THE GREAT AMERICAN OUTDOORS ACT
Celebrating a Once-in-a-Generation Investment By Claire Cutler (she/her), CDTC Trail Policy Specialist
Hailed as one of the largest investments in public lands in U.S. history, the Great American Outdoors Act is a lifeline for America’s most treasured places, including the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDT) and other congressionally designated trails. The walk from Mexico to Canada on the CDT is anything but simple. Some of the complications are predictable– planning resupply, passing through water-scarce areas, or repairing a piece of broken gear. Others are less predictable, varying, and in some cases compounding, each year. Even the best-prepared hiker on the CDT may be startled to encounter dozens of blowdowns in a day, a washout, a stretch of trail damaged by a wildfire, or a dangerous road walk. With the CDT becoming more popular for day, section, and through-hikers each year, the need to maintain and complete the CDT is increasingly important. The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) is a path for this much-needed work on the CDT and for similar work across America’s public lands. PAGE 30
Landmark Legislation for Growing Popularity Over the past decade, recreation across the Continental Divide has increased dramatically, with visitors flocking to destinations like the CDT for a day hike, section hike, or even a 3,100-mile thru-hike. Visitation to national parks and other public lands nationally has also grown rapidly in the past twenty years, but funding for land management agencies has remained stagnant.1 This chronic underfunding, paired with an increasing number of sites to manage, has left land management agencies struggling to maintain facilities such as campsites, trails, and visitor centers. At the end of 2023, the National Park Service estimated that the cost to address all deferred maintenance across their sites would be over $23 billion. 2 Introduced in early March of 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act quickly gained nearly sixty bipartisan cosponsors. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck not even two weeks later, policymakers in both chambers recognized that even in the midst of an emergency and extreme bipartisan disagreement, they couldn’t