SmartTranscript of House Commerce - 2025-02-12 - 3:45PM

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[Chair Michael Marcotte]: Good afternoon, everyone. This is the Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. It is Wednesday, February twelve twenty twenty five at three forty five in the afternoon. We're just back from our business on the floor, and we're here to hear about the move forward together Vermont plan. We have Jack Degar with us from Borek. Jackie, welcome. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. I think this committee has been strong proponents of Borek and the outdoor economy as well. So thank you for joining us today. [Jackie Dagger]: Really. And first off, I wanna thank you, Chair Mercat, for inviting me in. I'm really excited to spend this time with this committee and late in the afternoon. So I'm hoping to provide you with a little more insight and to move forward together in Vermont. For the record, my name is Jackie Dagger and I am the program manager for the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative. I know there's a lot of new faces in the room and some folks who are very familiar with VORAC, but I thought I might just start by giving an overview of what VORAC is. VORAC is a state program. At our core, we're a partnership between the Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation and the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. We also work really closely with a fifteen person steering committee of leaders from across the state who represent different aspects of Vermont's outdoor recreation economy and together we are working to strengthen the connections between Vermont's outdoor recreation resources and the economic benefits that come from participation in outdoor recreation. As Chair Marquette said, I'm here today to talk to you about Move Forward Together Vermont. I know that you already heard some testimony from Becca Washburn, who's the director of the Division of Land Administration and Recreation, as well as the chair of the board steering committee that I mentioned. So today, I'm gonna try and share a little bit more information with you about the robust planning process that we did to lead into the plan, a little bit about the plan itself, as well as dive into some of the priority actions that are under each of the core themes. So I am gonna share my screen. So give me one second. Let me see because I am not on view. Sorry about this. Alright. Let me try this again. It's it's that I want to present and Sometimes you have to go share the screen. Great. Okay. Here we go. I think I've got it this time. There we go. Can you all see? Perfect enough. Great. Perfect. Alright. So Move Forward Together Vermont. Move Forward Together Vermont is our strategic vision for strengthening Vermont's health or recreation economy over the next five years and beyond. As you know, this is the culmination of a really large scale planning process that the Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation and the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative led over the last eighteen months. And we're here today on outdoor recreation day launching this really large scale plan. So as I said I want to talk to you and give you a little more information about this planning process. Over the last eighteen months we've had thousands of people engaged to share their feedback and input on outdoor recreation in Vermont. We had over two thousand five hundred people participate that's four in every thousand vermonters which is pretty major in our opinion and they participated in twenty eight focus groups two public user surveys one recreation provider survey that was actually completed by the Vermont Recreation and Parks Association. We did an outdoor business survey about their businesses across the state, and then we held one outdoor leader summit where we looked at all of the data we received and the feedback, and we refined it into a draft vision and priority actions. Then we put that draft back out for public input held to in person open houses, as well as held an online feedback form. People couldn't make those open houses in person, they could share their feedback through that online form. So you can imagine we had all of this data, all of this feedback, we learned a lot about outdoor recreation in our state. And one of the biggest numbers we learned about was that ninety percent of people in Vermont recreate once a week or more. That's really huge. Those participants are going outside to enjoy Vermont's world class outdoor recreation resources, and they're contributing economic benefits back to municipalities, as you know, generating two point one billion dollars in economic impact. Those numbers are really impressive, and I know you've heard them before. They're not only impressive for a small state like Vermont, but they're impressive across the country nationally because Vermont is second in the country for value add from outdoor recreation. So we also learned that while people are participating in outdoor recreation, the most popular activities they're participating in are walking, hiking, swimming, flat water paddling and gardening. And we also learned from outdoor businesses that the top activities that they're serving that they're serving customers for are bicycling, hiking, walking, and backcountry skiing. We also learned a few other things. We learned that people participating in outdoor recreation in Vermont, are participating the top three reasons are to enhance their mental well-being, relax and recharge, as well as appreciate the scenic beauty of your state. We also learned there are barriers. There are barriers to people getting outdoors. The top barrier is the high cost of gear, equipment, and clothing, closely followed by competing interests, which is understandable. There's a lot to do, but also insufficient facilities. So I know you've seen this overview before. This is Move Forward Together Vermont. This is our strategic vision, and the scope of the priority actions. So just as a reminder, Move Forward Together Vermont's