Outdoor recreation shouldn’t be seen as an afterthought or an optional luxury, Nathan Reigner said.
Rather, it’s an essential part of any healthy community, and planning for it should be given the same consideration as for any other form of critical infrastructure.
“That’s where we need to get,” he said.
Reigner is first director of Pennsylvania’s newly created Office of Outdoor Recreation. He was the featured speaker at the Ware Center on Tuesday at a forum sponsored by Hourglass Foundation on Lancaster County’s growing outdoor economy and its potential for further growth and development.
Outdoor activities “help us be our best selves,” Reigner said. They bring people together from all walks of life — something that’s more important than ever in today’s polarized era. The outdoors is refreshing, and time spent outdoors contributes to mental and physical health.
It’s also an important and growing economic sector. In Pennsylvania it generates $17 billion a year, giving the state the 8th largest outdoor economy in the United States. For communities near popular trails, parks waterways and so on, it can present invaluable opportunities for economic development and revitalization.
Reigner’s office aims to build’s Pennsylvania’s outdoor industry capacity. That involves organizing and mobilizing the industry itself, building local capacity and developing a sense of shared self-interest among the sector’s many stakeholders; growing workforce capacity; and communicating the value of the outdoors to local and state decision-makers and the community at large.
Employment in outdoor recreation is a broader category than people realize, he said. Most ski resorts, for example, make their own snow, which involves pumping water out to large “snow guns” on the slopes. That means they need plumbing technicians.
He outlined the virtuous cycle his office hopes to create. Outdoor amenities are a big draw for many people deciding where to live and pursue their careers. Communities can leverage that to their advantage by investing in their outdoor resources. Those new arrivals create local demand for goods and services, and some start businesses of their own, spurring broad-based economic development.
“The path toward prosperity in future is through quality of life,” Reigner said. He enthused about the potential for innovation, envisioning an outdoor “innovation hub” akin to Rock Lititz and citing Shophouse Park in Michigan as an example.
He also emphasized the need to ensure that outdoor recreation is grounded in equity and inclusiveness.
“Everyone belongs in the outdoors,” he said, but for many reasons, that hasn’t been the case. Going forward, everyone must have the opportunty and must feel welcome, he said.
Following his presentation, Reigner joined a panel of local stakeholders to discuss outdoor recreation initiatives in Lancaster County.
“We see a huge opportunity,” said Ezra Rothman, president of economic development nonprofit EDC Lancaster.
Lancaster has 18 boroughs, all of which could benefit from outdoor recreation; Rothman also concurred with Reigner about its potential as a workforce recruiting tool.
EDC is launching a study this fall to examine the county’s outdoor economy and possibilities for growth. It has issued a request for proposals for a consultant to lead the effort and is hoping to have a final report by mid- to late 2025.
Quarryville is one of those 18 boroughs. In 2020, it began looking at building a short spur and a ramp to connect its downtown to the Enola Low Grade Rail Trail.
It took until recently to secure the necessary grant funds and complete the planning and design process, everything is now ready and the $500,000 project is going out to bid shortly, borough Manager Scott Peiffer said. The construction timeline is weather-dependent to some extent, but the borough anticipates opening the access trail in the spring.
It will provide an easy way for hikers and cyclists to hop off the trail into the borough and back again. Columbia and Marietta have seen a nice bump in downtown activity since the opening of the Northwest River Trail, and Quarryville is hoping for the same, Peiffer said.
“I think we’ll see it,” he said.
Discover Lancaster, the county’s designated tourism promotion agency, recognizes the importance of outdoor recreation and is incorporating it in its marketing, Director of Communications and Advocacy Joel Cliff said.
It’s one of the ways the agency is moving beyond the traditional focus on Amish tourism and related attractions, Cliff said. While that will always be a big part of the county’s appeal, Discover Lancaster is working to bring all its offerings to the fore, including outdoor recreation, arts and cultural venues, and the area’s many restaurants, bars and breweries.
Outdoor enthusiasts owe a debt to the Lancaster Conservancy, which has been working since 1969 to preserve as much as possible of Lancaster County’s rapidly diminishing stock of undeveloped land. It has saved more than 10,000 acres, and manages more than 50 preserves with more than 45 miles of hiking trails.
Next week the Conservancy will open its handicap-accessible trail at Clark Nature Preserve. Outdoor recreation is the gateway that gets people interested in and committed to land preservation, Executive Director Fritz Schroeder said.
The trails along the Little Conestoga Creek Blue Green Corridor will likewise be fully accessible, said Emily Landis, education director for the project.
The corridor will run from just south of Marietta Avenue to just north of Park City Center. The initiative is three projects in one, Landis said: An environmental water and floodplain restoration project; a trail; and an “outdoor learning laboratory,” serving casual visitors, K-12 students and even university researchers and their students, who will monitor and analyze water quality and the corridor’s biological health.
The corridor’s trails will knit together several suburban neighborhoods, offering a new option for non-motorized transportation. That will be a game-changer, Landis said, contributing to community health and engagement and quality of life.
Moderator Diana Martin, Hourglass’ executive director, asked the panelists about their hopes for the future. All envisioned outdoor recreation continuing to grow, paying off in economic revitalization, improved health, enhanced quality of life and stronger community ties.
Landis said she hopes it inspires people to care for the environment. The farmland here is lush and beautiful, but the county has lost significant amounts of wetlands and has relatively little forested land remaining.
“It’s so important to protect what we have,” she said, “and then catalyze environmental restoration to preserve more, and to treasure it.”
