Outdoor Alliance Testifies in Front of Congress About the Value of Outdoor Recreation on BLM Lands
On Wednesday, Outdoor Alliance’s CEO, Adam Cramer, testified in front of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on behalf of hikers, paddlers, mountain bikers, skiers, climbers, and the millions of Americans who enjoy human-powered outdoor recreation on our public lands. The hearing focused on planning for multiple-use on BLM land, under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA).
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages 245 million acres of public land, which are home to more than 23,000 climbing routes, 10,422 miles of mountain biking, and 2,379 miles of whitewater paddling. These lands are a cornerstone of the outdoor recreation economy, and they support local economies across the country.
In his testimony, Adam Cramer shared, “Cumulatively, these resources are the literal infrastructure of the outdoor recreation economy, which supports nearly $1.2 trillion in gross economic output, 5 million American jobs, and 2.3 percent of our country’s GDP according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Outdoor recreation helps support vibrant, diversified local economies, particularly in public lands communities, and it helps attract workers and businesses across a range of industries because of the quality-of-life benefits it brings to local communities.”
BLM resource management plans lay out:
What lands are opened or closed for energy, mining, grazing, and recreation;
Conditions and stipulations for development activities; and
Special designations, like ACECs, Special Recreation Management Areas, recreation route systems and focus areas, rights-of-way, and energy zones.
Currently, approximately 134 of BLM’s 169 resource management plans (RMPs) are out of date. In addition, recent efforts to use the Congressional Review Act to rescind resource management plans are incredibly harmful. These efforts wipe away years of stakeholder engagement in plan development, making communities less likely to participate and provide the information these plans truly depend on.
“Successfully managing our public lands—to speed permitting efforts, and also to protect and improve recreation opportunities—requires up-to-date and modern management plans. Moving forward, I would ask the Committee to support BLM in investing in the future of resource management planning to make these efforts participatory and successful,” said Adam Cramer, CEO of Outdoor Alliance.
While outdoor recreation may be the most economically and socially important use of our country’s public lands, it is not the only use, and BLM has a complicated job to implement its multiple-use, sustained-yield mandate. Increasingly, Americans expect public lands to be managed for outdoor recreation. Rising participation in recreation, an expanding economic footprint, and public opinion all reflect the growing importance of outdoor recreation as a use of public lands.
One recent effort to modernize planning at the BLM is the Public Lands Rule, which helps to develop better information on landscape health to support sound and sustainable management decisions. The outdoor community overwhelmingly supports the Rule despite recent efforts to rescind it. Learn more about the rule, and ask your members of Congress to support it by filling out the form below.