A big piece of news out of Washington, the Explorer Act, has passed the Senate and heads to the

president for signature. It includes sweeping reforms to the permitting process in national parks

and on other public lands, including long-awaited reforms to the rules for filming on federal

land, extending the season that public campgrounds are open, reauthorizing the Every Kid Outdoors program,

and more. I'm Jason Epperson, and this is the America's National Parks podcast.

The Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreations Act or Explore Act was introduced in the U.S.

House of Representatives in November of 2023, sponsored by many

House members on both sides of the aisle, and it passed the House on a voice vote back on April

9th. It was then sent to the Senate where it's been lingering, waiting to be taken up,

and many had hoped that it would finally get passed by the Senate in this lame duck session.

The bill is actually a package of a dozen or so public lands related pieces of legislation,

and it has wide support from both Democrats and Republicans and a wide variety of public land stakeholders,

including environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation

and business interests like the RV Industry Association and the Outdoor Hospitality Industry

Association. Supporters say it will grow rural jobs, increase access to public lands,

provide gateway communities assistance for outdoor recreation businesses, and modernized facilities. The bill provides

for a whole host of public lands initiatives and reforms. I'm going to list them in the order they

appear in the bill, and I'm going to skip some of the minor ones. First off, the bill requires the

cabinet secretaries in charge of public lands to do a massive survey and inventory of outdoor recreation,

mapping opportunities for more recreation and showing the usage levels and needs for infrastructure

improvements across the country and across all of the federal land agencies like the National

Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service.

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