Secretary’s Message: There is a Place for Everyone in Maryland’s Outdoors

In October, more than 150 people attended the inaugural Maryland Outdoor Recreation Summit. The event, held at Rocky Gap State Park, represents a milestone for the Department of Natural Resources.

We welcomed academics, park rangers, business owners, students, nonprofit leaders, and others who are engaged in outdoor recreation activities to the summit to build networks, share environmental stewardship ideas, and expand economic opportunities. As part of the event, attendees joined excursions and activities such as kayaking on Lake Habeeb, landscape painting at Rocky Gap, and mountain biking the Great Allegheny Passage. Other outdoor activities included campfires, birding expeditions, rock climbing, and disc golf.

In Maryland, there is a place for everyone in outdoor recreation. Name an outdoor activity that you enjoy, and we can probably make it happen somewhere in the state. We have world-class fishing, sailing, and boating opportunities off the Atlantic Coast and in the Chesapeake Bay.

In Central Maryland our networks of state and local parks offer everything from meandering hiking trails to adventurous biking opportunities. Mountain Maryland in the West provides idyllic camping opportunities, thousands of acres of wilderness, and plenty of hunting locations.

Growing up in Maryland, I took full advantage of this range of recreational opportunities. I grew up hiking, bird-watching, kayaking, sailing, and fishing. This love of the outdoors helped guide me into a career in science and environmental conservation. Through my work at DNR, I’ve taken up waterfowl hunting and rock climbing as I continue to expand my interest in outdoor recreation.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz addresses attendees at the 2024 Maryland Outdoor Recreation Summit. Maryland DNR photo.

My story is not unique. My colleagues at the Department of Natural Resources share similar experiences.  Many of the people I had the chance to meet at the summit spoke about ways that outdoor recreation positively influenced their lives. This is how outdoor recreation helps build community.

At the Department, we also know that enabling people to enjoy the outdoors creates environmental stewards. There’s an emerging field of research on this topic. In a 2019 report for the U.S. Forest Service, a team of researchers detailed how wildlife recreationists were “four or five times more likely” to participate in conservation behaviors such as enhancing habitat or advocating for wildlife than others. The researchers also found a strong link between outdoor recreation participation and pro-environmental behavior among state park visitors.

Conservation and recreation go hand in hand. That’s why the Department is putting an emphasis on expanding outdoor recreation opportunities through the summit and the newly-created Office of Outdoor Recreation. We want to conserve land and encourage people to enjoy it. We want to protect wildlife by helping residents understand why species are threatened. And we want to clean waterways so people can enjoy them while fishing, swimming, paddling, or boating.

By working together we can improve the outdoor recreation economy in Maryland, build community, and create long-term environmental stewards. This is why we launched the Outdoor Recreation Summit this year and have already begun preparing for next year’s event. We look forward to welcoming even more people for the second edition.

Josh Kurtz is Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources