Background The U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)’s 2022 Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account showed the most significant economic impact in the account’s history, demonstrating outdoor recreation’s powerful, positive economic impact on the U.S. economy. These new figures reveal that outdoor recreation generates $1.1 trillion in annual economic output (2.2% of GDP) and 4.98 million jobs comprising 3.2% of U.S. employees. Outdoor recreation is a growing and diverse economic super sector that is a vital cornerstone of thriving communities. Yet many rural communities lack the capacity and resources needed to support and benefit from the recreation economy. In response to these trends, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) identified the outdoor economy as an emerging and priority area of national need in 2017. It published the Recreation Economy Resource Guide to link resources and capacity-building activities across component agencies. Using the recommendations in the resource guide, the Monongahela National Forest (MNF), in partnership with West Virginia University Extension and USDA Rural Development, in 2017 began engaging stakeholders in ten gateway communities to create a shared recreation vision for the region surrounding the MNF. The resulting Mon Forest Towns Partnership cultivated relationships across agencies and among stakeholders in forest gateway communities. Developing these relationships, and the subsequent planning, research, and capacity-building activities, has enhanced the economy and quality of life for residents and visitors, resulting in over $8 million in additional federal, state, and private funding leveraged to support the recreation economy in the region to date. In January 2023, the USDA released an MOU on supporting the nation’s outdoor recreation economy seeking to coordinate activities to support the economies of communities adjacent to National Forests and Grasslands, and the sustainable development of the recreation economy nationwide. USDA Forest Service, Rural Development, and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) seek to build on their collaboration and coordination to support the economy of gateway communities.
In response to the MOU, the National Extension Outdoor Recreation Working Group (NEORWG) was formed in February 2023 (NEORWG is hosted by the National Extension Tourism Network, in partnership with the Regional Rural Development Centers) to take the pulse of Extension and its role in outdoor recreation. While the MOU states that the Cooperative Extension Service has broad educational, research and technical assistance resources that can help with planning associated with the recreational economy to enhance the local recreation economy, the sentiment from the participants in NEORWG is that while Extension is increasingly being called upon to engage in tourism and outdoor recreation, the sector remains an underserved component of Extension work nationally, primarily due to a lack of capacity to fully engage.
Land-Grant University Capacity to Support Recreation Economies in National Forest Gateway Communities
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