WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released updated economic data on outdoor recreation’s powerful and positive economic impact on the U.S. economy showing $788 billion in economic output, comprising 2.1% of U.S. GDP and supporting 5.2 million jobs. The report includes national and state level data for both 2018 and 2019. 

This is the third consecutive year that BEA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has released data on the outdoor recreation economy and the third year the industry has shown growth across the board. Today’s release shows how this growing sector was growing rapidly prior to the pandemic and where it can lead again as an economic growth engine and job creator.   

Key Highlights from BEA’s new report on the outdoor recreation economy:

WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of the Interior celebrates the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump signing into law the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (P.L. 116-9). The Dingell Act is the single most important public lands management law to be passed in over a decade. The Act:

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Nine conservation groups have just filed suit against the Trump administration - an attempt to stop a plan to open up more than a million acres of public land in Central California to drilling and fracking.

The lawsuit claims the Bureau of Land Management violated the National Environmental Protection Act - or NEPA - by disregarding the potential impact of the new wells on public health, air quality and climate change.