ORR Releases Recreational Funding Report

The  Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) released a new report, “Recreation Funding in America: Current Results and Future Insights.”  This first-of-its-kind comprehensive study conducted by Southwick Associates, Inc. on behalf of ORR aggregates and analyzes current federal funding streams for outdoor recreation and identifies potential future threats to these funding sources including changing energy demands, evolving participation, inflation, weather events and climate change, and stagnant appropriations trends.

This report was made possible from the financial support of leading outdoor industry CEOs from KOA, Brunswick, Winnebago Industries, and Revelyst.

The report highlights the pressing need for innovative solutions to ensure sustainable funding for the $1.1 trillion recreation economy and the millions of Americans and communities who rely on it in the face of these potential funding gaps.

Key findings in the report include:

1. The gap between the deferred maintenance backlog at all agencies and federal recreation spending could grow to $34 billion by 2042.
2. Outdoor recreation contributes nearly 14 times more to U.S. GDP than what it gets from federal spending.
3. Increases in federal outdoor recreation spending lag significantly behind increases in overall federal spending.
4. The federal outdoor recreation budget needs to increase significantly to keep pace with inflation – 74% by 2042 just to maintain today’s standards of funding.
5. A significant portion of outdoor recreation funding comes from sources outside general revenue.
6. Two billion dollars in federal outdoor recreation spending is at risk from changing patterns in energy consumption.
7. Federal spending on outdoor recreation has been sporadic and often neglected.

To read the full report visit ORR030_RecFunding_Jun24_Rd2.pdf (recreationroundtable.org)