Outdoor Recreation

Hiking, camping, hunting and fishing, among other outdoor activities, help generate $85.4 billion in annual spending in California, more than any other state in the country, according to a new study. Spending on outdoor recreation in the state also helps support 732,000 jobs and generates $6.7 billion in state and local taxes, according to the study by the Outdoor Industry Assn., the trade group for outdoor retailers, manufacturers and others. The report represents the first time that the organization has broken out the spending by individual state.

Hiking, camping, hunting and fishing, among other outdoor activities, help generate $85.4 billion in annual spending in California, more than any other state in the country, according to a new study. Spending on outdoor recreation in the state also helps support 732,000 jobs and generates $6.7 billion in state and local taxes, according to the study by the Outdoor Industry Assn., the trade group for outdoor retailers, manufacturers and others. The report represents the first time that the organization has broken out the spending by individual state.

The Great Recession apparently did not keep Americans from enjoying the great outdoors. From 2005 to 2011, spending in the U.S. on outdoor recreation grew by 5% annually to $646 billion, according to a report released Wednesday by the Outdoor Industry Assn., a trade group for outdoor retailers and manufacturers. During tough economic times, many Americans turn to outdoor activities, such as camping, as inexpensive alternatives to other diversions, such as foreign travel, according to industry experts.

The Great Recession apparently did not keep Americans from enjoying the great outdoors. From 2005 to 2011, spending in the U.S. on outdoor recreation grew by 5% annually to $646 billion, according to a report released Wednesday by the Outdoor Industry Assn., a trade group for outdoor retailers and manufacturers. During tough economic times, many Americans turn to outdoor activities, such as camping, as inexpensive alternatives to other diversions, such as foreign travel, according to industry experts.

The Interior Department reversed itself Friday and decided to distribute the summary of a presidential advisory commission report on outdoor recreation. However, the department said it would still hold back the full report until a lawsuit by critics of the commission is settled. The hold order had applied also to 48,000 copies of the 30-page summary at a mail service firm, which was about to mail them to various groups specified by the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors.

The Agoura Hills City Council agreed this week to consider a proposal for a miniature golf course with Grand Prix-style auto racing and bumper boats near the Ventura Freeway, despite one member's concerns that such uses could disrupt the quiet town. By a 3-1 vote, the council Wednesday night approved a zone change that would allow construction of an outdoor recreation center near the freeway. "This is just to let somebody submit a proposal," Councilwoman Fran Pavley said after the vote.

Jerry Schad had a simple explanation for his ability to quickly experience every mile he wrote about in his guidebooks, which helped expand hiking opportunities in Southern California: "I run through the boring parts and walk through the interesting ones. " His "Afoot and Afield in San Diego County," first published in 1986, is regarded as the preeminent guide to the region's trails. He followed it with two other well-regarded "Afoot and Afield" books, on Orange County and then Los Angeles County.

One in a series of occasional stories At Wilson's Eastside Sports in the Eastern Sierra town of Bishop, employees have been ringing up sales at a hectic pace lately as rock climbers, hikers and mountaineers stock up for the summer season. But a few blocks away, Brock's Flyfishing Specialists was quiet and empty on a recent Saturday afternoon, the victim of dismal fishing conditions around the Owens Valley. Heavy snow this winter kept several mountain lakes frozen long into spring, and an early-summer heat wave had created a torrent of snowmelt in nearby streams and rivers.

Federal officials have scrapped the name "squaw" from the 6,700-acre outdoor recreation spot above Millerton Lake at the request of American Indian tribes. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management renamed Squaw Leap Management Area the San Joaquin River Gorge last month. Native Americans for decades have considered the name an insult.

Outdoor Recreation Cable Channel to Be Expanded: Cox Communications Inc., Comcast Corp., Times Mirror Co. and Continental Cablevision Inc. said they plan to increase the audience for their joint 24-hour cable channel about outdoor recreation and conservation. Outdoor Life Network will be launched nationwide early next year. It's been available since July in certain regions. The program is currently broadcast to 1.

