WBA Advocates in DC

Recently, WBA joined a crew of Outdoor Alliance staff, partners, and supporters to meet with lawmakers in D.C. to advocate for the EXPLORE Act, Forest Service funding, defending the Public Lands Rule, and protecting more of America’s public lands and waters.

Much of the content in this blog comes from our expert policy partners at Outdoor Alliance.

WBA met with Utah lawmakers and discussed our thriving and growing backcountry community while stressing the importance of maintaining backcountry terrain and access. We also educated them on the shortcomings of the taxpayer-funded gondola proposal and the lack of constituent support throughout the state.

Through the Grasstops Collective, we heard from Meryl Harrell, the Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Harrell oversees the USDA Forest Service and works on policy and management related to the nation’s forests and grasslands.

We were grateful to have the support and expertise of Winter Wildlands Alliance‘s Policy Director, Hilary Eisen in our meetings. Thanks to Outdoor Alliance for organizing and sponsoring this opportunity to build relationships and help advance outdoor recreation.

In our meetings, we advocated on behalf of Outdoor Alliance, Winter Wildlands Alliance, and Wasatch Backcountry Alliance. Here is a summary of the topics we addressed. Thanks to Outdoor Alliance for providing the policy synopsis on EXPLORE, Forest Service funding, GAOA, and the BLM Public Lands Rule.

Gondola Project

The Utah Department of Transportation’s (UDOT) proposed gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon would be a fiscally irresponsible- and overwhelmingly unpopular- use of taxpayer dollars. The latest estimates show the gondola costing $1.4 billion. We urge the Utah Legislature to follow sequential phasing, by putting in place low-cost, scaleable, more effective transit solutions like enhanced buses, rather than moving ahead with a permanent structure yielding low returns. We provided a one-pager with more information. Thanks to Canyon Guard for helping provide resources.

EXPLORE Act

The Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act takes important steps to expand and improve outdoor recreation opportunities. Highlights include the Biking on Long Distance Trails Act (BOLT) to create more long-distance bike trails, the Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act (PARC) to safeguard Wilderness climbing, the Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation Act (SOAR), which will improve recreational permitting for outfitters and guides, and permanent direction for the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership and Federal Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation (FICOR).

The EXPLORE Act has no funds attached and passed the House unanimously this past spring. It is now considered for inclusion in the Senate’s version of FY25 defense authorization. We support including this in the NDAA or passed on its own.

Forest Service Funding

Many of Utah’s best outdoor recreation opportunities are on lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), especially for winter recreation outside of ski resorts. Over the past two decades, real funding for outdoor recreation at the USFS has decreased while recreational visits have increased significantly, especially within the Wasatch-Cache National Forest (WCNF). The WCNF receives more annual visits (7 million), than our most popular National Park, Zion (5 million). Without adequate funding, these public lands see greater maintenance issues, trail erosion, trash, and parking problems, and land managers are limited in their ability to work with partners.

To address this funding deficit, we request that Congress increase funding with $70 million for USFS Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness, with a commensurate increase to National Forest System Salaries & Expenses. Funding at this level will help land managers provide sustainable outdoor recreation opportunities to the public, steward our nation’s public lands, and provide critical support to local and national outdoor recreation economies.

Unfortunately, neither of the proposed FY25 appropriations bills for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies meet these funding levels. Both the House and Senate fund BLM recreation at nearly identical levels (~$55M), while the Senate bill is considerably better for the USFS ($58M).

In the near term, we support the Senate’s proposed funding level of $58M for USFS Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness, and pass FY25 appropriations bills on time. Over the longer term, we would like members to support Outdoor Alliance’s proposed funding level of $70M for USFS as programmatic funding requests in future appropriations cycles.

GAOA Act

The passage and implementation of the Great American Outdoor Act was a huge win for outdoor recreation. Funding for the Great American Outdoors Act’s Legacy Restoration Fund is set to expire at the end of September 2025. To continue to restore and maintain public lands and fully address the many maintenance challenges impacting our public lands, we need additional GAOA funding. We are asking members to invest in outdoor recreation by permanently reauthorizing the GAOA.

BLM Public Lands Rule

While not related to skiing, BLM lands are a huge resource for outdoor recreation in Utah. The BLM’s Public Lands Rule supports conservation on 245 million acres of public lands that will benefit outdoor recreation now and into the future. It will help the BLM modernize and better balance the need for recreation and conservation with extraction and development. The Public Lands Rule needs support from the outdoor rec community!

Speak up!

Learn more and ask your lawmakers to protect public lands, and expand outdoor recreation opportunities. Make sure to add a personal note to make your message more impactful!

We invited the Utah offices to join WBA on a beginner tour so we can show them how special the Wasatch backcountry is firsthand!

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