fly fishing, conservation and politics.
Each week, I have the pleasure of joining Mountain Journal founder Todd Wilkinson in our “The Week That Is,” column where we discuss topical events relating to the nation’s capital city and the public land West.
This week’s conversation looks at the impacts outdoor recreation on the character of the backcountry. We need to ask ourselves some important questions.
Read it here > What Toll On Wildness When Humans Want It All?
“All politics is local,” Tip O’Neill once said. So when the Outdoor Industry Association released its 50 state report on the outdoor recreation economy I quickly downloaded the numbers for Virginia.
According to the OIA, Virginia outdoor recreation generates:
• $13.6 billion in direct consumer spending,
• $ 3.9 billion in wages and salaries,
• $ 923 million in state and local tax revenue, and
• accounts for 138,000 direct jobs.
If you spend time in Virginia’s great outdoors, whether it is hiking, biking, camping, canoeing, hunting or fishing you know that many, if not most of the places where you do those things are public lands. Unfortunately recognition of this economic driver by the Commonwealth’s elected officials, at any level is few and far between.
If you like to play outdoors then you just might ask those same elected officials what they are doing to help this important segment of our local economy.
Give them the facts; let them know our public lands provide the venues for many recreational activities that in turn power that economic engine.
Make them tell you why other, more consumptive and less sustainable uses should take precedence over recreation.
You can see what outdoor recreation means to your state’s economy and download the report on OIA’s Outdoor Recreation Economy page.
The outdoor recreation economy is an economic powerhouse, now it needs to be a political powerhouse!
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Field and Stream and Angling Trade are all talking about a recently released report with important information about the positive impact conservation, outdoor recreation, and historic preservation has on the national economy. Take a look at these stories and download the report here.
From TRCP’s Sportsmen-conservationists help provide $1 trillion boost to economy:
“A new study finds that growing the U.S. economy is as easy as fishing your favorite stream or heading out for a hunt. According to the economic study, the great outdoors and historic preservation generate a conservative estimate of more than $1 trillion in total economic activity and support 9.4 million jobs each year.”
From The Conservation blog on Field & Stream, The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership And The $1 Trillion Question:
“I hope people will take the time to actually read and ponder what is revealed here. So much of it, if we think about it, is common sense– we all know (or are) someone who owns or works in an outdoor store, or as a guide or outfitter, or who has recently bought a boat or upgraded fishing tackle or guns. The money is there, it’s moving through the economy, and it is dependent on having healthy and protected lands and waters to use that tackle or shoot those guns (imagine the miniscule percentage of the economy in France, or China that is generated from hunting and fishing- then look at the US figures in the linked study).”
From Angling Trade, New Study Underscores the Economic Value of Outdoor Resources and Recreation:
“But the truth is that the outdoors is an important economic driver– a uniquely American economic driver that cannot be outsourced to China or India. In a time when the debate revolves around “jobs, jobs, jobs” it’s important to understand that millions of American jobs revolve around wild places, the equipment that people use in the outdoors, the travel they do to experience the outdoors, and the things they read to help them get the most out of that experience. In other words, jobs like yours and mine hang in the balance.”
Tom Wharton of the The Salt Lake Tribune recently asked, “When was the last time a Utah politician has done anything to help the state’s tourism and outdoor recreation industry?”
Readers know that I am a strong subscriber to the habitat = opportunity = economic activity equation (didn’t know that? click here). The outdoor recreation economy is a bright light in these troubled economic times not just in Utah but across the country, yet as Wharton aptly notes:
“It almost seems as though the money generated by tourism and outdoor recreation doesn’t matter or that our politicians view the jobs these industries create as not worthy of support. This attitude could have a negative impact on our state economy.”
Wharton points to figures from the Utah Tourism Industry Coalition that show tourism is a $6.23 billion industry in Utah which created 110,000 jobs and reduced, yup you read that correctly, reduced taxes for Utah household by $703.
According to the Outdoor Industry Foundation, outdoor activities like fishing, paddling, camping, hunting, climbing, hiking, backcountry skiing, mountain biking, and wildlife viewing contribute a total of $730 billion annually to the economy, supporting 6.5 million jobs (1 of every 20 jobs in the U.S.) and stimulating 8% of all consumer spending.
Outdoor recreation creates sustainable jobs and long term societal benefits for our nation, yet our elected officials seem tone deaf to this economic reality.
Check out Wharton’s column (click here).