Ten Years of Conservation Powered by Outdoor Recreation!

2024 is Outdoor Alliance’s ten year anniversary!

Over the last ten years, outdoor recreation has grown into one of the most powerful forces in conservation. Outdoor recreationists are deeply connected to the places they love, and that connection fuels our conservation efforts. This passion has empowered a new generation of advocates to get civically engaged and to move the needle on conservation efforts.

And lawmakers are listening! Over the last ten years, we have notched historic bipartisan conservation wins, including the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, which protected more than 14 million acres after passing by a vote of 92-8; the Great American Outdoors Act, which secured $1.9 billion for public lands and waters, including specific additional funding for the Forest Service and BLM to address deferred maintenance; and co-founding the Recreate Responsibly campaign which reached billions of impressions within its first year of sharing guidelines for safe and sustainable outdoor access. Outdoor Alliance has also defended public lands, protected Slickrock, helped pass a monumental climate package, protect special places across the country, and built a distinctive voice to represent the outdoor community.

Today, Outdoor Alliance is releasing a special ten-year anniversary annual report, which looks back at the last ten years of conservation powered by outdoor recreation. It explores not just some of the biggest wins of the last decade, but how we got there.

In the last decade, the outdoor community has activated a shift in the conservation movement, where the motivation to protect land, water, and climate grows out of our connection to place where people and their experiences are part of how and why we protect landscapes. Our efforts have resulted in land managers recognizing that outdoor recreation is one of the primary ways Americans come to know their public lands and develop a stewardship ethic. In response, we have catalyzed a shift in the agencies protecting more places for their recreation values—rather than for extraction or for environmental reasons alone. Our campaign to protect public lands from transfer or sell off put the idea of “public lands” on the map for a generation, and has led to tens of thousands of new advocates better understanding outdoor advocacy and public land policy. We have united the outdoor recreation and outdoor business community through our Protecting America’s Outdoors effort, which has supported major conservation efforts that benefit people, planet, and outdoor businesses.

From our roots as a scrappy collective of whitewater paddlers, mountain bikers, hikers, climbers, and backcountry skiers, we have developed a powerful voice and presence in D.C. We’ve visited the White House; testified in front of Congress; had hundreds and hundreds of meetings on the Hill to advocate for conservation; met with leadership at the Forest Service, Park Service, and BLM; and motivated many more outdoor enthusiasts to get in the advocacy game. Our collective voices have made a true difference in protecting places, passing great policy, and expanding sustainable access to the outdoors over the last ten years.

With so much at stake in the coming years, from climate change to growing demand for green space, we are just getting started. Join us for the next ten years of conservation powered by outdoor recreation.