Can EXPLORE Act Enthusiasm be Translated Into Momentum for Recreation and Tech?

This time last year, an array of advocates backing the EXPLORE Act were on a roller coaster of expectations. The legislation had over 80 pages of detailed updates to outdoor recreation rules, with provisions on permitting reform, accessibility, needs of gateway communities, technology upgrades, and more. Some sections were in the works for over a decade, and the House had finally passed the bill by unanimous consent in April 2024.  It took an all-out push and final-minute, Member-to-Member coaxing for the Senate to also act unanimously in Congress’s waning days.

Some might say, now comes the hard part – especially when it comes to technology upgrades aimed at improving life for gateway communities, public lands staff, and visitors.

It’s not news that when you want to go on an all-American adventure, you can turn to the commercial sector’s online and tech-savvy platforms to book nearly every aspect of your trip – and even deliver ongoing tips and guidance. That is, if your trip doesn’t involve recreating among the nation’s wondrous but jurisdictionally siloed federal, state, and regional public lands and waters.  Using a piece of paper or a plastic card – and trying to figure out which of those 20th-century tokens to use at a park’s parking lot – can hurt the brain, to put it mildly.

The EXPLORE Act’s recreation and technology (Rec Tech) provisions are the jumping-off point for bringing modern-day solutions to this mix. The challenge will be whether public sector leadership and private sector collaboration can leverage the Act’s empowering authorities to bridge jurisdictional divides and make life easier for so many of us who just want to get outside.

The Act includes provisions that would:

• Simplify permitting for groups and individuals, such as encouraging projects that could sell multi-jurisdictional passes;

• Improve data collection and dissemination on recreation features, their use, and their accessibility, with one goal being better “load balance” between nearby parks;

• Identify greatest needs for broadband and cellular connections, albeit with appropriate care for quietude, viewscapes, and wilderness; and 

• Encourage collaboration with gateway communities and private outfits outside recreation areas to optimize local opportunity.

This past summer, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued a Secretarial Order delegating authorities for EXPLORE Act follow-through, and the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable hosted a first-ever, energetic Rec Tech & Innovation Summit.  Secretary Burgum capped off the event with a heartfelt, carpe diem message, urging creation of the public-private partnerships that’ll be necessary to make the Act’s ambitions a reality.

Turning into 2026, one immediate next challenge is to see if the private sector can cohere a vision for 21st-century, tech-facilitated park experiences – a vision that respects the best of our outdoor time away from tech but doesn’t rely on fragmented, yesteryear approaches to do the disconnecting.