Recreation is Vital and Growing
The number of visitors to federal recreation sites is immense and diverse, approaching two billion annually and involving activities ranging from wildlife viewing to motorsports.
The manpower and financial resources made available to serve and manage these visitors through annual appropriations - the traditional means for meeting agency recreation and interpretation program costs - are inadequate to meet current demand, much less keep pace with anticipated growth.
Already, an estimated 40% of all visitors to national forests use a facility which is rated by the Forest Service as failing to meet its own minimum standards. The backlog of needed maintenance and repairs for all federal recreation sites is described as being in the multi-billions of dollars.
The Tools Exist to Grow Services
Neither widespread service cutbacks nor a steady decline in the quality of visitor experiences is acceptable. Instead, federal land agencies and their partners serving the public must continue to seek new mechanisms for generating the resources needed to provide quality services.
Fortunately, there are many tools already available, and more can and should be developed.
These tools share a common characteristic: they require local initiative. While national level tool-making and tool-use training will improve access to resources which supplement appropriations, active local level efforts, in both the public and private sectors, are the keys to successful use of these tools.
In other words, partnerships are critical to our success.
The Story of the Toolbox
The purpose of the Toolbox for the Great Outdoors in 2003 was to help harness the power of new recreation tools to connect 21st century Americans to public lands and to enhance the way great experiences for visitors are delivered. The initial version of the Toolbox combined work done in several Partners Outdoors sessions and by partnerships forged at those sessions with a concerted effort to assemble information about programs available to supplement traditional appropriations to provide high quality recreation experiences on public lands.
Available on a CD-ROM, the Toolbox featured messages from federal agency heads and information on 20 "tools" ranging from grants under the Wallop-Breaux program to aid boating and fishing to assistance of National Guard units for construction projects.
In addition to information on the quantity of support available and the contacts, kept current through links over the Internet, the Toolbox also provided case studies - successes in the use of these tools on public lands, connections to the officials involved in these successes, and strategic advice on successfully obtaining these resources.
In many cases, success involved identification of the "right" partners - in some cases, for example, a Trout Unlimited chapter; in other cases, county commissioners.
Getting the Word Out
The Toolbox noted that these resources were growing and combinable - and that applications for these new resources often could be submitted immediately. It further noted that the challenge was to pick the right tool for the task at hand - that the "universal wrench" model was less germane for an era of partnerships and customized project strategies, and that many of the tools required matches of dollars or contributed goods and services.
And finally, The Toolbox CD noted that these resources were both real supplements to appropriations and largely off the radar screen of the budget and appropriations process - and thus less vulnerable to "offsets."
Thousands of the CDs were distributed through agency channels and important venues for introducing the Toolbox to line officials were pursued. Yet evidence is good that the content of the Toolbox was not effectively employed by field-level federal staff. In all likelihood, many of the CDs are in pristine condition, still protected in the original plastic wrap.
Now More Than Ever
The need for adding resources to federal lands recreation program efforts is more acute today than it was in 2003. And happily, sources for supplemental funding and other support are more numerous and larger than ever.
The passage of a 10- year recreation fee authority in December 2004 and the August 2005 passage of SAFETEA-LU alone create opportunities for several hundred million additional dollars to be available every year!
Yet opportunities continue to go unrealized. And the field-level budgets of federal recreation programs continue to drop - threatening the quality of visits by millions each season.
Money Is Absolutely Available
One of the "new thinking" opportunities that recreation advocates are pursuing is that large pools of public spending can be tapped to supplement appropriated funding for natural resource management. The poster child for this approach is the federal Highway Trust Fund - which now provides more than $1.5 billion annually to recreation-related projects and programs.
Inroads are being made in the health arena. Top public budget officials are sold on the concept that increased physical activity is a viable and cost-effective way to attack soaring health-care costs.
Our challenge is to document persuasively that public recreation facilities are a viable mechanism to boost physical activity. That accomplished, it is entirely possible that an earmarked amount of the $300+ billion in annual public heath-care spending - and billions more in private health-care spending - can be made available to readily accessible trails and more.
Ultimately, we might be able to quantify, and then benefit from understanding, the benefits of good recreation facilities to other areas, like education, crime deterrence and international tourism.
The Toobox Expands
The second version of the Toolbox more than doubles the identified "tools" and expands the Toolbox from four to seven "drawers," or categories, and showcases dozens of new examples of the successful use of these tools on the ground. Especially important is a new focus on resources available in the health and safety and economic development arenas.
The Second Edition of the Toolbox will be maintained on its own website, www.tools4outdoors.us. And the Toolbox will "grow" as those using the tools in the field add comments and case studies to benefit others. This design will also allow updates that follow Congressional and Administration actions - or even actions by states.
Comments on the tools described in this compilation, as well as suggestions for additional tools, are invited. Please use the comment form to send feedback
