Backcountry Recreation Advocate

Tyler Ray

‘What it comes down to is outdoor pursuits like backcountry skiing are surrounded by economic activity,’ says Tyler Ray, a North Conway attorney and founder of the outdoor advocacy firm Backyard Concept. (Photo by Rob Burbank)

North Conway-based attorney Tyler Ray, 43, advocates for the outdoors and, specifically, the outdoor economy, as the founder of the consulting, legal and outdoor advocacy firm Backyard Concept, which manages brands serving the outdoor recreation sector. Among them are the Granite Outdoor Alliance, a membership-based outdoor advocacy organization; the Granite Backcountry Alliance, which promotes backcountry skiing and works to develop new backcountry trails; and Frontyard Law PLLC.

The Outdoor Industry Association reports that outdoor recreation is responsible for 5.2 million direct jobs in the United States and generates $788 billion annually in consumer spending. In New Hampshire, outdoor recreation supports 37,000 direct jobs and is responsible for $1.3 billion in wages and salaries and 3.2% of the state’s GDP.

Q. The GBA has partnered with state and federal land managers as well as private landowners to create a new network of eight backcountry ski trails in northern and north-central New Hampshire and western Maine. What kind of dollars have the current glades returned to local communities?

A. (Through surveys and trail counters), we learned that over a million dollars in sales activities were generated, and the equivalent of 16 full-time jobs. There were over 10,000 visits and $120,000 in tax revenues. We also learned a visitor for the day averaged $90 a visit and the overnight visitor averaged $196 in spending. The impact is broad, and although it’s not overwhelming, in a community, add this in with other activities — that’s why people are living in or visiting a certain area — and it starts to make sense.

Q. White Mountain National Forest is one of your biggest partners, perhaps the biggest. Did you have to convince land managers there that the work needed to be done?

A. Early on, Rick Jenkinson, current president, and I met with (retired Forest Supervisor) Tom Wagner and Annie Custer to discuss glade opportunities, and Tom Wagner was pivotal in putting us and our ideas on the map … Tom was very upfront in acknowledging the history of backcountry skiing in what many, they say, is the original way the sport was conducted.

Q. How were you able to work with various partners quickly and deftly?

A. It was a priority to have a project on the national forest. That’s the coveted terrain that we really wanted to be in, but we realized early on that not every project needs to be at a giant scale. Having smaller projects and working with private landowners … was very important, and as it turns out, the smaller projects actually receive the highest use. That’s because they’re more accessible, and they attract an intermediate ability level.

I certainly don’t want to discount another aspect that was critically important, and that is that backcountry skiing is the fastest-growing segment in the ski industry and the user base and appetite for new terrain is huge. When we announced this initiative and started hosting glade days to cut and work with the land with our landowner partners, the interest was phenomenal. We were seeing days of over 100 volunteers showing up.

Q. How do the recreational opportunities provided by GBA translate into economic development for local economies?

A. At the end of the day, what it comes down to is, outdoor pursuits like backcountry skiing are surrounded by economic activity, and that’s just simply reflective of a way of life, whether you’re visiting or local. You’re getting a beer after your trail run, or getting a sandwich at the local store, or testing some gear at the local retail shop — economic activity abounds, and that is the concept that has been embraced from an economic perspective.

Q. How have you structured your businesses to focus on the outdoor economy?

A. I left my law private practice in the summer of 2019 because I saw an opportunity, and the opportunity was the outdoor recreation economy and being a change agent in that space. So I doubled down and opened up my own practice, which is a professional outdoor advocacy firm, and it supports and accelerates outdoor recreation in a variety of different ways.

The industry in New Hampshire certainly existed and has so for a very long time, but not at a level at which there is a network or any sort of collective impact. So my efforts, my business, are to do just that: to mobilize and advance the outdoor recreation initiative so that we can have trust more, from a statewide perspective, policy and players that are on the same page.

There’s incredible potential for productivity in this space if we learn how to embrace it and use it in a responsible way, because the outdoors is instrumental to who we are as residents of the state of New Hampshire.