Home » News » Politics
July 29. 2012 8:17PM
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen meets with Eastern Mountain Sports President and CEO Will Manzer at the EMS Peterborough store on Friday to discuss the importance of the Land and Water Conservation Fund to the New Hampshire outdoor recreation economy. (MEGHAN PIERCE PHOTO)
Sen. Shaheen calls outdoor recreation program funding vital for NH
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen meets with Eastern Mountain Sports President and CEO Will Manzer at the EMS Peterborough store on Friday to discuss the importance of the Land and Water Conservation Fund to the New Hampshire outdoor recreation economy. (MEGHAN PIERCE PHOTO)
PETERBOROUGH — U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., met with Eastern Mountain Sports president and CEO Will Manzer Friday to discuss the importance of the recently unfunded Land and Water Conservation Fund to the economy.
“We’re here to talk about the importance of continuing to invest and how important it has been to New Hampshire,” Shaheen said.
Although the Senate passed a transportation bill with funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the money was stripped from the transportation bill when the Congress passed the bill two weeks ago.
It is a bipartisan issue, Shaheen said in Peterborough Friday, noting that both New Hampshire Republicans Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Rep. Charlie Bass had supported the fund in recent votes.
Manzer, an active member of the Outdoor Industry Association, said according to a recently released study, the outdoor recreation economy is a $346 billion industry in the U.S. economy, generating 6.1 million jobs annually and driving or generating $8 billion in federal revenue.
“And in New Hampshire that translates into 53,000 jobs and 8 percent of our gross domestic product. So it has a huge impact here,” Shaheen said. “Not just in terms of outdoor recreation, but when you think in terms of tourism, which is the state’s second largest industry.”
Over the years the federal dollars have matched funds to support projects such as the acquisition of Temple Mountain as a state park, she said.
Manzer said the outdoor recreation industry is greatly affected when there is a maintenance backlog at state parks or reduced staffing to run state parks, as well as less and less attention to recreation in general. It equals to a problem in his business sector, he said. “We see it affect the industry in such a significant way. … Our business thrives on outdoor recreation venues.”
Not only does the outdoor recreation industry create jobs, it creates an overall healthier society, Manzer said. “We’ve got kids growing up with childhood diabetes and all kinds of problems, and we’re not addressing it — and in our back yard we’ve got a gymnasium and we’re not funding it.”
Full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund would be $900 million, $450 million divided among each state and $450 million distributed at the federal level.
“Hopefully, it’s going to get funded. The question is at what level it is going to get funded,” Shaheen said.
The outdoor recreation economy study is available online atoutdoorindustry.org.
mpierce@newstote.com
“We’re here to talk about the importance of continuing to invest and how important it has been to New Hampshire,” Shaheen said.
Although the Senate passed a transportation bill with funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the money was stripped from the transportation bill when the Congress passed the bill two weeks ago.
It is a bipartisan issue, Shaheen said in Peterborough Friday, noting that both New Hampshire Republicans Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Rep. Charlie Bass had supported the fund in recent votes.
Manzer, an active member of the Outdoor Industry Association, said according to a recently released study, the outdoor recreation economy is a $346 billion industry in the U.S. economy, generating 6.1 million jobs annually and driving or generating $8 billion in federal revenue.
“And in New Hampshire that translates into 53,000 jobs and 8 percent of our gross domestic product. So it has a huge impact here,” Shaheen said. “Not just in terms of outdoor recreation, but when you think in terms of tourism, which is the state’s second largest industry.”
Over the years the federal dollars have matched funds to support projects such as the acquisition of Temple Mountain as a state park, she said.
Manzer said the outdoor recreation industry is greatly affected when there is a maintenance backlog at state parks or reduced staffing to run state parks, as well as less and less attention to recreation in general. It equals to a problem in his business sector, he said. “We see it affect the industry in such a significant way. … Our business thrives on outdoor recreation venues.”
Not only does the outdoor recreation industry create jobs, it creates an overall healthier society, Manzer said. “We’ve got kids growing up with childhood diabetes and all kinds of problems, and we’re not addressing it — and in our back yard we’ve got a gymnasium and we’re not funding it.”
Full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund would be $900 million, $450 million divided among each state and $450 million distributed at the federal level.
“Hopefully, it’s going to get funded. The question is at what level it is going to get funded,” Shaheen said.
The outdoor recreation economy study is available online atoutdoorindustry.org.
mpierce@newstote.com