While the polarizing partisanship in Washington seems to highlight almost every major decision that must be made by our government these days, it appears there’s at least one platform on which both Republicans and Democrats are able to agree.
Last week saw the unanimous passing of the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experience (EXPLORE) Act, legislation that was aimed at streamlining access to public lands and improving the infrastructure to support it. Improving permitting processes for guides and outfitters was a primary goal, as was implementing strategies for more collaborative communication and action between the various federal agencies that are tasked with managing our wildest federal lands.
If you’ve ever looked at a detailed map of the American West, you’ve come across the purple boundary lines running up against the green boundary lines right where they meet the red boundary lines. When trying to plan a long route, you’ll inevitably pass through lands managed by the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and US Department of the Interior, the trio that pretty well encompasses the bureaucratic concept of same same, but different. Add-in the National Park Service and US Fish & Wildlife, and the amount of interagency communication needed for these entities to manage their wide swaths of land becomes a lot longer than you may expect. One big group text between them there is not, I don’t think, and the EXPLORE Act aims to make that less of a bureaucratic juggle.
Among many other things, part of EXPLORE also includes the Protect America’s Rock Climbing Act, as the Colorado Sun’s Jason Blevins relayed, with US Senator John Hickenlooper throwing his support behind that legislation that will help streamline anchoring and climbing access on federally managed lands.
Hannah Henry of The Wildlife Society noted that part of the EXPLORE Act also aims to help digitize and modernize much of what is needed to access America’s wild lands, including making the “America the Beautiful” park pass available online and reduce the need for the physical, plastic card to be present within your pocket. If you haven’t visited a National Park in a while, you may think I’m joking when I say that buying the “America the Beautiful” pass – which is effectively an annual pass that gives you access to all parks around the country – can only be purchased a) in-person at visitor centers/entrance points at federally managed lands or b) online, where a little plastic card will then be shipped to you and arrive in roughly two weeks.
It is 2024, right? Right.
The number of outdoor-centric organizations who had thrown their support behind the EXPLORE Act was nearly endless. According to the House Committee on Natural Resources, each of the American Alpine Club, American Hiking Society, American Mountain Guides Association, American Sportfishing Association, National Wildlife Federation, National Wild Turkey Federation, Outdoor Alliance, REI, Rivian, Safari Club International, and VF Corporation were just some of those who outwardly voiced their support of the Act, with representation from the RV industry to motorcycles, surfing, boating, climbing, hiking, and riding all seemingly on the same page.
Discover more from Lit Wick
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.