vision is to foster healthy and vibrant communities through outdoor recreation. We've elevated to shared goals or common objectives, and those are climate resilience and equity. We elevated those shared goals because we saw through the data and we heard through the feedback that without looking at, the priority actions through these lenses and including these in every action that we take over the next five years, we can't move forward with a strong outdoor recreation economy. The priority actions, there's nineteen of them. They're shared across three core or key themes. There's six or seven underneath each theme. The themes are stewardship, their wellness, and their economic development. I want to dive in a little bit because I know you've seen this overview before to the actual priority actions themselves. So the stewardship priorities really focus on supporting or promoting care for parks, trails, and water access, the environment, and the organizations and people who manage after recreation. There's six priority actions here. Invest in stewarding and upgrading existing recreational infrastructure, strengthen guidance and education about climate resilience strategies that help communities interact with their rivers and water bodies, cultivate and promote a stewardship ethic among vermonters and visitors, identify and support regional outdoor recreation planning and partnerships, create and promote a suite of technical assistance resources to strengthen the skills and expertise of nonprofits, municipalities and businesses who manage them and reinforce and sustain public recreation on private lands. So the wellness theme is really about supporting the physical and mental health of outdoor recreation participants and their ability to access the outdoors. There are seven priority options underneath this theme, and you can see them up on the slide. They are to create and enhance in community outdoor recreation opportunities that directly connect to where people live, learn, and work. Develop recreational opportunities and conserve open spaces that strategically fill gaps and experiences and distribution across the state, create safe welcoming and environmentally sustainable entry spaces into the outdoors, centralize, improve, and make more accessible informational resources about outdoor recreation opportunities and events, support programs that reduce the cost of outdoor recreation, strengthen community awareness about improved health and wellness outcomes throughout your recreation, as well as strengthen connections between people working in health and wellness, people working in education, and people working in outdoor recreation. [Chair Michael Marcotte]: I think, you know, it's good for the committee to remember, you know, like I said it today in press conference about five years ago. Where were we? Five years ago, we were on the on the cusp of shutting the state down because of COVID. And, you know, if we didn't have our outdoor economy and recreation, I think, you know, we talk about wellness, you know, health, and that was the only way that we could meet together as a community with outdoor work. And so it served a huge purpose and, you know, I I think that's a I need another important reason why we need to continue to to foster the the outdoor economy, outdoor recreation. [Jackie Dagger]: Definitely. And we saw that reflected from thousands of people through the feedback as well that outdoor recreation, the value in Vermont is really adding, to the mental health and physical wellness of the people who live in our state. It's very important. The economic development theme. The priority actions underneath this theme are really about strengthening opportunities for outdoor organizations and businesses to expand entrepreneurship, learning, and innovation. There are six priority actions. There's develop information and resources to demonstrate how outdoor recreation resources and vibrant local economies are connected, strengthen the capacity of municipalities to engage in Vermont's outdoor recreation economy. You all have been very involved in some of the ways we've been able to do that to date, and I really thank you for that. Strengthen workforce opportunities in Vermont's outdoor sector, foster resilience and flexibility in outdoor recreation communities, organizations, and businesses to withstand major weather events and a variable climate, Invest in organizations and businesses led by marginalized communities, as well as support innovation in Vermont's outdoor sector by supporting entrepreneurship, providing resources to businesses, and seeking solutions to challenges. Finally, the piece of the plan I wanted to go into with you all is a call to action. The plan does include a call to action and really move forward together. Vermont relies on outdoor recreation partners working together collaboratively, inclusively, and with data driven decision making. The plan encourages that by working together, we can confront challenges, we can share resources, expand capacity, and build best practices. The Department of Forest Parks and Recreation and the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative have goals to play in supporting partners as we do this. The Department of Forest Parks and Recreation will support partners to complete important outdoor recreation projects at the local, regional, and statewide levels. And Vorek will monitor progress and help partners solve challenges to implementing the vision and priority actions. [Chair Michael Marcotte]: Yeah. So Go ahead. Forage parks and recreation is what a partner is like. Yes. What what about Fish and Wildlife? They have you [Jackie Dagger]: know, wildlife. They do. Yeah. They do. We we are sharing this plan with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and talking with them about implementation and the themes and priority actions that we've identified. So we're not only looking to implement this internally within our, within our state agencies, but also externally with the supportive partners. Thanks. Yeah. [Speaker 2 ]: Does that include federal prop