Muscle Power More Recreationists Pull Their Own Weight

Puffing against America’s infatuation with off-road vehicles, powerboats and chairlifts, the interest in human-powered recreation is gaining economic muscle.

A recently released study by national sporting goods manufacturers and retailers says Americans spend $10 billion a year on backpacks, hiking shoes, mountain bikes, canoes, cross-country skis and other gear related to muscle-driven recreation.

The 1995 report by the Outdoor Recreation Coalition of America found that more than 75 percent of people older than 16 participate in some form of outdoor recreation. Walking is the most popular activity; enjoyed by more than 70 percent. Participation in day-hiking activities is expected to increase five-fold in the next 40 years.

The report also touches slightly on the impacts of such growth in a nation where suburban developments are being built with no sidewalks, let alone connecting trail systems.

Some of the highest demand pegged by the report is for urban outdoor recreation areas.

In-line skating has been the fastest growing human-powered sport in America for two years, primarily because the gear is tailored to pavement. In 1994, the number of in-line skaters grew to 18.8 million, an increase of 513 percent in five years.

The largest group among the legions of human-powered sports participants consists of white males, ages 24-40, with an annual income of $50,000 or more and at least some college education.

However, this profile is expanding, the report says.

Bicycling, cross-country skiing, hiking and other sports are capturing increasing interest from women, older people and ethnic groups.

The family is the key to attracting interest in human-powered sports, the survey found.

“With more single-parent households and families in which both parents work, the opportunity or skills within the family unit to introduce children to the joys of outdoor recreation may be on the wane,” the report says.

“Research indicates that participation among children is on the decline.”

Tent camping and backpacking are still the time-honored favorites. Both have steadily gained popularity with increases of 12 percent and 11 percent respectively in 1994.

After a downturn in the ‘80s, nordic skiing has taken off to become the second fastest growing human-powered sport in the country, the survey found. The growth is not attributed to track skis, but rather to wider skis, which are “transforming the sport’s image from a serious pursuit to a more fun-loving one.”

Mountain bikes continue to dominate bicycling. Since mountain bikes first passed road bikes in market share in 1990, mountain bike ridership has increased by 20 percent a year, the report says.

Since 1983, about 40 million mountain bike or fat-tired hybrid bikes have been sold in the United States. According to the International Mountain Biking Association, most of those bikes are ridden only on roads. Nine to 10 million of those bikes go off roads occasionally. Only about 3.5 million are used by trail-riding aficionados.

This small percentage of riders has raised serious issues about trail erosion and safety in some congested areas. Many state and federal parks have banned off-road biking.

Only in the past few years have mountain bikers begun organizing into groups to help mend these sores.

Mountaineering and rock climbing claimed 6.2 million participants in 1994, an increase of 32 percent in one year. The growing interest could be attributed in part to the popularity of artificial climbing walls, which are springing up around the country and attracting new people to the sport.

The report predicts this growth is likely to spread more climbers out onto natural rocks, a trend that concerns wildlife managers.

Last year Washington state officials restricted access at two rock-climbing areas to protect nesting sites for hawks and falcons.

Equipment manufacturers aren’t the only beneficiaries of the boom in outdoor sports. Magazines sprout for every niche. Demand increases for guidebooks. Local communities reap the rewards - and headaches.

For example, the combination of ample riding terrain and the boom in mountain biking is largely responsible for the 15-fold increase in overnight rooms in Moab, Utah, since 1991, according to the Grand County Travel Council.

The Moab area, of course, is liberally endowed with federal land.

The report notes that recreation has earned a higher profile in the priorities of federal land managers in recent years. However, extractive industries still get most of the budgetary attention.

“As recreational use continues to grow on federal lands, funds available for building trails and other maintenance continues to shrink,” the report notes.

“Much of the infrastructure to accommodate visitors was originally put into place 30 or more years ago. Since that time, use at most of these areas has at least tripled but funding has not kept pace.”

A study in Arches National Park indicates that at areas near visitor centers or roads, users accept a higher density of people than they do in the backcountry, where visitors expect some degree of solitude.

This, and the need to protect fragile backcountry from being trampled, has led most national parks and many national forests to enact quota systems for backcountry use.

The outdoor recreation industry is lobbying for a larger share of recreation budgets. Meanwhile, volunteer resources have helped fill some of the gap. In 1993, about 6 percent of Americans volunteered for outdoors work projects, the report said. Three times as many are interested in doing so in the future.

In the Spokane area, groups have adopted sections of the Centennial Trail for maintenance. The Sierra Club sponsors weeklong working vacations in national forest lands to build trails.

In 1993, the National Forest System was assisted by 101,737 volunteers whose work was valued at $37.7 million, the report said.

Charging access fees for recreation on public lands is a growing trend that’s already enforced at many national wildlife refuges. User fee bills are cropping up more regularly in Congress.

Also, there’s increasing support in the industry for an excise tax on outdoor recreation gear to fund national projects for trails, access and wildlife conservation.

A current proposal would be patterned after successful programs to earmark taxes on hunting and fishing gear in order to fund everything from boat ramps to hunter education programs.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo 3 Graphics: 1. Popular activities 2. Human-powered recreation participation profile 3. Projected participation growth