I hope it helps in some small way to get the kids and adults outside.

Excellent points. When I visited Germany some years ago, sidewalks and walking paths existed everywhere.

And yes, the West with it’s high paying tech sector and overall affluent population is a bubble. And the growth of Denver, SLC, Vegas, and Phoenix of course.

Also, as you know, lifestyle items is what powers outdoor sales.

Finally, being able to travel hundreds of miles round trip for backpacking is an economic privilege for fewer and fewer Americans. Overall outdoor use is down, not just for people able to travel to the Winds, Moab, etc.

The numbers you are skeptical about are from the outdoor industry numbers you also trust and show a decline, not an increase. These are people who make money off the outdoors after all. If anything, the numbers might be fudged in their favor using the “nefarious” logic.

I’d only add that another big part of why we don’t see more local outdoorsing is the crushing despair of car culture; not just that you need a car to get many places, but that so many streets are built for cars and cars only, not for humans – and that people who aren’t the “right” people who try to be outdoors (eg black folks, among other vulnerable populations) literally get ticketed for made-up things like jaywalking or sitting outside having a beer. our society is overpoliced and not built for human-scale movement and interactions, and we’re seeing the consequences.

Perhaps it’s regional, out west we have lots of public lands so it is possible per capita use is increasing here but not the rest of the country? That may be an explanation, but if that is true this report still feels inaccurate. Headlines like this misrepresent what is actually going on with demand on public lands, and I fear it can be used in politically nefarious ways.

Look at this week the management plan for Grand Staircase, it’s all about expanding use and getting tons more people to come visit. More OHVs, more campgrounds, more signed roads, increases in group sizes, etc… My experience in Grand Staircase is that visitation has gone up dramatically over twenty years, and these changes will only exacerbate it, and it’s taxing the resource. Meanwhile folks read a headline like this saying less people are using the outdoors, and get the exact opposite impression. But it just doesn’t square with what seems to be happening on the ground.

Outdoor Industry economic numbers seem to support this view as well – sales numbers are increasing every year, and jobs supported by the outdoor industry seem to continue to grow. I know some of those numbers only have a couple years of “official” reporting at the federal level, but by most accounts the outdoor industry is way bigger today than it was 10 or 20 years ago. Of course, that doesn’t mean more people are actually doing the things, just buying the things. But there is some correlation there I would guess.

Anyways, I’m definitely one of the skeptics, I could understand per-capita use dropping especially in cities with less access to public lands. But that 1 billion fewer outdoor visits in 2018 compared to 2008 seems completely bogus to me. Either that or I live in one helluva a bubble and the intermountain west and Colorado Plateau is not at all representative of the rest of America.

Thx, Scott. I appreciate the kind words and your thoughts esp.

Joan and I made financial sacrifices in terms of our overall income. But together we can lead a life that works for us.