The report also said the outdoor industry supports 6.5 million jobs, which amounts to one in 20 U.S. jobs, and generates about $88 billion in federal and state tax revenue while stimulating 8 percent of all consumer spending.

Eight outdoor activities were included under the "outdoor recreation" umbrella: bicycling, camping, fishing, hunting, paddling, snow sports, trail and wildlife viewing. Of those, camping proved dominant when measured in economic terms, supporting almost 2.5 million jobs and bringing in $36.4 billion in tax revenue.

Closer to home, the foundation reported that the economic impact on the eight-state Mountain Region (Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming) neared $61.5 billion. About 617,186 jobs can be linked to the outdoor industry, the report stated, along with $4.8 billion in gear-related sales and $8.9 billion in state and federal taxes.

The report combined data from 14,000 surveys conducted by Harris Interactive, 52,000 surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau at the behest of the Interior Department and other previously published reports, and adjusted the data for the general U.S. population.

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Contributing: The Associated Press

E-mail: jnii@desnews.com