Why is outdoor recreation and tourism important to Wyoming?
Tourism and recreation create a variety of jobs and income opportunities for communities in our state.
Tourism and recreation create a variety of jobs and income opportunities for communities in our state.
They bike and hike our trails, fish in our lakes and rivers, explore historic sites, adventure in our national forests and parks, and more.
Thanks to these visitors, our state’s travel, tourism, and hospitality industry is able to directly support 32,120 jobs in a variety of sectors (including food service, transportation, retail, and arts/entertainment) across the state. And in 2017 alone, travel spending generated from tourism added around $188 million in local and state tax revenue!
To ensure our state’s bountiful natural resources and destinations remain available for Wyomingites and tourists alike to enjoy, it’s important to create stewards of this industry. In the Outdoor Recreation and Tourism unit of the Wyoming Stewardship Project, students gain an understanding of the complex management decisions necessary for Wyoming’s unique lands, wildlife, plants, and more.
Each year, the Wyoming Stewardship Project has the potential to impact as many as 26,000 students statewide in grades 2-5—and with the program already incorporated in classrooms across nearly every Wyoming county, we’re well on our way there!
Exploring the “what, where, and why” of Wyoming agriculture, students learn about Wyoming farms and Wyoming’s livestock industry; discuss the different ways farmers and ranchers practice stewardship; and are challenged to think about Wyoming agriculture through scientific, cultural, and economic lenses.
To fully understand Wyoming’s mineral and energy resources, students first take a comprehensive look at energy production in our state, then have the opportunity to really get involved and discover Wyoming’s mineral and energy resources.
We’re working to ensure that future generations of our state’s leaders, critical thinkers, and problem solvers become stewards for our state—and it’s only with your support that we can make it happen!