The Corps of Engineers is the largest Federal provider of outdoor recreation. Approximately 21% of Federally hosted outdoor recreation occurs at Corps projects (on less than 2% of the Federal lands). The Corps hosted almost 376 million visitors in 2000. We have 4,340 recreation areas on 456 lakes and waterways reporting recreation use. The Corps operates approximately 57% of the recreation areas and 43% are leased out to others for operation and maintenance.
In 1994, over $12 billion was spent by visitors engaged in recreation at Corps projects, resulting in $5 billion in employee income and over 187,000 jobs in industries directly supplying goods and services to Corps visitors. Direct economic output associated with Corps visitor spending represents 0.1 percent of the $4.2 trillion U.S. economy, and 0.13 per cent of all jobs in the Untied States. Secondary effects of the Corps visitor spending accounted for an additional $15 billion in employee income and 410,000 jobs. The total effect of visitor spending in 1994 accounted for 0.4 per cent of employee income and 0.5 per cent of jobs in the United States.
