Great American Outdoors Act Would Significantly Benefit Environment And Economy

As coronavirus-related restrictions are lifted slowly across the United States, many will jump at the opportunity to travel and explore the great outdoors once again. But as is the case with other industries, social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders have forced national and state parks to shut down as well. The closures have deprived parks of continued maintenance and outdoor recreation businesses of profits, both of which are developments that threaten future outdoor travel opportunities.

In spite of these current hardships, the Great American Outdoors Act would provide a strong legislative remedy to the outdoor recreation industry if passed into law. The legislation would allocate nearly $10 billion over the next five years to address deferred maintenance on public lands and provide full and permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

The issue of deferred maintenance has existed prior to and will persist long after COVID-19 without a solution as targeted as the Great American Outdoors Act. National parks are a crucial aspect of American culture, and under no circumstance should we allow them to deteriorate to the degree which is seen today. Funding from this legislation will address these shortcomings and prove critical in paving roads, cleaning up trails and restoring parks to acceptable conditions.

Check out the full article from The Hill here.