When I stand up in front of a group of community members gathered to discuss their potential to build a resilient future around outdoor recreation, I can feel the excitement building in the room. It’s awesome to see communities realize that they can play an important role in building a thriving outdoor recreation economy.
As a partner of Santa Fe-based Once a Day Marketing LLC, I often witness many rural communities in New Mexico struggling to find viable economic development solutions to create new jobs and keep young people gainfully employed in town. When they realize that building a vibrant outdoor recreation sector is possible, the community unites with a common goal.
I work with large and small communities across New Mexico, including Aztec, Rio Communities, Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Farmington, Alamogordo, and Clovis. Along with a growing group of economic development and marketing professionals, we help meet the unprecedented demand for community-oriented economic development through outdoor recreation infrastructure like multi-use trails, parks, marinas, RV parks, and campgrounds, and stimulate new outdoor businesses such as guides, outfitters, and gear manufacturers.
As quality-of-life improvements are catching up to traditional economic development measures to recruit and retain businesses and talent, the outdoor recreation economy, valued recently by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis as a $1.1 trillion contributor to the national economy, with $2.4 billion in New Mexico alone, is taking center stage for rural identity, revitalization, and resilience. In addressing this pivotal moment, I have found the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable Rural Economic Development Toolkit to be a primary resource in guiding and motivating communities through the process of developing an authentic vision.
The Toolkit spells out a set of best practices and common approaches for rural communities looking to integrate outdoor recreation into their economic development plans. Content includes strategies for community activation, developing common talking points, financing recreation infrastructure, and capturing value for the local community. The resource also highlights common challenges for rural America, including limited bandwidth, housing and affordability concerns, and decades of falling investment.
Prior to the release of the ORR Toolkit, we were blazing unknown trails as to identifying the best ways for communities to grow and expand their outdoor recreation economies. It was also challenging to explain the process and best strategic approach to community leaders such as mayors, city councilors, and county commissioners. Now with the ORR Toolkit, we have 12 best practices to review and assess with each community and a common language to share with community leaders, making it easy to score how well a community is doing and prioritize future direction and resources.
At Once a Day Marketing, we are using the ORR Toolkit to develop outdoor recreation economy work plans for communities. From McKinley County located on the west side of New Mexico next to the Navajo Nation, or Santa Fe, one of America’s top tourism destinations, our work plan recommendations align with the 12 best practices, making it easy for community champions to follow a definitive road to build up their outdoor recreation economy regardless of timeline or resources.
My experience with the Toolkit is indicative of the value ORR hoped to create in developing the resource. Importantly, ORR is investing in communities as well. Last month, ORR launched the third grant cycle of its rural implementation grant program to help communities who participated in the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program receive financial investment to put their plans into action. At the end of the cohort, ORR will have supported 15 communities with nearly $125,000 in direct investment.
But much work remains at the federal, state, and local levels, with the support of private and NGO organizations, to meet community needs. The communities I work with frequently face numerous challenges, including helping local leaders understand the widespread economic benefits of outdoor recreation and the jobs, careers, and businesses it will create, supporting local entrepreneurship and existing companies, lack of access to flexible capital, difficulties engaging youth, and more.
ORR’s Rural Development Toolkit is acting as a north star for communities across New Mexico, and the organization has many plans in store to continue to scale this technical assistance and community investment nationally. The outcomes of healthier, more resilient communities and economies that we’re seeing through the rise of outdoor recreation are inevitable. It’s a matter of getting as many communities as we can to that point sooner and providing them with the tools and resources they need to do that work best.
By James Glover
Partner at Once a Day Marketing, LLC
