Outdoor Recreation

  • Two people riding bikes on a dirt trail through a forested area

Leveraging Natural Resources for Community Benefit

Our work with communities to assess recreational amenities, identify opportunities and in stewardship helps communities to leverage natural resources for health, wellbeing and economic benefit.

Developing Interconnections for Regional Trails

This multi-disciplinary working group aims to generate understandings of the challenges and opportunities that community-based recreational trail organizations face in developing and improving trails and regional trail networks. Additionally, this group aims to help such organizations increase their own capacities through collaboration, partnership-building, and knowledge-sharing, in part by facilitating programming and evaluation pertaining to topics of identified need such as grant writing and volunteer management.

Learn More

Four people wearing backpacks walking on a trail in the fall

Articles

Ethan O'Leary viewing a trail map on a Keene Paths trail kiosk
Rolling toward a vibrant economy and career relevant skills
Mountain biking economic analysis supports community decision making and engages students
Mountain biking is an increasingly popular outdoor recreation activity in New Hampshire and beyond. Communities recognize mountain biking's economic o... Learn More
Canadian geese feeding on green grass in a park
Getting to Work with DIRT
Individuals from over twenty groups, organizations, and municipalities from the greater Franklin-Northfield-Tilton “Foothills” region of New Hampshire... Learn More
Sugar River Region logo
Talking Trails Council in Sullivan County
Derek Ferland, Sullivan County Manager and Becky Levy, Extension's Community & Economic Development Field Specialist in Sullivan County joined Steve S... Learn More

Events

Resources

Two people walking down city street
10 Components of Vibrant Communities
A vibrant community relies on several key components, including economic vitality, community health, natural resources and recreation, community engag... Learn More
Shaded walkway path along river with bistro style seating.
Access to Nature and Its Economic Implications
The Nature Economy Collaborative, supported by UNH Collaborative Research Excellence, is pleased to share a brand-new information brief on the communi... Learn More
nature economy graphic illustrating the relationship between nature economy, economy development and quality of life
Connecting Nature Economy to Community Goals - Graphic
We aim to help communities connect the environment and natural resources with community goals to create vibrant economies and high quality of life for... Learn More
graphic of trails connecting to a downtown
Nature Supports a Vibrant Downtown Economy
Nature and access to natural assets can be important components of a downtown economy. In this new brief from the Nature Economy Collaborative, we det... Learn More
Nature Economy Fact Sheet #2: Values of Freshwater Recreation in NH
New Hampshire’s freshwater resources provide numerous values to both residents and visitors. New Hampshire has over 1,000 Lakes and 10,000 miles of ri... Learn More
Connecting Downtowns and Trails
In May 2018, the team traveled on a train-the-trainer trip to Kentucky’s Trail Towns program. During the trip, the group visited and assessed four dif... Learn More
Nature Economy Fact Sheet #1: The Economic Benefits of Trails
Many communities in New Hampshire and beyond, have natural assets such as trails that can be leveraged for economic vibrancy. In this fact sheet, the ... Learn More

View More Resources