JARBIDGE, Nev. - To find Jarbidge - a town so isolated the federal government rates its air quality as some of the country's purest - my husband, Michael, and I spent hours covering 50 miles of a rock and dirt road, twisting and turning alongside rivers and through mountain passes. Of course, the drive would have been shorter if we hadn't stopped so often to take photographs. I had heard that Jarbidge Canyon held bizarre pillars of rock known as hoodoos, and that the 113,167-acre Jarbidge Wilderness was beautiful but that neither the canyon nor the area's 10,000-feet-plus peaks were visible from major highways.

Jerry Schad had a simple explanation for his ability to quickly experience every mile he wrote about in his guidebooks, which helped expand hiking opportunities in Southern California: "I run through the boring parts and walk through the interesting ones. " His "Afoot and Afield in San Diego County," first published in 1986, is regarded as the preeminent guide to the region's trails. He followed it with two other well-regarded "Afoot and Afield" books, on Orange County and then Los Angeles County.

One in a series of occasional stories At Wilson's Eastside Sports in the Eastern Sierra town of Bishop, employees have been ringing up sales at a hectic pace lately as rock climbers, hikers and mountaineers stock up for the summer season. But a few blocks away, Brock's Flyfishing Specialists was quiet and empty on a recent Saturday afternoon, the victim of dismal fishing conditions around the Owens Valley. Heavy snow this winter kept several mountain lakes frozen long into spring, and an early-summer heat wave had created a torrent of snowmelt in nearby streams and rivers.

Inmates in Orange County's Central Men's Jail were locked in their cells Monday for a third consecutive day, the result of a racially motivated melee involving about two dozen inmates, an Orange County sheriff's official said. About 1,300 inmates at the Santa Ana jail have been denied outdoor recreation, religious services, education programs and visits from family and friends because of a Friday night brawl between black and Latino inmates, said Sheriff's Capt. Roland Chacon.

"A Little Fish Story" [Feb. 22] was so delightful and refreshing -- far from the other stories that directed the course of the day, from the drenching to the depressing. As a native of the South Bay area, I've always been familiar with the Redondo Beach Pier and can appreciate the pleasantly charming observations you made. Thanks for introducing us to some individuals who were interestingly ordinary, and routinely unique. Kerri Webb Inglewood I was under the impression the Outdoors section was about outdoor recreation, not a Hemingway-styled trip into depression.

The Nov. 21 article "A Bear in the Woods" (by Lee Green) is a litany of errors, misunderstandings and distortions. It misses the point about national forest management today. Most Americans want the same things from their national forests and grasslands: clean air, clean water, habitat for wildlife, beautiful scenery and plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation. As a forester and conservationist, I want those things too. We can't have them unless we focus on the real threats to the nation's forests and grasslands.

The Community Services Department is offering outdoor recreation activities, supervised by trilingual recreation leaders, for children without access to parks and playgrounds. The park comes to La Pat Place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and to the 15th Street Apartments, west of Newland Street, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Traffic will be blocked off at both locations from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The program runs through the first week of August. Information: (714) 895-2860.

Re "The Power of Fun" (Jan. 27): I am troubled by the idea of the outdoor recreation industry representing wilderness interests and concerned over the thought of a limited number of industry representatives and a select group of recreation/conservation interests working with public land managers to set policy behind closed doors. Recreation industry folks are looking after the bottom line. Most see wild places as playgrounds where customers consume recreational goods and services -- as do many land managers.

Fewer people are playing outdoors as economic worries, Western wildfires and the need for security during uncertain times make the comforts of home appear safe and more inviting, according to an industry survey to be released this week. After years of robust growth, participation in outdoor recreation dipped in 2003 for the second year in row. Although two-thirds of Americans continue to kick back on mountains and beaches and in deserts, the Outdoor Industry Assn.

. Welcome to the Village of the Dam. Boulder City, which bills itself as the country's first planned community, was created for workers who built one of the most spectacular public works projects in the nation's history: Hoover Dam. The town was supposed to disband largely when the dam was completed in 1935, but it has lived on as a gateway to the dam (seven miles away) and Lake Mead National Recreation Area (five miles).