Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), a coalition of US outdoor recreation associations, convened U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, state recreation leaders, innovative researchers, and top outdoor industry and health CEOs for the inaugural National Executive Forum on Health and Outdoor Recreation.
The forum spotlighted the $1.3tn outdoor economy and its 5.2m jobs as a solution to America’s growing chronic disease, healthcare costs, and mental health crisis.
The event put The America’s Outdoor Era front and centre, ORR’s vision to reposition outdoor recreation as a cornerstone of US health infrastructure. Across 10 cross-sector conversations, executives, policymakers, and health leaders aligned on a clear path forward: expand recreation access close to home, strengthen partnerships between healthcare and the outdoor economy, and elevate trusted voices championing time outside as essential to physical and mental health. The conversations underscored outdoor recreation’s role in supporting youth and community wellbeing, reducing chronic disease, and driving economic opportunity.
Among the major announcements at the forum was the launch of the first-of-its-kind Rural Outdoor Recreation and Health Catalyst Grant Program, a new ORR initiative to put resources directly into rural communities ready to utilise the outdoors as a frontline health and economic development solution. With support from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the LOR Foundation, and The VF Foundation, new grants will fund locally led projects that connect outdoor recreation with preventive health, mental well-being, and social connection in rural America.
“The research is clear, the momentum is real, and the partners are in the room,” said Jessica Turner, president of Outdoor Recreation Roundtable.
“What comes next is alignment – across health systems, insurers, schools, employers, and land managers – to activate a national vision that is already within reach. Our goal is to change the way schools treat recess, how employee benefit plans reward outdoor time, and how our national health system views the outdoors as essential infrastructure.”
ORR is calling on businesses and trade organisations across the outdoor economy to take measurable action in three areas: supporting outdoor infrastructure and programmes that expand equitable access to outdoor experiences; embedding outdoor activity into workplace culture, benefits, and employee wellness; and partnering with health systems and institutions to advance the outdoors as a tool for prevention and better patient outcomes. ORR will spotlight signatories taking action throughout Great Outdoors Month in June.
The Confluence of States welcomed Connecticut as their 22nd member and announced they will advance new programmes, partnerships, and investments for outdoor recreation and health through a shared policy framework for state outdoor recreation offices, culminating in a first-ever Summit on Outdoor Recreation and Health this fall.
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine and the Nature & Health Alliance announced a new partnership established by a grant from the REI Cooperative Action Fund to launch an education series on the science of nature and well-being.
