Massachusetts has named the first-ever director of its Office of Outdoor Recreation. Created at the end of 2022, the Office is meant to coordinate outdoor recreation policy with other governmental bodies and the private sector.
Located within the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the entity has a roughly $200,000 budget for fiscal year 2024.
In an exclusive interview with WAMC, Paul Jahnige, who starts on Sept. 25, detailed his plans for the position and how his experiences led him to the post.
Jahnige: Born and raised in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, where we, as a family growing up, got an opportunity to explore all kinds of wonderful outdoor recreation spaces here. Was a Boy Scout my bike trips in college, then spent some time both overseas and in the mid-Atlantic, where I worked as urban and community forester in Baltimore. I helped him to plant trees are organized communities to plant trees in East Baltimore, and also founded an urban environmental nonprofit. I worked with DCR [Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation] as a trail planner for almost 17 years. And that was a really incredible experience to help build trails around Massachusetts. And finally, as a volunteer, in a youth soccer coach, a Frisbee coach helped co found a large major ultimate frisbee tournament in the Connecticut River Valley. And I serve on various boards and committees, including our Williamsburg woodlands trails committee.
Levulis: What appealed to you about this position?
Well, actually, I've been interested in this position as the director of the first Office of Outdoor Recreation, probably since I first, you know, just heard little rumors or inklings of it about five years ago. And I'm incredibly grateful to the Healey-Driscoll administration for tapping me for this job. I'm interested in it because I've been exploring and experiencing, you know, Massachusetts outdoor spaces, our parks, our forests, our waterways, ever since I was a child, and in recent years, with our Department of Conservation and Recreation, I’ve been trail planner and have gotten to explore and plan and repair and construct and reconstruct trails all over the state. And I think we have a lot of opportunity to promote outdoor recreation of all kinds in Massachusetts. I firmly believe that it's critical for our public health, our community health and our economic health. And I want to be a part of promoting that going forward.
Now, as mentioned, this is a brand-new position. So essentially, as it pertains to Massachusetts, there's really no playbook for this role. What will be some of your first tasks?
That's correct. This is a brand-new position. And, you know, I've got some ideas about what I want to do. But my first task is going to be listening to people. I'm going to want to meet with folks in our private outdoor recreation sector, public sector, nonprofits, and really hear what kinds of ideas people have for us. Also, as you know, Secretary [Rebecca] Tepper [of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs] in Massachusetts has recently appointed our state's first Undersecretary for Environmental Justice and Equity, Maria Belen Powers. So I expect to be working closely with her to engage in environmental justice communities to make sure that, you know, we're hearing how to engage environmental justice communities as we develop this office. We are starting with a with a small budget. And I expect in our first year to devote that budget to some basic marketing and promotion efforts, working with the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, to help make sure that folks both in Massachusetts and outside Massachusetts know how great a place this is to come and play. And then finally, I'm going to be focusing on growing this office. And we're working with the administration and with private partners, to think about how we grow this office in Massachusetts, and also look at federal and private grant opportunities to help do that.
Levulis: And you brought up the budget there and growth. And I think it's fair to say that Massachusetts or a lot of other entities, when it comes to budget time, outdoor recreation, not exactly a top priority typically. What's your pitch to lawmakers, those in the Healey administration and then those, you know, who might be doling out those grants that this sort of effort deserves the funding, especially as this is a brand-new office?
Yeah, well, again, I think what's great is that the Healey-Driscoll administration does recognize the importance of outdoor recreation for the economic health of our communities and our Commonwealth. And that's what my pitch is going to be, you know, outdoor recreation generates money for the economy as people stay in Massachusetts and spend money or come to Massachusetts and spend money. And, you know, that helps with the local communities and it helps with the state budget. My other pitch is going to be that this is it's really important to make outdoor recreation in the Massachusetts as welcoming, inclusive, diverse and accessible as possible. And I know that's one of the priorities of the administration and our legislature. So I hope that that's gonna have some resonance there.
And when looking specifically at an area like Mount Greylock and the surrounding communities in the northern Berkshires there, it's home to the Mount Greylock State Reservation run by DCR, Department of Conservation and Recreation. There's also a multimillion dollar at Greylock Glen resort project under development there. It involves some private dollars as well. How does the region and those ongoing efforts there, how do they fit into what the Office of Outdoor Recreation is trying to accomplish?
I think the Greylock area and Greylock Glen in particular are good examples of the kinds of models we want to be trying to support through the office of outdoor recreation. In my work with these DCR I was actually a project manager for the Greylock Glen trail system development. So I'm very familiar with the Glen and you know how important it is to have a combination of community and state investment along with volunteer and private investment as we grow outdoor recreation. Again, I think that serves as a good model for how we bring together state, local, private resources together to increase access and increase accessibility, and bring more people to our wonderful outdoor recreation spaces in places like the Northern Berkshires.
When the creation of this office was announced at the end of 2022, at the time, 17 other states had similar entities. Will you be or have you looked at any of those as models?
Yes, I will certainly be looking at those and actually have already started doing that on my time. There are 17 other states, including some of our neighbors and also those further afield, and I’ll be looking at the kinds of programs and models that they've developed. There's also something called the Outdoor Recreation Learning Network that is organized by the National Governors Association, I’ve already joined that. So I'll be looking to participate actively in that. And I know that their next session is on inclusion and diversity in outdoor recreation. So I'm excited about that opportunity.
