WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks, today stressed the economic benefits of Maine’s recreation industry and the need to make outdoor opportunities available to more Americans during a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee. King specifically pointed to two pieces of legislation under consideration by the committee that he supports that would improve access to outdoor opportunities by cutting red tape and supporting public lands access in underserved communities. A recent report shows that outdoor recreation accounts for 3.3% of Maine’s GDP  – the third highest in the nation.

“Maine has the third-highest percentage of our GDP in outdoor recreation of any state in the country – Acadia National Park this year had 4 million visitors up from a record of 3.7 million a couple of years ago. It’s an incredible part of our economy. Unfortunately during the pandemic we lost 24% of our jobs in outdoor recreation,” said Senator King. “Outdoor recreation is so important, [which is why] I’m co-sponsoring the Simplifying Outdoor Access Act. Also, I want to commend the Outdoors for All Act, of which I’m also a co-sponsor because park resources are not equitably distributed and there are millions of Americans that really do not have access. That is what the program is about; to encourage a program in the National Parks Service for partnerships with local park facilities.”

The Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation (SOAR) Act would simplify the permitting process for outfitters, educational organizations, and community groups to access public lands and remove duplicative processes to reduce costs and shorten processing times. It also reduces permit fees and cost recovery expenses for small organizations. The Outdoors for All Act would codify the existing Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program of the National Park Service (NPS) and establish a dedicated source of funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The bill would require NPS to award grants for projects in communities without adequate park access to acquire land and water for parks and would require NPS to prioritize projects that support underserved communities.

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Later in the hearing, Senator King’s questioned Jessica Turner, President of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, and Reginald Chapple, Acting Assistant Director for Partnerships & Civic Engagement at the National Park Service, and shared frustrations and identified potential solutions to improve access to National Parks and reduce crowding. This comes after park officials at Acadia announced that the park had welcomed nearly 4 million visits from January through October, surpassing Acadia’s previous annual record.

“We had a hearing about a month ago on overcrowding in the National Parks, and you mentioned that in your testimony something very interesting… I think should be pursued by the National Parks Service, and that is the development of an app,” said Senator King. “A kind of Waze app for the National Parks so a traveler could look and see ‘oh it’s going to be pretty crowded this week in Yellowstone, maybe I can go to Devil’s Tower.’ Could you elaborate on that a little bit?”

“Some state park systems across the country are already starting to use this geospatial, heat-map-tagging, you know, it uses Google, Smartphone data. Obviously we want to be aware of privacy concerns but it’s happening, you know, during the depths of COVID, when we are all staying home and just running out to the grocery store, you might remember you put in your grocery store in Google and it might say ‘red, it’s really crowded right now,’ and you say ‘I’m not going to go to the grocery store now, I’m going to go when it’s not crowded’,” said Jessica Turner. “I think the private sector can be really helpful in this. What I experienced, you know, during the past year and a half, even with my local state park in Maryland, was I would get to the park and the parking lot was full, the gate was closed, and had I known, I could have gone to another state park. We just need to give the visitors the information. I know that the American people want to have a great experience and some of the overcrowding could be fixed by people just understanding what they’re getting into before they get there.”

“I think we’ve got to use the technology to more equitably distribute this surge in visitation which I think is going to continue for many of the reasons we’ve heard today,” responded Senator King.

“We are working on apps in the National Parks Service currently and we are also, this past week, called by our Acting Director to actually think big with a potential donor that wants to come in and actually help us create these heat maps and use the geospatial data,” added Reginald Chapple. “We are also working across inter-agency, different types of apps as well. And so, I think within the next year, you will be pleased to see what we come up with but we look forward to working with you and any others on the Committee on actually pulling this together, along with the outdoor recreation industry.”

A member of the Energy and Natural Resources and Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Senator King is among the Senate’s loudest voices advocating for public lands and encouraging outdoor recreation. He was recently awarded the inaugural National Park Foundation (NPF) “Hero” Award. Senator King helped lead the passage the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) into law; the legislation includes the Restore Our Parks Act – a bill led by Senator King – and the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Permanent Funding Act. The historic legislative package continues Senator King’s career-long focus on conservation efforts, dating back to his work prior to running for elected office through his years as Governor and his service in the Senate. Over the course of his time in the Blaine House, Governor King was responsible for conserving more land across Maine than all Governors before him combined.