Opinion: Looking for a break from coronavirus quarantine? Connecticut’s great outdoors are the most accessible in the nation
A recent federal report might fool you into thinking that outdoor-recreation spending in Connecticut is down. The report misses the forest for the trees. Spending is up. Trail use is way up. That’s all because Connecticut has one of the most accessible and affordable outdoor-recreation systems in the nation.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report says that Connecticut lags behind other New England states in the share of the economy spent on outdoor recreation. Although that statistic is true, it is quite misleading.
Connecticut has a robust economy, larger than many other New England states. In actual consumer dollars spent on outdoor recreation, Connecticut ranks ahead of all other New England states except Massachusetts.
Moreover, despite our smaller geographical size, Connecticut brings in more outdoor-recreation dollars than a number of recreational-destination states with much larger land areas, such as Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming and Alaska.
And under the leadership of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Connecticut continues to trend in the right direction.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, those citizens spending money on outdoor recreation in Connecticut increased their spending from 2017 to 2019 in boating/fishing (up 9%), hunting/shooting (up 1.8%), RVing (up 7.1%), motorcycling/ATVing (up 1.8%), equestrian activities (up 8%), climbing/hiking/camping (up 3.7%), snow activities (up 4.5%) and bicycling (up 2.5%).
That is an expansion in spending in every outdoor-recreation category in Connecticut over the last two years except recreational flying — down 6.5%.
As impressive as these economic indicators are, they obscure a more important attribute of the state’s outdoor resources. Connecticut’s geography and breadth of parks, forests, beaches, lakes and rivers, spread all across the state, give its citizens an accessible, affordable outdoor-recreation system — one of the best in the nation.
Connecticut’s Passport to the Parks program funds the state’s outdoor-recreation resources through a vehicle registration fee. Most important, Passport to the Parks has enabled DEEP to eliminate parking fees for Connecticut residents and provide better amenities at our park locations.
Our parks are affordable and accessible for vacation destinations or the after-work run, hike or bike. This is one of our state’s most unique attributes, one that contributes substantially to a positive quality of life for our residents — a fact never more obvious than during the current pandemic.
This spring, when some states were closing down their parks because of the pandemic, DEEP’s staff of essential workers was laboring tirelessly to keep parks open safely. State parks and boat launches reached capacity earlier and more often than in past summer seasons. Fishing season opened early, with license sales up 13%. Hunting license sales are up 9%. The Connecticut Trail Census reports from the summer show a more than 50% increase in trail use from 2019. New boat sales were up 40% this year.
Certainly, outdoor recreation has fueled Connecticut’s tourism economy in 2020 as residents have turned to the outdoors for safe entertainment close to home. DEEP’s small but dedicated park staff have worked diligently to support more than 250,000 acres of park and forest land in Connecticut and to meet the needs of the more than 10 million annual visitors.
If quick, easy access to a variety of outdoor-recreation opportunities is important to you, it’s hard to find a better place to live than Connecticut.
Mason Trumble is deputy commissioner for environmental conservation in the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
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