A Plan for Everyone
The state’s latest outdoor recreation plan is directed by someone who knows how it feels to be an outsider in the outdoors and is working hard to create a space where everyone belongs. By Timothy Brown
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onnecticut may the third smallest state by area but is home to a wide range of outdoors recreation opportunities, from hiking and mountain biking, to fishing, camping, and boating. In addition, New England’s distinctive and dramatic seasons provide recreationalists with year-round adventure. Itching to get on some skis? Winter is coming. Tired of the cold and snow? Book your campsite now because spring is right around the corner. But experts say that not enough people know about these opportunities, and only a fraction of the state’s diverse communities are accessing parks, forests, beaches, and other natural settings to recreate. The Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, or SCORP, is both a landscape-scale analysis and a blueprint for understanding who is—and, critically, who is not—recreating outdoors so that resources can best be allocated to serve all constituents. The SCORP is a requirement for states to receive funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a federal program that supports the acquisition and development of park and recreation lands. In 2023, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the agency tasked with drafting the SCORP, partnered with the Center for
Community Engagement and Social Research at Central Connecticut State University to conduct a variety of surveys—the Avid Outdoors Enthusiast Survey; the Statewide Demand Survey; and the Town’s Survey—in an effort to be more inclusive when developing the latest version of the five-year plan, which goes into effect in 2024. Dr. Akiebia Hicks is overseeing the development of the new SCORP. She says that while previous plans have focused on DEEP’s role in outdoor recreation, the goals, objectives, and strategies outlined in the current plan will be more relevant to municipalities, nonprofit organizations, and other partners in the state. “When I came into this role, my biggest goal was to ensure that this wasn’t just a document that sat on the shelves and collected dust,” she said. “I wanted anybody in the state of Connecticut to be able to pick up this document and say, ‘This is how this applies to me.’”
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emand for outdoor recreation has risen dramatically since the pandemic. In 2022, an estimated 17 million people visited Connecticut’s state parks and forests, a 75 percent jump from pre-pandemic levels. This rapid increase in use has taken a toll on recreational facilities and placed additional demands on the workers who manage ctwoodlands.org
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