Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2018 - 16

THE PULSE
CASH FLOW
Jeremy Markovitch,
Chris Tryon, and Kemp
Burdette paddle a
tributary to the Cape
Fear River in North
Carolina. The state is
one of ten that currently
boast an OREC that
seeks to capitailze on
the economic value of
outdoor recreation.

to Alaska, Offices of Outdoor Recreation,
dubbed ORECs, are bolstering the outdoor sector, reinvigorating communities,
and offering solutions. ORECs are succeeding where others have failed because they're
building unconventional alliances in support
of conservation and recreation.
"Everybody whose livelihood depends on
the outdoors understands we need to conserve
pretty places or we're out of business," says Lee
Hart, executive director of Alaska's Valdez
Adventure Alliance, and an advocate of setting up an OREC in the state that relies on outdoor tourism. But the success of ORECs isn't
just about dirt bikers and dog walkers banding together. It's about bringing meaningful
economic growth to depressed communities.

THE BIG PICTURE

The Rise of the OREC
Ten states have created Outdoor Recreation Departments in order
to hitch their economic development to healthy outdoor endeavors.
These organizations are getting lots of work done across political
lines-but can they make a lasting difference? by Berne Broudy
ON A SUNNYVERMONT DAY IN APRIL 2016, A DOZEN SPECIALTY RETAILERS, MANUFACTURERS,
journalists, and PR people descended on the Montpelier State House to talk about the impact of
Vermont's outdoor business and recreation sector with their commissioners, representatives, and
the governor. Days later, the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) released its Outdoor Recreation
Economy Report, valuing consumer spending at $887 billion and crediting the industry with $59.2
billion in state and local tax revenue and 7.6 million jobs. Those numbers caught the attention of incumbent Republican Governor Phil Scott, who in his first six months in office formed the Vermont
Outdoor Recreation Collaborative (VOREC) to advise him on growing Vermont's outdoor economy.
Across the U.S., states are trying to figure out how to return prosperity and health to communities
that have lost their economic engines. Often, the answer is outdoor recreation. From North Carolina

16 OUTDOOR RETAILER

/ Summer 2018

UTAH'S OREC, ESTABLISHED IN 2013,THE FIRST
of any state's, is working closely with seven
universities to grow and develop Utah's outdoor recreation workforce. It partners with
the University of Utah to support its Parks,
Recreation and Tourism degree. Tom Adams,
Utah's OREC director, is on the board of
Utah State, which has an Outdoor Product
Development and Design program. And, according to Adams, "Southern Utah University
is pumping out land managers left and right."
Additionally, Utah's OREC now awards
$6.5 million annually in small grants through
its Utah Outdoor Recreation Grant to support
the development of outdoor recreation close to
homes and communities. In Vermont, the legislature is considering a $100,000 grant pool
for communities interested in growing their
outdoor recreation. And VOREC asked the
governor for a review of Vermont's Act 250, the
"sacred cow" of land use and development, to
see how it can support the creation of publicly
accessible outdoor lands. Vermont also established a state park gear loaner program to provide equipment for first-time campers.
OIA presents impressive numbers for the
outdoor sector nationally, but for states to
understand how they can harness that income and where the outdoor industry should
"checkmate" other industries, Chris Havel,
Oregon's associate director of Forest, Parks
and Recreation and interim OREC associate

Photograph by Andrew Kornylak

Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2018

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