Outdoor recreation hot in Utah

I don't know that many people ever put a dollar figure to some of the outdoor activities we enjoy here in Utah.

It's hard to put a price tag on an enjoyable bike ride in the mountains or an overnight sleep in a tent or an afternoon on the ski slopes.

The Outdoor Industry Association recently did.

Here in Utah:

• Outdoor recreation contributed $5.8 billion — yes, billion — to the economy in 2005.

• It supported 65,000 jobs.

• Generated nearly $300 million in state tax revenues.

• Resulted in nearly $4 billion in retail sales.

• And accounted for nearly 5 percent of the state's gross state product.

Take away those biking, skiing and camping outings and life here in Utah wouldn't be nearly as good as it is. Worse, there would be a whole lot of unhappy people if those outdoor activities were taken away.

On a bigger scale, OIA reported outdoor recreation contributes $730 billion annually to the U.S. economy, supports 6.5 million jobs, which is one in 20 jobs, generates $49 million in tax revenues and produces $289 billion in retail sales.

Here in Utah, nearly half of all Utahns — 761,579 — went camping in 2005, either staying in an RV, tent or rustic lodge, according to the report.

Which is easy to see since Utah has 42 state parks, five national parks, six national monuments, two national recreation areas and one national historic site; more than 400 public and private campgrounds and nearly 1,000 fishable lakes and a similar number of streams and rivers.

Next on the list of popular outdoor activities is "trail," which covers mountain running, hiking, backpacking and rock climbing. The report states that 43 percent of Utahns or 714,023 people did, over the year, take a trail.

Which is really not too surprising since Utah offers some of the most spectacular hiking/running/walking trails found anywhere. I would put a hike through the Zion Narrows up against any trail in the world.

Hunting had the lowest number of participants — 173,991, which is 10 percent of the population.

Fishing attracted twice as many people as hunting — 375,196.