January Update - Minnesota Outdoor Recreation Industry Partnership

Director’s Note:
As you read this, we’re gently dipping our toes into the icy cold waters of 2025. This is the perfect time to review the big news and accomplishments of 2024 while also looking ahead to what we hope to achieve this year. In 2024, we celebrated the Outdoor Recreation Industry Partnership’s (ORIP) first birthday, and it was a year dedicated to laying a solid foundation for success down the road. I hope you enjoy this look back, and I can’t wait to work together in 2025!

Partnership Updates:
Last year felt like drinking out of a waterfall. There was a constant flow with no end in sight. Even so, some highlights stand out from the past 12 months:

In March 2024, Minnesota faced an unprecedentedly warm winter, severely impacting winter tourism and small businesses. With only 14.3 inches of snow in the Twin Cities (the second lowest on record) and 15.7 inches in Duluth, the state experienced its warmest meteorological winter on record from December through February. The lack of snow and warm temperatures exacerbated the ongoing drought in 81 Minnesota counties.

In response, ORIP collaborated with the Governor’s Office, and similarly situated Midwest states (Wisconsin and Michigan), to make available federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) through the Small Business Administration. These loans offered up to $2 million in assistance with no interest for the first year and a maximum 4% interest rate thereafter. The loans specifically supported businesses affected by the drought conditions and lack of winter tourism revenue. This was the first time in program history that these funds were used in this manner.

In August 2024, ORIP contracted RRC Associates to develop the state’s first comprehensive economic impact report on outdoor recreation. The report will take a more granular look at outdoor recreation's impact on local communities in Minnesota. It will lay a baseline and foundation for our future work to grow Minnesota’s outdoor economy. The final report will be released in June 2025, and we will have many opportunities for outreach and engagement.

In October 2024, Minnesota became the 20th state to join the Confluence of States. This bipartisan initiative aims to support and grow the outdoor recreation economy, which contributes $1.1 trillion to the U.S. GDP and supports five million jobs nationwide. The Confluence Accords focus on five key areas: conservation, education, economic development, public health and opportunity. With this expansion, the Confluence of States continues to strengthen its collaborative efforts in promoting sustainable outdoor recreation across the country. To learn more about how Minnesota can benefit from membership in the Confluence, see here.

In November 2024, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its annual outdoor recreation satellite account numbers. Minnesota’s outdoor recreation GDP increased by 10.5% from $11.7 billion annually to $13.5 billion. Minnesota outperformed the national average of 9%. We also saw an increase of 4.2% in outdoor recreation jobs to 95,937,placing Minnesota 10th among all states for outdoor industry job growth.

As of December 2024, ORIP’s podcast “Explore Minnesota More” has 15 published episodes. The latest episode is a deep dive into the recently released Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers (mentioned above) for Minnesota’s outdoor recreation economy. The podcast started small but it has grown to be a platform that many Minnesotans, interested in our outdoor recreation ecosystem, listen to on a bi-weekly basis. See our banner down below to listen and subscribe!

In 2025, we can look forward to completing the economic impact study, the first annual Outdoor Industry Summit, an outreach campaign highlighting local economic impacts, 24 more episodes of Explore Minnesota More and much more!

Grant Highlight:
On December 16, 2024, the Department of the Interior announced an estimated $450 million funding opportunity over the next five years for local communities across the United States to create new parks and trails or renovate existing parks through the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) program.

The ORLP program, established in 2014, is a nationally competitive, dollar-for-dollar matching grant program that aids disadvantaged urban communities that lack access to close-by outdoor recreation. The program provides grants for community-sponsored park projects where the population is greater than 30,000 residents. Managed by the NPS and funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the program provides matching grants up to 50% of the total project costs.

To learn more about to new ORLP grant opportunity, see here.

Opportunity Spotlight:
IMBA Announces 2025 Trail Development Program in Minnesota!

The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) has announced its 2025 Foundations trail workshop program, which will be held in Minnesota at two locations: Winona in the spring and Duluth in the fall. This marks the program's seventh year, with previous workshops held in Bentonville, Arkansas, and Cedar City, Utah.

The Foundations workshops are designed to educate participants on creating successful mountain biking communities. They cover everything from planning and design to building, activation, promotion and measuring success. The program targets land managers, community officials, recreation professionals and tourism/economic development staff.

In addition to the Foundations program, IMBA is offering two other educational opportunities for 2025: Trail Management Schools for professionals and Trail Care Schools for community members. These are available as two-day, on-demand workshops delivered in local communities.

The organization has also launched a new Trail Friendly Community Self-Assessment tool, developed in collaboration with West Virginia University's Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative and Extension Service. This assessment tool analyzes trails and bike infrastructure through a community development lens, providing immediate scoring and recommendations to help communities improve their trails and gain support from local officials and funders.

Interested participants can find scheduling information and registration details at imba.com/foundations.

EXPLORE Act signed by President Biden!
As we finalized this newsletter edition, news broke that the EXPLORE Act is now law. This is a monumental bipartisan accomplishment that will significantly impact the outdoor recreation industry for years to come. I will spend a good portion of next month’s newsletter digging into the specific programs and how they might positively affect our industry.

Call(s) to Action 
The success of our State’s outdoor industry is founded upon the actions by Minnesotans passionate about the outdoors. Here are a few steps you can take to help us out. 

• Know someone interested in the outdoor industry? Please share this newsletter with them. 
• Do you have any feedback about what you’ve just read? My door is always open. Let me know how we can improve.  
• If you have any ideas for stories we should highlight through the podcast, I would love to hear them. We’re looking to tell the stories of champions, visionaries, entrepreneurs, activists, and athletes who make Minnesota’s outdoor ecosystem one of the best in the US. 

Randolph Briley (he/him)  |  Deputy Director - Outdoor Recreation

121 7th Place East, Suite 360, St. Paul, MN 55101 

C: 320-319-6692

randolph.briley@state.mn.us  |  exploreminnesota.com | outdoorindustrypartnership.com