After former President Donald Trump was re-elected last week, the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) ensured its continued work to increase outdoor access and support growth of the outdoor recreation economy.
The organization additionally highlighted its 2025 policy priorities.
ORR President Jessica Turner said, “We will work with President-elect Trump, the new administration and members of Congress to enhance outdoor access for all Americans and amplify the industry’s contributions to economic prosperity, public health and stewardship of our lands and waters.”
The roundtable has four categories of policies on which it plans to focus in 2025: funding, access, infrastructure and business certainty.
Funding
ORR said its goal is “to ensure a future for outdoor recreation where recreation funding is prioritized and communities can benefit from access to the outdoors.”
To do this, the organization plans to:
- Establish a Presidential Commission on outdoor recreation.
- Fund federal land and water management agencies through appropriations.
- Ensure fees collected from recreation at all agencies are used for improvements and that the Recreational Trails Program is fully funded.
- Support rural communities planning resilient economies and addressing the growing technical gap between in-demand skills to foster rural economic development through recreation.
Access
ORR said it recognized the importance of time outside on mental and physical wellness. The roundtable said, “Policymakers at all levels should prioritize equitable and meaningful access to outdoor recreation as a health and wellness solution and consider its importance in all communities.”
To foster outdoors access, ORR policies include:
- Increase access to recreation for veterans, the disability community, as well as communities that have traditionally not had access to outdoor recreation.
- Elevate research on the effect of nature and outdoor recreation on health and connect grants and incentives for communities with lower health outcomes to recreation.
- Balance access with development on U.S. public lands and waters to ensure healthy ecosystems, and that energy development decisions include recreation industry input and are informed by available science and data.
Infrastructure
ORR will focus on maintenance backlog and modernizing infrastructure with its 2025 policy priorities. To build and maintain infrastructure, the organization plans to:
- Reauthorize the Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund to support the maintenance backlog on lands and waters across the federal system.
- Address the need for technology infrastructure in and around public lands and waters to accommodate industries and consumers moving toward decarbonization of their outdoor vehicle technology through sustainable fuels, electric, hydrogen or other fuel alternatives.
- Create resilient recreation infrastructure to mitigate natural disaster and extreme weather effects on outdoor recreation and local economies.
Business Certainty
According to ORR, it is essential for the industry to have a reliable trade policy. In pursuit of providing a balanced and effective trade policy, ORR said it would:
- Support diversification of manufacturing beyond China by retroactively extending the Generalized System of Preferences, reforming the application of Section 301 Tariffs and reducing the de minimis threshold.
- Encourage innovation by removing the new tax provision that forces businesses to deduct their research and development costs and redirecting tariffs to conservation and business innovations.
To learn more about ORR’s 2025 policy priorities, click here.
