The demand for both close-to-home and regional outdoor recreation opportunities has never been higher. While that’s good news for the outdoor economy, it’s also putting pressure on an industry workforce that is already struggling with chronic skill-gaps and a retirement wave. By uniting around a new vision of workforce development, the outdoor recreation industry can capture the full opportunity.

The demand for both close-to-home and regional outdoor recreation opportunities has never been greater. While that’s good news for the outdoor economy, it’s also putting pressure on an industry workforce that is already struggling with chronic skill-gaps and a retirement wave. By uniting around a new vision of workforce development, the outdoor recreation industry can capture the full opportunity.

By Lee Davis, Executive Director The outdoor recreation economy has been devastated in unique ways by the layered impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. This is a huge problem for the people whose livelihoods are directly tied to outdoor recreation, and a blow to the rural communities that have been buoyed by recreation dollars. This is a crisis, to be sure, but it’s also an opportunity