Makers of outdoor gear, retailers and recreation providers for the first time will be part of the federal government’s annual assessment of the national economy, marking what the outdoor industry hopes is a shift from being important to essential.

In a moment of rare solidarity, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill that will include the economic impact of the outdoor industry in the federal government’s annual tally of the gross domestic product.

More than a year after the bill was presented by co-sponsor Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, and two weeks after flying through the U.S. House with unanimous support, the Outdoor Recreation Jobs and Economic Impact Act is headed to the desk of President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign the bill into law by the end of the year.

“This is a big, big deal for us because it takes us off the kids’ table and puts us at the adult table. Now we can show how much we influence the national economy. Christmas came early for the outdoor industry,” said Luis Benitez, the indefatigable head of Colorado’s Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, who earlier this year gave a speech titled “The Outdoor Recreation Industry Will Save the World.”

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September 22, 2020 Leaf-peeping has started in Colorado, and it’s turning out to be extremely unusual this year The law is expected to elevate recreation as a viable economic engine on public lands alongside stalwart industries such as agriculture, mining and timber. The annual inclusion of recreation’s national economic impact will help guide federal agencies’ budget and investment decisions involving public lands.

Outdoor-industry advocates for decades have repeated stand-alone anecdotes supporting the economic and social benefits of recreation and the businesses that fuel outdoor play. They pointed to how outdoor activities contribute to health and wellness; how sustainable recreation helps preserve treasured public lands; how makers of outdoor gear play outsized roles in rural economies; and how an area’s thriving outdoor lifestyle attracts employers. Mining and timber, on the other hand, had concrete federal statistics proving their worth.

Now, outdoor industry leaders will have hard numbers to back up their business. The math is expected to show that recreation is a vital pillar to a strong economy.

“This legislation will educate policymakers on the outdoor recreation industry’s contribution to our economy, including the number of jobs it’s responsible for and the amount of consumer spending it generates. It’s a common-sense, bipartisan bill, and I look forward to President Obama signing it into law,” Gardner said in a statement.

Here are a few examples of how the new outdoor industry economic metric might play out: Imagine the Forest Service begins revamping its special-use permitting system. By the end of 2018, the agency’s decisionmakers can flip through the Department of Commerce’s annual tabulation of the U.S. economy and see whether the tangible economic benefits of recreation warrant increased permits. Or, say federal land managers are pondering regulations to address the growing use of paddleboards or electric bikes on public lands. The manager can grab the big GDP book and find out how much e-bike and stand-up paddling equipment manufacturers and tour operators contributed to the national economy. Or, say a policymaker proposes banning motorized use in an area. Opponents of that ban can show how sales of motorized toys and tours help drive the economy.

Now comes the hard work for the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which compiles industry contributions to the GDP. The bureau will consider recreation as a satellite account — like arts and culture or travel and tourism — that won’t necessarily change the nation’s final GDP tally in the way an industrial category, such as manufacturing or transportation, might.

It’s a complicated process. First, the bureau will analyze its matrix of every single item sold in the country — an index that spans 8,000 columns by 8,000 rows — and give specific items a percentage for outdoor recreation. Skis, for example, will get a full point toward recreation. But what about jackets, gloves and beanies? Maybe a quarter point. Each of the cells in that dense index has its own reams of research from manufacturers and the industry.

“It’s headache-inducing just thinking about it,” said Ray Rasker, the executive director of Headwaters Economics, the Montana-based nonpartisan research group that uses its own software to filter through federal economic, census and labor statistics to deliver specific information for land managers and other groups.

Rasker will be part of the Bureau of Economic Analysis team that will analyze the impact of outdoor recreation.

He expects the statistics will show “that the outdoor industry is indeed a pretty big industry.”

“But they are diffuse and they have never been able to talk about themselves in terms of the size they are, like, say software, medicine and mining,” he said. “With this, we will be able to see where Americans are spending their money.”

He urged the bureau to first consider who might be using the final data and then work backward to narrow its focus.

He identified federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of the Interior, Forest Service, National Park Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Those land managers have a very strong tally of numbers of people playing on public land and water.

“So the next step is to find out what those people buy,” Rasker said.

They buy a lot. Recreation advocates have long hailed their industry as a multibillion-dollar economic engine, saying Americans spend more on outdoor play than they do on their pills and bills — pharmaceuticals and home-utility costs — combined. In 2012, the Outdoor Industry Association reported that Americans drop $646 billion a year on outdoor recreation, supporting 6.1 million jobs and generating $80 billion in local, regional, state and national taxes.

The Boulder-based association’s report — the only industry measurement to date — showed outdoor recreation in Colorado spurring $13.2 billion in spending and supporting 124,600 workers. The association’s assessment of the outdoor industry shows a widespread reach into nearly every corner of the country’s economy, from product development and manufacturing to marketing, sales and tourism.

Recreation leaders hailed their recent bipartisan support as the dawning of a new age for recreation. With hard economic statistics, there’s hope for more recreation wins — including the passage of Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden’s Recreation Not Red Tape Bill, which would allow individual national forests to retain rents and fees collected inside their boundaries, delivering a boost to Colorado’s most heavily trafficked public lands.

“I think the environment on the hill is supportive of outdoor recreation and now that we have a government study in the works, it is likely there will be more data-driven support for outdoor recreation in the future,” said Jessica Wahl, the Outdoor Industry Association’s Washington, D.C.-based head of government affairs. “Looking at recreation legislation through a job-stimulator or economic-engine lens will certainly help make the case for some of our priorities. And I think the makeup of the next Congress will set us up for a recreation-type package that would hopefully include bills like Wyden’s Recreation Not Red Tape.”