Outdoor Recreation Tourism | Western Community As

Outdoor Recreation & Rural Tourism Solutions Roundtable

Thanks to all who joined us for the November 18, 2025, event!

See the recording of the WeCAN Solutions Roundtable on Outdoor Recreation and Rural Tourism, cohosted by the Western Rural Development Center here. Also, check out our Resource Guide!

Connect to the Outdoor Recreation and Rural Tourism Resource Guide.

Access the Resource Guide

More about the roundtable

This WeCAN Solutions Roundtable on Outdoor Recreation and Rural Tourism explored how rural communities across the West are using outdoor recreation as a tourism strategy in thoughtful, community-centered ways. Participants shared stories and head about what’s working, what communities are learning along the way, and how local leaders are shaping tourism that supports businesses, respects residents, and fits the places they call home.

We looked at how rural places are making decisions that reflect local priorities, set expectations early, and respond to challenges and unintended consequences as they arise.

Participants left the roundtable with new ideas they can adapt in their own communities, clearer insight into the tradeoffs recreation-based tourism can bring, and new connections and inspiration to shape visitor economies that are sustainable, right-sized, and rooted in what makes your place unique.

The program included:

A keynote conversation with Elizabeth Sodja, Lindsey Romaniello, and Jake Powell from the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative, exploring how western communities are navigating both the opportunities and pressures of recreation-driven tourism.
Six solution-focused community stories, shared by rural leaders, land managers, Extension staff, and nonprofit partners working on the ground. These short, practical examples will highlight real decisions, lessons learned, and approaches communities are testing and refining. (Story presenters will be announced soon.)
Peer learning and exchange with participants from rural communities and supporting organizations across the Western U.S. and beyond.

Recorded presentations can be viewed in the video above.

Keynote Conversation (starts at 16:30 in the video)

Elizabeth Sodja, Lindsey Romaniello, and Jake Powell from the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative drew on GNAR’s research and work with western communities to share insights into how recreation-driven tourism is shaping local economies and community life. They explored what communities across the West are experiencing as outdoor recreation becomes a larger part of their economic future — including the opportunities, tradeoffs, and hard questions that come with it.

Lindsey Romaniello is a PhD student at the University of Utah and a researcher with the Gateway and Natural Amenity Regions (GNAR) Initiative, where she studies planning challenges in rural and gateway communities across the western United States. She previously worked as a recreation and community planning consultant, supporting towns and regions across the country, and has experience in local government as a municipal planner in the Rocky Mountain West. Her work focuses on long-range planning and land use policy, with current research exploring housing affordability, infrastructure development, and water access. Lindsey is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Elizabeth Sodja, MNR, MCMP, is the Program Coordinator for the Gateway & Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative at Utah State University (USU) Extension. She has a decade of communications and community outreach experience, and has worked with federal, state, and local government agencies. Before joining GNAR, she worked for USU's Center for Community Engagement and the National Park Service. She grew up in a small town in Utah where most family vacations were either camping, fishing, or in a National Park, and has a passion for helping small towns around the west preserve what is special about them. When she isn't working, you can usually find her and her husband climbing a rock, living out of a tent, or driving down a dirt road covered in dog hair.

Jake Powell is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in Utah State University's Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. Jake graduated from Utah State University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and a minor in Watershed Sciences. After working professionally as a land planner and designer, Jake returned to pursue a Master of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from Penn State University. Jake’s subsequent professional career has focused on uniting communities to their surrounding landscapes through collaborative planning and design efforts. He has worked throughout the Intermountain West to envision and implement projects that span the scales from watershed planning and restoration efforts, natural resource conservation plans, recreation infrastructure designs, and developing community economic growth opportunities.

Jake’s research and extension efforts focus on analyzing how the design and planning of communities, infrastructure, and sites affect water quality, quantity, and conservation at both the site and watershed scale, gateway community design and planning challenges, and recreation amenity development and stewardship. Jake is the co-director of the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative and works with his colleagues to provide a hub for all things gateway community related.

Solution Stories from across the Western U.S. (starts around 52:21)

Solution Stories are part of the heart and soul of WeCAN's Solutions Roundtables. These short presentations highlight approaches that rural communities are using as they put outdoor recreation tourism to work. Our eight presenters offered new ideas from their experience and reflected on what's working, what the challenges are, how communities are working together, and how you can adapt these approaches where you live.

Short-Term Rental Regulations and Resort Tax Investments | Whitefish, Montana | Dana Meeker (starts at 54:17)

Dana talked about the challenges that Whitefish, a community of around 9,000 residents, has faced with vacation rentals and managing tourism in a way that contributes to community quality of life. In addition to how Whitefish has managed short-term rentals, Dana also covered the 2023 voter-approved reallocation of resort tax revenue toward community housing and infrastructure — which 83% of voters backed.

Mining History & Outdoor Rec Present in the Center of the Uinverse | Wallace, Idaho | Rick Shaffer (starts at 1:04)

Rick Shaffer, the self-appointed "Prime Minister of Hospitality and Good Will" of Wallace, showed us how Wallace and other communities in Idaho's Silver Valley have evolved an outdoor recreation economy on the shoulders of a long mining history and side-by-side with a Superfund site.

Eastern Sierra Regional Council of Governments | California | Ken Etzel and Aaron Wilcher (starts at 1:15)

Ken and Aaron talked about the Eastern Sierra Council of Governments (ESCOG), which is leading efforts in collaborative outdoor recreation planning and also works in housing, workforce development, and other challenges faced by communities in this rural region on the eastern flanks of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. ESCOG coordinates with local governments, land managers, private sector partners and others on planning and project development. Aaron also talked about how Extension supports work like this.

The Hanalei Initiative: Regenerative Tourism on Kaua‘i's North Shore | Hawai‘i | Joel Guy (starts 1:28)

Joel gave us the inside story of the Hanalei Initiative, based on the north shore of Kauaʻi, which has been deeply involved in community-driven efforts to manage the impacts of recreation-based tourism in a rural, remote setting. Accelerated by 2018 flooding, which significantly affected access, infrastructure, and daily life in the area, they have worked in close partnership with the State, County, and community to shape, implement, and soon expand a robust, resident-led managed access system for Hāʻena State Park: home to some of the most heavily visited beaches and hiking areas in Hawaiʻi pae ʻāina.

Supporting Rural Communities in Leveraging Outdoor Recreation Opportunities | Colorado | Guinevere Nelson (starts 1:36)

Guinevere Nelson will talked about Colorado's Rural Technical Assistance Program (RTAP), which partners with graduate students from the Masters of the Environment (MENV) program at CU Boulder, CSU Extension, and the US EPA’s Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) program to provide planning and strategy assistance for outdoor recreation and Main Street development in selected rural communities. This innovative program engages graduate students as community consultants to help develop Community Action Plans and provides ongoing support through CSU Extension.

How Wyoming is Strengthening Rural Outdoor Recreation and Tourism | Brynn Herschman and Hailey Sorg (starts 1:47)

Brynn talked about Wyoming's Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Trust Fund, a legislatively created permanent fund for improving outdoor recreation infrastructure, and talk about how some rural communities have put these grant funds to work. Hailey added some detail about the Jay Kemmerer WORTH Institute at the University of Wyoming and how it supports the outdoor recreation, tourism and hospitality industries across the state. She highlighted how Extension can be a resource for communities pursuing this kind of work.