And Massachusetts makes 18: the Bay State joins the outdoor recreation movement
PRINCETON, MASSACHUSETTS — On a balmy December afternoon at Wachusett Mountain, there are two runs open that I can see from the base. Maybe three. The thermometer reads 46 degrees, but it feels warmer. And while it’s not quite flip flop weather, it’s not exactly triggering my skier brain either.
That said, I am clearly outnumbered.
Outside the lodge are packs of teenagers booting up, a couple different groups of grownups and tiny kids are adjusting their layers, and there's way more winter enthusiasm than I could’ve predicted.
And inside, there is a positive energy of a different kind, as more than a hundred people were gathering for the day’s big reveal: that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was creating an Office of Outdoor Recreation.
For a press conference devoted to a new strategic effort around outdoor recreation, the base area of a New England ski area in early winter provides a pretty poignant backdrop. On one hand, it’s easy to see the power of outdoor recreation's perpetual allure: even a thousand foot mountain with imperfect conditions can still pack ‘em in. Yet on the other, it's just as clear that a local economic driver based on yesterday’s climate may need a helping hand adjusting to the realities of tomorrow.
Formally announced by Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, echoed by Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Beth Card, and topped off by comments from a variety of state legislators, the new office will live in the state’s department of Energy and Environmental affairs, and the process of finding a director will begin right away.
For those scoring at home, outdoor recreation in all its various forms added up to $9.5 billion of economic impact in Massachusetts in 2021, according to the state-by-state breakdowns from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers that came out last month The biggest chunks in the state come from boating and fishing, hunting and shooting, RVing, camping, snow activities, motorcycling and ATVing, and bicycling. And headlines will be made from the fact that Massachusetts is the 18th state to officially support outdoor recreation with an office dedicated to the sector.
“We are not leading this trend, we are following,” said Polito, admitting that the idea had been discussed at the state level for close to eight years. She also tipped her her hat to the ongoing state efforts around outdoor recreation to the north in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, and hinting that both Connecticut and New York will soon make their own announcements. "It didn't take a pandemic for us to discover the great outdoors are really good for us … and our economy.”
But it did help.
Notably, Massachusetts is the third state to launch an office in the post-COVID world, a landscape that has clearly been reshaped by an unprecedented two-year boom in outdoor recreation interest nationwide and a broad reshuffling of the American population.
All three of those new state offices are east of the Mississippi, all three are sizable states by population and area, and all three have placed their efforts in departments with direct ties to outdoor recreation infrastructure. In 2021, Arkansas (pop: 4 million) stood up their office in the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. Last spring, Pennsylvania (pop: 13 million) placed theirs in the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and now Massachusetts (pop: 7 million) is housing theirs in the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
It’s a fair takeaway that the type of economic impact people are seeking from the outdoor sector has evolved. Back when Utah became the first states to launch an outdoor recreation office in 2013, and then Colorado followed up with a desk in the Office of Economic Development and International Trade in 2015, the general math seemed more about creating a center of gravity that would draw the attention of big gear brands and then-robust trade shows and convince them to relocate. In those days, a frequently name-dropped report was a case study from Ogden, Utah, about their successful effort to pull in a fleet of outdoor brands (“We are determined to out-Boulder Boulder”).
This week’s Massachusetts announcement reflected this new approach. There was almost zero language about outdoor companies, replaced by messaging on infrastructure, conservation, and equitable opportunities for all. This evolution of economic development, as it pertains to the outdoors, is (IMO) a clear recognition that infrastructure – aka, those opportunities created by the ability access natural places — proved itself during the pandemic to be a powerful draw for a far broader range of people than just outdoor business owners.
Time will tell how exactly the Massachusetts outdoor story will play out, but the states before them have largely followed the same playbook. Step one is the creation of an office, which designates an actual point person devoted to the care and feeding of the sector. Step two is gathering the community and identifying the opportunities and challenges that are within a state (a monumental task that sounds a lot easier than it is). And step three is finding some money to apply to those items – another thing that has changed significantly since those pre-pandemic days.
Even for states running the leanest budgetary ship, the wave of COVID-era money headed for outdoor recreation projects has been tough to miss. First was the Great American Outdoor Act of 2020: a $20 billion commitment of long-term federal funding for the creation and maintenance of outdoor recreation infrastructure.. Then came the American Rescue Plan – an injection of early federal recovery funds into all levels of the American economy, including outdoor recreation. And on the way are more possible boosts to outdoor recreation projects from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, (Hot tip: A good place to watch for news about funding opportunities the news feed of Outdoor Recreation Roundtable).
The big takeaway of all this available cash and a growing emphasis on infrastructure is that if things stay on track, the outdoor pie may get quite a bit bigger, very soon. In the same way that the pandemic launched a great rearrangement of the American population, the post-pandemic is ushering in the early steps of a great “evening out" of outdoor participation: more outdoor opportunities in more parts of the country, created by places that are forward thinking enough to see the potential, and nimble enough to chase the funding to get it done.
This is obviously a huge simplification , as there’s a ton of nuance from state to state … how they operate, what their marching orders are from their governors, what tools they have at their disposal, what the priorities are for their population … but one thing they all have in common is a reliance on the formative work of the Confluence. That year-long collaborative effort between eight different states, their public officials, and members of the outdoor business community, happened back in 2018, and created something called the Confluence Accords. It’s a lofty document with a bunch of 50-cent words, but it does a great job of putting into words the various ways that outdoor recreation can be a unifying force and economic cure-all by delivering job creation, small business growth, public health improvement, and along the way contribute to the protection and preservation of lands and waters.
The DNA of the Confluence can be seen in just about every state’s outdoor recreation efforts at this point, including Massachusetts. Yet while it's comforting to bask in all of potential positive outcomes that can be derived from an investment in outdoor recreation, it’s equally important to take the time to acknowledge the potential downsides as well — something that the pandemic also did a great job in spotlighting.
Like any industry, outdoor recreation has impacts. But unlike other industries, the potential negative impacts – from overuse, overreach or under thinking – can directly undercut the foundation of the entire sector by eroding the quality of the healthy lands and waters that we’re all working so hard to preserve, enjoy and make available to others. Unlimited recreation does not equate to unlimited upside.
And yet … there is a kind of shared celebration in the outdoor community every time a state office is announced. A virtual high five for a job well done. This isn't to say that outdoor recreation doesn’t exist in states without an office (California doesn’t have one), nor that an office with a commissioner at the state capitol is the only way to strategically support outdoor recreation (West Virginia runs their effort out of the state’s land grant university).
Instead, it’s a welcome vote of confidence for what many of us feel is true in our bones: that when done right, the outdoor sector can be a positive contributor in a huge variety of ways, and that it’s worth getting behind in the biggest way that you can.