EXPLORE Act
Key claim: The EXPLORE Act makes it federal policy to foster outdoor recreation on public lands, requires Interior and the Forest Service to inventory and assess recreation resources and infrastructure, and creates a Federal Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation.
Abstract
(HR6492 · 118th Congress) Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act or the EXPLORE Act TITLE I–OUTDOOR RECREATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE Subtitle A–Outdoor Recreation Policy (Sec. 111) This section declares that it is the policy of the federal government to foster and encourage recreation on federal recreational lands and waters, to the extent consistent with the laws applicable to specific areas of federal recreational lands and waters, including multiple-use mandates and land management planning requirements. (Sec. 112) This section directs the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service to inventory and assess recreation resources for federal recreational lands and waters, develop the inventory and assessment with support from public comment, and update the inventory and assessment when appropriate. The inventory and assessments must recognize any unique recreation values and opportunities and areas of concentrated recreational use. Additionally, the inventory and assessments must identify, list, and map recreation resources by type of recreation opportunity and type of natural or artificial recreation infrastructure, the level of use of the recreation resource as of the date of the inventory, and any trends relating to recreation opportunities or use at a recreation resource. For each recreational resource inventoried, Interior and the Forest Service must assess (1) the maintenance needs of, and expenses necessary to administer, the recreation resource; (2) the suitability for developing, expanding, or enhancing such recreation resource; and (3) the adequacy of the current management of the recreation resource. (Sec 113) This section directs Interior to establish a Federal Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation to coordinate issues related to outdoor recreation on federal recreational lands and waters, including recreation programs and management policies of federal land and water management agencies, responses by such agencies to public health and Latest action (2025-01-04): Became Public Law No: 118-234.
Why this matters
The EXPLORE Act sets, for the first time in statute, a government-wide policy of fostering outdoor recreation on federal lands and imposes concrete inventory, assessment, and interagency-coordination duties on USDA’s Forest Service and Interior. For rural economies adjacent to national forests and public lands, this shapes recreation access, permitting, and infrastructure investment — a significant rural-development lever alongside traditional USDA programs. It does not directly affect farm production or food prices, but reallocates agency attention and resources on lands often shared with grazing, timber, and conservation uses.