Great American Outdoors Act Listening Session

Description


The Public Lands Alliance, the National Park Foundation, and the National Park Friends Alliance hosted a listening session on July 22, 2021, with representatives from external partnership organizations to gather input on the Department of the Interior’s approach to planning for and executing the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF). Representatives from the DOI GAOA Program Management Office (PMO) presented an overview of the GAOA, the LRF project selection process, a summary of the fiscal year (FY) 2021 and 2022 projects and the importance of stakeholder engagement (recording of the presentation is posted below).

After the introduction and overview, participants broke into small round-table discussions. The conversations centered around three primary discussion topics: 1) creating transparency and information sharing, 2) project selection for fiscal years 2023 – 2025 and 3) engaging partners and leveraging opportunities.

Click here for a summary of the common themes and recommendations that were communicated by the partnership organizations. The DOI GAOA PMO and bureaus will review and consider these takeaways as they continue to refine their approach to selecting and executing GAOA LRF projects and managing the overall Program.