WASHINGTON – Sen. Michael Bennet wrote a letter this week urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand funding from the Community Facilities Program to include outdoor recreation.
Bennet was joined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Sherrod Brown in urging USDA to consider outdoor recreation infrastructure as “essential community facilities” in the CFP.
Doing so would allow grant money from the program to apply to the improvement and acquisition of outdoor facilities. The senators wrote that state directors across the country had convinced them that stagnant investment in outdoor recreation was hampering the potential growth of their economies.
CFP is designed to aid rural counties to develop their infrastructure to ensure equal quality of life and services as those enjoyed in urban areas. Nonprofits and federally recognized Native American tribes can use funding from grants or loans to improve facilities essential to public health and safety, or that provide community services.
The program currently includes things like hospitals, fire stations, libraries, community centers, transitional housing, food pantries and town halls. Under current rules, projects like bike paths, boat ramps or building green space into playgrounds are not eligible for CPF funding.
The senators suggested focusing on adding publicly accessible recreation sites like trails, boat ramps and campgrounds while maintaining the ban on membership-based recreation like golf courses from receiving funding.
“If the Community Facilities Program were to allow support for projects that create or increase access to outdoor recreation uses, it could foster an economy that works for everyone, including our rural communities,” the senators wrote.
The senators wrote they believe that increasing investment in outdoor recreation will help small towns not only better spaces to live but also allow them to diversify and strengthen their economies.
Outdoor recreation is becoming an increasingly significant source of income, bringing in $1.1 trillion nationally for the first time in 2022. In the state of Colorado, outdoor recreation adds $11.6 billion to the economy and makes up 2.7% of the state’s GDP, according to the most recent numbers from the Outdoor Industry Association.
According to a Durango Parks and Recreation report, outdoor recreation brought in “$23.7 million in spending by 66,580 visitors, $33.9 million in total economic impact, 348 jobs and $900k in sales and lodgers tax revenues for the City of Durango and La Plata County.”
If the USDA implements the senators’ suggestion, federal funding from the CFP will be applicable to helping maintain outdoor infrastructure.
Eliza DuBose, a senior at American University, is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez. She can be reached at the edubose@durangoherald.com.
