EXPLORE Act

Recreation Policy (Sec. 111) This section declares that it is the policy of the federal government to foster and encourage recreation on federal recreational lands and waters, to the extent consistent with the laws applicable to specific areas of federal recreational lands and waters, including multiple-use mandates and land management planning requirements. (Sec. 112) This section directs the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service to inventory and assess recreation resources for federal recreational lands and waters, develop the inventory and assessment with support from public comment, and update the inventory and assessment when appropriate. The inventory and assessments must recognize any unique recreation values and opportunities and areas of concentrated recreational use. Additionally, the inventory and assessments must identify, list, and map recreation resources by type of recreation opportunity and type of natural or artificial recreation infrastructure, the level of use of the recreation resource as of the date of the inventory, and any trends relating to recreation opportunities or use at a recreation resource. For each recreational resource inventoried, Interior and the Forest Service must assess (1) the maintenance needs of, and expenses necessary to administer, the recreation resource; (2) the suitability for developing, expanding, or enhancing such recreation resource; and (3) the adequacy of the current management of the recreation resource. (Sec 113) This section directs Interior to establish a Federal Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation to coordinate issues related to outdoor recreation on federal recreational lands and waters, including recreation programs and management policies of federal land and water management agencies, responses by such agencies to public health and other emergencies, investments relating to outdoor recreation, management of emerging technologies, research activities, dissemination of information about recreation to the public, improving access to outdoor recreational areas, and identification and engagement of nonfederal partners to support outdoor recreation. The council must be composed of representatives from the National Park Service (NPS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Forest Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Interior may also invite representatives from other federal, state, or local agencies as well as other organizations to participate in the council’s meetings. (Sec. 114) This section directs the Office of Management and Budget to submit and publish annually a report that describes and itemizes the total amount of funding relating to outdoor recreation that was obligated in the preceding fiscal year in accounts in the Treasury for Interior and the Forest Service.