Nebraska's Public Lands
With the recent announcement by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission regarding the early closure of several public lands, this post from back in February is more appropriate than ever. The Nebraska State Chamber went to a lot of trouble and expense to prepare this study, and what came through is that Nebraskans want MORE outdoor opportunities. I'll be blogging more about the decision to close the public properties.
Nebraska's Chamber of Commerce and Industry has recently launched a Forging Nebraska's Future initiative that started with a grass-roots effort to garner ideas from across the state as to what needs to happen to make Nebraska a place our young people want to come home to.
They have just now released the results of that effort with the report "100 NEXT GENERATION IDEAS." I highly encourage you to click through the link and read the entire report for yourself.
There are a lot of good ideas in this report, there are some that make you go hmmmmm. There are a lot of things that some form of government must do. Not a lot of empowering the private sector to do. However, there are many ideas that affect the Nebraska Outback, especially in the realm of outdoor recreation and tourism and I'd like to outline those for you here.
Nebraska's Chamber of Commerce and Industry has recently launched a Forging Nebraska's Future initiative that started with a grass-roots effort to garner ideas from across the state as to what needs to happen to make Nebraska a place our young people want to come home to.
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| 100 NEXT GENERATION IDEAS |
There are a lot of good ideas in this report, there are some that make you go hmmmmm. There are a lot of things that some form of government must do. Not a lot of empowering the private sector to do. However, there are many ideas that affect the Nebraska Outback, especially in the realm of outdoor recreation and tourism and I'd like to outline those for you here.
57. Work with Nebraska Game and Parks to
develop a large park and campground in the Sandhills that will play off of the
unique attributes of the region and also offer top-notch lodging and
recreational opportunities; include development of a new ATV park that will be
the envy of the country. This will bring considerable new economic activity to
the region.
58.Nebraska needs to develop programs
that will promote conservation of land, increase habitat, increase pheasant
populations and in turn promote
tourism in rural Nebraska. I think a program geared toward taking marginal
(high soil erosion potential or similar) farm land out of production and promoting
use of the land for tourism-hunting would help in a variety of ways.
61. Encouraging in-state tourism. Our state
could offer some sort of package deal that could be personalized to fit an
individual or family’s interest. Let’s spread adventure.
74. Offer a package deal for non- Nebraska
hunters to get reduced prices on hunting permits when staying at least 4 days
at a Nebraska State Park (ideally a park that offers hunting, or is close to
open access hunting land).
84. Offer a military discount for hunting
and fishing licenses.
86. Complete the Cowboy Trail, America’s
longest rails-to-trails project, and construct a new trail along the Platte River.
88. Preserve surface water - enter into
compacts with Wyoming and Colorado to protect Platte River flows; dam rivers
to the extent possible consistent with wildlife habitat protection,
recreation, and irrigation, as well as compact obligations; utilize “gray”
water for irrigation and residential watering; reduce irrigation needs by
utilizing better farming practices.
99. Work with the appropriate local, state
and federal agencies to make 60% of Nebraska’s lake shores available for
private residential development. This has been done successfully in Missouri.
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| The Outdoor Recreation Economy |
I find these very interesting because they coincide with another report, the Outdoor Recreation Economy released by the Outdoor Industry Association.
Given that Nebraska is 97% private land, with the state and federal government managing just 3% of our natural resources, Nebraska's development of our natural resources for outdoor recreation purposes MUST come from the private sector, which is why I would like to have seen more empowerment initiatives in the 100 NEXT GENERATION IDEAS report.
Some statistics from the Outdoor Recreation Economy Report.
- 6.1 million American jobs
-$646 billion in outdoor recreation spending each year
-$39.9 billion in federal tax revenue
- $39.7 billion in state/local tax revenue
Americans spend nearly as much on snow sports ($53 billion)
as they do on Internet Access ($54 billion).
Americans spend more on bicycling gear and trips ($81
billion) than they do on Airplane tickets and fees ($51 billion).
More American jobs depend on trail sports (768,000) than
there are lawyers (728,200) in the U.S.
In Nebraska, at least 65% of Nebraskans participate in outdoor recreation each year.
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| Nebraska Statistics |
You'll have to go to the full report to see clear images of the screen captures I've shown here.
One of the things that could have been addressed in the Nebraska report was revamping our recreational liability laws to limit the landowner's responsibility for liability involving the "inherent risks" of outdoor recreation. There is a bill in the legislature right now that would do just that, but having it in this report might have increased its chances of passage.
What are your thoughts? What are your ideas to help Nebraska capitalize on the huge outdoor recreation economy?
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