Partners Outdoors:
Why Not Byways Outdoors?

The Recreation Roundtable, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management hold partnership-building workshops as an event called Partners Outdoors. This event has drawn the attention and sponsorship of eight federal agencies and a national organization of state park directors. Government, recreational leaders from the private and public sectors, and state tourism agency directors attend the event.

The Partners Outdoors program began in 1992, uniting federal agencies and the recreational industry in the recognition that both parties share customers/constituents. Partners Outdoors prompts action partnerships to serve those customers/constituents and may serve as a model for byway organizations to duplicate for their particular byway/resource interests.

America’s Byways were represented at the 1999 Partners Outdoors by George Schoener as Director of Intermodal and State-Wide Programs for the Federal Highway Administration. At that time, he reviewed the resources provided for recreational interests in the TEA-21 legislation and noted that funding opportunities might exist due to federal motorfuel tax receipts that were exceeding projections.

Also at the 1999 Partners Outdoors event were Associate Deputy Secretary of Transportation John Horsley and Bureau of Land Management Assistant Director for Renewable Resources Henri Bisson, who outlined an alliance among transportation, tourism and recreation interests based upon scenic byways, trails, and enhancement program funding for visitor centers and other projects.