GMUG at the Center of $2 Billion in Annual Recreation Spending
Outdoor Recreation in Colorado is part of a $28 Billion Annual Industry
Camping is the top outdoor activity in Colorado’s sprawling Third Congressional District. This information comes from an interactive map provide by the Denver Post with an article by Tamara Chuang covering a recent Outdoor Industries Association study on outdoor recreation in America’s 435 U.S. congressional districts. For Colorado, all told the study found outdoor recreation to be a $28 billion annual boost to local businesses and the state’s economy.
Amy Hamilton at the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel also reported on the OIA study, and broke down the numbers for western Colorado:
Residents in the 3rd Congressional District — which covers a vast swath of western Colorado stretching north to Craig, south to Cortez and east to Pueblo — spend a combined $2.19 billion. That amounts to $2,967 in per person spending, the second-most of the seven congressional districts in the state. Only residents of the 2nd Congressional District, which encompasses the northwest Denver suburbs and mountain towns like Vail and Breckenridge, spend more per person.
Residents of all seven congressional districts in Colorado spend at least $2 billion annually, according to the report.
Central to the Third’s public lands is the beloved Grand Mesa Uncompahgre Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests—the largest single U.S. Forest Service unit in the entire Rocky Mountain region.
And now the public has an important opportunity to let the Forest Service know that protecting back-country opportunities is important, to individuals who appreciate the opportunity to recreate themselves, as well as to the economy of western Colorado. That’s because the GMUG is currently revising its land and resource management plan. This is the guiding document that will set management priorities that could be in place for decades across almost three million acres of prized public lands.
Individuals are being encouraged to submit scoping comments, and local businesses are asked to join a letter, in support of a coalition’s conservation vision for the GMUG.
This community-based proposal for the most critical habitat, important recreational, and other back-country lands on the GMUG National Forests can viewed on an interactive map on the coalition’s revision website. You can find that as well as detailed descriptions important conservation lands on the forest and information on submitting comments, along with the latest news, at GMUGrevision.com.
