| George Cooper is a partner at Forbes Tate Partners. Before joining Forbes Tate Partners, Cooper served as President and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and spent over a decade at CNN. George leads the firm’s natural resources and outdoor recreation government affairs practice, representing nonprofits, corporations and trade associations on policy related to natural resource conservation, public lands, marine fisheries, agricultural land, tax, trade, and appropriations issues. While everyone gets ready to head out of the city for August recess, we asked George to share some insights on the issues impacting outdoor recreation in America. |
Question –
What impact does tourism have on our country’s natural resources and conservation efforts?
When it comes to public land and water, the dynamics cut a few different ways. On the positive side, the incredible popularity of our national parks, state parks and other public lands as places for people to get outside and get active means more Americans are maintaining or gaining an appreciation for the value of these places. In theory, that appreciation would translate into constituents pressing federal and state governments to provide adequate resources and funding to manage and conserve these natural resources in a balanced manner guided by best available science. I’d say at the federal level for sure, we still have major resource shortfalls in need of attention. We are loving some of these places to death and we are not giving natural resource managers what they need carry out the very complicated work of allowing for multiple kinds of uses of our public natural resources, including high public demand for recreational access. Here in Washington, outdoor recreation related tourism continues to represent a policy space where we can find a high level of bipartisan cooperation, so we’ve made some incremental progress on this front and I’m bullish about continued progress.
Question –
Earlier this year, you helped pass the EXPLORE Act. Can you tell us a little more about this bill and its importance?
We did get this passed in the House of Representatives on a voice vote under suspension which speaks very directly to my point above – in a narrowly divided House where bipartisanship has been in short supply for many Congresses now, this legislation addressing a wide range of federal outdoor recreation management needs came out of committee smoothly and the full House smoothly. Its Senate companion, America’s Outdoor Recreation Act, similarly came out of committee unanimously twice. This bill for the most part is aimed at helping the federal government update its approach to recreation management on many fronts that have been in need of attention for some time including how various seasons for recreation permitting are determined, updated campground management, more effective gateway community collaborations – it’s a long list. It’s not sexy stuff but it gets at the guts of how our public land management agencies approach facilitating recreation and if passed and implemented, this legislation will help all Americans who love the outdoors. It’s a big deal.
Question –
How is climate change affecting outdoor recreation in our country? What can we do about it?
In a very practical sense, people are having to shift the locations of where they pursue their favorite outdoor activities or turn to different activities in the places they live. Whether it is fishing, hunting, skiing – name the activity – seasons and weather are changing. Outdoor recreation businesses are having to adapt and evolve and this brings us back to federal advocacy. We need to make sure the agencies managing the places we recreate outdoors in this country are able to carry out adaptive management of fish, wildlife, and infrastructure that anticipates climate-driven changes. We need to be clear eyed about all of these practical considerations and make sure outdoor recreation interests are communicating clearly with members of Congress and presidential administrations.