JACKSON, Wyo. — A recent report from Wyoming Public Radio (WPR) called attention to a new study that found a record number of people are participating in recreation activities and negatively changing people’s experiences on public lands.
The study, which was done by Montana-based GPS mapping company OnX, shows most recreationists are not actively helping to maintain these landscapes. After surveying more than 2,000 recreationists, OnX found 77 percent of recreationists get outside more than 12 times a year but just 19 percent participate annually in outdoor stewardship, which the study defined as supporting a cause through donations, volunteering or advocacy.
“While we’ve seen this incredible surge of getting more people outside, we now need to figure out how to really instill this ethos of responsible recreation in everyone,” said Becky Marcelliano, a marketing manager at OnX, to WPR. “If we aren’t doing our part collectively, those lands suffer and they get degraded – and they then do become under threat.”
According to the Wyoming Office of Tourism, overnight visitor volume was 7.6 million in 2022. The Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board says more than 2.6 million people visit Jackson Hole each year.
Marcelliano pushed mentorship and education programs to offset the impacts of increased hiking, biking and climbing that include overflowing trailheads and litter.
Recently, the Bureau of Land Management proposed a new rule that would allow conservation to be considered a ‘use’ of public lands in an effort to mitigate for human activities putting pressure on the landscape. However, pushback against the proposed Public Lands Rule may force the BLM to withdraw it.
