Outdoor Recreation

Relaxed gun restrictions on public lands worries conservation groups about safety to public and wildlife

The Wilderness Act prohibits motorized vehicles and equipment to protect places “untrammeled by man” and to preserve “solitude.”

Visits dropped about 8% in Colorado in the first year after wildfires. But recreation stayed flat or even increased after low-intensity prescribed fires.

More than 60 organizations published a policy paper in response to a recent push to sell public lands for housing. They argue that such proposals would need to check certain boxes to ensure affordability and community benefits.

We hear from two of the students, who biked over a thousand miles along the Continental Divide. That adventure is the subject of the film “Gravel and Grit: Bridging the Great Divide," which premieres in Riverton on Tuesday.

Ski areas with special-use permits must be primarily focused on skiing and other snow sports. But in a final rule, the U.S. Forest Service said that focus will no longer be determined by revenue, which could help ski areas to adapt business to a changing climate.

The National Park Service recorded 323 million visits in 2025 at parks, historic sites, monuments and recreation areas, about a 3% decline from 2024’s all-time high.

Outdoor recreation remains a major economic player, but inflation, tariffs and affordability concerns may have contributed to a slowing growth rate in 2024.

Steve Pearce, a former Republican congressman from New Mexico, would next need to clear a vote in the full Senate in the coming weeks to be confirmed.

The Utah congressional delegation introduced a resolution to undo the Biden-era management plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, employing a rarely used law that's never before been used to target a national monument.