California Proposes Formal State Office for Outdoor Recreation

California’s legislature officially recognized the state’s growing outdoor recreation economy by passing AB 1918, a bill to create the Office of Sustainable Outdoor Recreation. California becomes the 8th state to recognize its outdoor economy through a formal state office.

Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia authored the bill, and it was coauthored by Assembly Members Wendy Carrillo, Frank Bigelow, Kansen Chu, James Gallagher, Marc Levine, Rudy Salas Jr., Jim Wood and Catherine Baker.

“A state-level Office of Sustainable Outdoor Recreation will lead to increased participation in the outdoors by a broad range of Californians as well as a healthy environment for companies involved in our outdoor recreation economy,” said Matt Lyon, president & CEO of Oakland-based HydraPak. “We’re excited to see the focus on this important sector that provides over 690,000 jobs throughout California.”

AB 1918 now heads to Governor Brown for his signature.