supported it, according to her staff.
Earlier this month, outdoor recreation advocates orchestrated a targeted offensive on Capitol Hill to push support in the Senate.
“It’s such a consequential, meaningful piece of legislation,” said Outdoor Alliance CEO Mark Cramer. “It passed the House earlier this year, which was fantastic, and now it’s got to get through the Senate.”
The Western Governors’ Association, which includes Wyoming’s chief executive Mark Gordon, also penned a letter to Senate leadership endorsing the act.
“The West’s world-class outdoor recreation destinations draw increasing numbers of visitors each year,” the letter states. “However, those areas need support, infrastructure, and tools to manage increasing levels of recreation while maintaining these resources for the enjoyment of all, and for future generations. We urge the Senate to pass comprehensive outdoor recreation legislation to address these challenges.”
The renewed pushes come amid a flurry of reports and studies showing the growth and economic benefits of outdoor recreation activities. Wyoming has embraced the industry with an outdoor recreation trust fund, and in August announced $1.7 million in grants to 14 infrastructure projects in the state.
‘Crystal-clear message’
The act bundles together provisions that would create more long-distance bike trails, streamline permitting for guides and outfitters, and fund parks and green spaces. It would preserve the practice of installing permanent climbing anchors in the wilderness — an activity that has long divided recreation advocates and conservationists. It would also support destination gateway communities, like Cody or Jackson, by addressing housing shortages, parking and other infrastructure challenges.
The EXPLORE policy bundle was first introduced in 2023. The same year, U.S. Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) introduced America’s Outdoor Recreation Act, which aligns with many of the EXPLORE Act policies. Of the two, EXPLORE has progressed further by moving into the Senate.
Outdoor Alliance, a group dedicated to conserving public lands and protecting outdoor recreation activities, held nearly 80 meetings about the EXPLORE Act with lawmakers and staff on Capitol Hill earlier this month, said CEO Cramer.
The push was part of Outdoor Alliance’s 10-year celebration. The idea was to enhance the anniversary celebration by doing the type of advocacy and policy work that defines it, he said, and the EXPLORE Act was an obvious policy choice to pour energy into.
“If there’s an appetite, there’s a market for people to get outside and they want to come and spend money …. and if you invest in those [outdoor recreation] resources, make them more accessible, more alluring,” Cramer said, “then more people come and more benefit accrues to local economies, especially rural economies.”
The outdoor group’s advocates’ specific ask of lawmakers was to get the measure on the Senate’s docket for a vote, Cramer said.
“There’s a lot of interest and enthusiasm, but it’s like anything else, there is a limited amount of time for them to pass legislation,” he said. “The message was crystal clear that a lot of people, a lot of communities, a lot of constituencies want this. And I think that signal was received, and that gives me a lot of confidence that the Senate can figure it out.”
Managing growth
The Western Governors’ Association also expressed its support. Bills in the EXPLORE Act reflect many of the priorities within the group’s own recreation and tourism policy resolution, the governors noted in their letter.
That resolution underscores how spiking visitation and outdoor recreation since 2020 require maintenance to sustain. “Without the necessary visitor facility investment, infrastructure, staffing, and management planning, increased visitation can lead to overcrowding, damage to natural and cultural resources and tribal sacred places, and threaten tribal treaty rights,” it reads. “This diminishes visitor experience and jeopardizes the enjoyment for all, and for future generations, of these resources.”
Visitors walk past overflow parking at Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park as they make their way to the natural attraction June 20, 2021. (Angus M. Thuermer, Jr./WyoFile)
Though Wyoming land managers say the COVID pandemic prompted an anomalous acceleration, they still expect visitation growth to continue as participation in outdoor recreation activities mounts.
Yellowstone National Park hosted 3.5 million recreation visits through August, up 6% from 2023 and 3% behind the record year of 2021. Wyoming State Parks, meanwhile, tallied 5.3 million visitations in 2023, the second-highest annual visitation behind 2021.
Growth also comes with economic perks. In 2023, visitors to national parks in Wyoming spent $1.1 billion and supported 14,522 jobs in local communities, the National Park Service reported in early September. That spending had a cumulative benefit to the state economy of $1.4 billion.
Wyoming’s on board
Wyoming’s outdoor recreation economy increased to $2.02 billion, or 4.1% of the state’s GDP, in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The state created a trust fund in 2023 to allocate grants to outdoor recreation projects, and enacted a law in March that authorizes a governing board to allocate those infrastructure and access grants.
Wyoming’s Outdoor Recreation Office announced a slate of Outdoor Recreation Collaborative Grants in August. The grants were designed to support ideas emerging from a network of small collaboratives representing different Wyoming regions.
Among the grant winners:
$300,000 to the Park County Pedalers Inc. for the Outlaw Trails near Cody.
$100,000 to Sweetwater County Travel and Tourism for the Henry’s Fork Rock Art Trail.
$100,000 to Natrona County Travel and Tourism Council for the reopening of Hell’s Half Acre.
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