partners such as Billings Farm and the Park Service and Silvio Conte and and, of course, the four hundred plus thousand acres of the Green Mountain National Forest. [Jackie Dagger]: Yes. Definitely. [Speaker 2 ]: Were [Speaker 3 ]: they any of those agencies able to help get involved with the planning? I know they had some budget constraints and stuff. But [Jackie Dagger]: Yeah. No. We I mean, we have partners in the Green Mountain National Forest, and we reached out to as many people as possible to participate in the surveys. We held focus groups that they were invited to, so we did reach out to them as partners. Yeah. [Speaker 4 ]: I'm curious about if you have any I I know some of your organizations do, but do you have any relationship with schools? Because it it dawns on me, as we've been talking in this committee and then talking with other folks, is that one of our key drivers just in general is is health. Mhmm. Seems like a very important thing. Like, I love the focus on on wellness, But it seems to help us also in the health care costs are such a big driver of our schools. So I wonder if our schools are gonna be involved in all of [Jackie Dagger]: this too. Yeah. I hope so. We did in thinking about engagement and what public input to receive, we did think a lot about our education partners, the Department of Health, like, how do we, how do we stitch those partners into the implementation of this plan? I think we have more work to do in terms of reaching out to those partners to really engage them in this plan and and how we implement the priority actions, how we can reach schools, but they're certainly a really important partner. Not only because, you know, we wanna provide access to the outdoors for our local schools, but we also wanna promote engagement in outdoor workforce, jobs, career pathways. It's certainly an important partner as we move forward to implementation of a plan. Any other questions before I move to next steps? Great. Great. So I just wanted to touch on very briefly next steps because we're here today. We're encouraging people to download and read the report. We, we have our central website, which is on the slide, and all of the report materials are available to download there. It's also going to be our central resource as we move forward with implementation of the plan. So we're encouraging people to go there. We're encouraging people to sign up for the Voric email list for updates. So you are are welcome to sign up for that list too. And, we're encouraging people to keep stay involved and, participate in implementation as we get this plan going. Move forward together Vermont is a response to questions we field all of the time about Vermont's priorities and goals for outdoor recreation. I'm sure as legislators, you've you've received some of these questions from your constituents, and you play a critical role in in your work with organizations. And so we want you we want you as well as our other partners to engage when we move forward together in Vermont so that when one of your constituents does come to you with a question about, like, hey. I'm I'm trying to put a parking lot at this trail head. Like, where do I start? Or I'm trying my community is looking, to invest in outdoor recreation. What questions should I be asking? What should I be planning for? We want this plan to be something you can, direct those constituents to, to provide a foundation for how we're working together on outdoor recreation in our state. So with that, all in my presentation, thank you so much for having me, and turn the floor back over to chair Markrat. [Chair Michael Marcotte]: Is there any money for more in the budget, you know, for [Speaker 4 ]: more grants? There's not. [Chair Michael Marcotte]: And do you have any funds left yet leftover from I think it was a couple years ago, but but significant amount of money gain. [Jackie Dagger]: We've allocated we've allocated the majority of it and are actively working on completing those projects. Yeah. We we completed the last round of grants. [Speaker 4 ]: And I [Jackie Dagger]: believe we execute we still have one grant agreement to execute, but the majority of them have been executed at this point, and they're about a year into their work. Is [Chair Michael Marcotte]: there more demand out there? [Jackie Dagger]: Oh, definitely. I mean, I I'm happy to you know, we're happy to come back in and talk more specifically about what we're seeing in terms of engagement and the outcomes of investments of that funding, and we'd love to do that. We are seeing some pretty impressive statistics on how that funding is being used and really excited about, though, the work we're seeing coming out [Chair Michael Marcotte]: of that. We'll invite you in, yeah, the next week or the beginning of the next when we start looking at the budget and getting our recommendations to appropriations. So we certainly would like to hear more, see the data that you have so that we could possibly recommend any dollars that that might be available. Some should go for it. Thanks. Other questions for Jackie? Jackie, thank you. [Jackie Dagger]: Yeah. Thank you guys so much. Yeah. I appreciate it. [Chair Michael Marcotte]: Maybe that ends our day. Give you a heads up for tomorrow. We're meeting with secretary Saunders and others, Jay Ramsey from Department of Labor. And we're gonna talk about the ESA EF grants, pilot grant, the federal government. Okay? Our registered scholarship program for alternate alternate teacher and development program. I'm opening money so later. We never know. We're gonna hear hear more about it and see where if the agency of education is fighting on a body of the word or not. So we'll learn about that. We'll hear about the community broadband board, more about the CUDs. We have a joint hearing tomorrow. We're are we still we're going in the pavilion tomorrow, are we? Great. So we're gonna be in two sixty seven pavilion tomorrow. And, you know, with the house of the general handle. You hear more on the let's build homes also. So with that
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