The Outfitter Brief

News, Insights, and Advocacy from America Outdoors

June 12, 2026

Organizational Updates

Membership renewal season is here. Most America Outdoors memberships are due for renewal on July 1. If you haven’t renewed yet, now is the time. Your membership supports the advocacy, resources, partnerships, and industry leadership that help outfitters operate stronger businesses.

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Watch the Member Town Hall

In Case You Missed It: AO’s New Insurance Partnership with CBIZ Adventure Sports

AO members can now access up to 10% off premiums on select core coverage lines through our new endorsed partnership with CBIZ Adventure Sports.

Click above to watch the Member Town Hall recording and learn how the program works, who may qualify, and why these member-only benefits are available.

CBIZ has specialized in insuring adventure and outfitting businesses since 1979. This program recognizes the strong safety culture, risk management practices, and operational standards AO members maintain, turning those efforts into a tangible business benefit.

Learn more and request a quote

Federal Land Management

USFS Administrative Site Leases Proposed Rule — Post-Comment Period Status

The Forest Service published its Administrative Site Leases proposed rule (RIN 0596-AD68) on May 6, 2026, with a 30-day comment window that closed on June 5. The rule proposes removing administrative site leases from the 36 CFR Part 251 special-uses framework and placing them under a separate regulatory structure aligned with private real estate market practices. As of the June 8 Policy Report, the agency has not announced next steps following comment close.[U.S. Forest Service Proposes Changes to Administrative Site Leases][Policy Report: June 2026 | US Forest Service][Forest Service seeks comments on changes in administrative leases]

Outfitters could feel this most where their operations depend on Forest Service administrative sites for corrals, storage, staging, or warming huts at or near trailheads and access points. Moving those leases out of the special-use framework could alter how applications are evaluated, what terms and renewal rights look like, and how closely lease administration is tied to permit compliance.

The proposed rule does not amend the outfitting and guiding special-use regulations themselves; its relevance is to SRP holders who also depend on Forest Service administrative site leases for support facilities.

Forest Service Finishes the First Pass of Its Directives Review; Permit Handbook Language Comes Next

This one is for Forest Service permit holders. On June 1 the agency wrapped its initial review of 3,300 regional, station, and unit directive supplements, the first concrete milestone in the Directives Modernization effort Chief Tom Schultz announced in March. The next phase, validation of those reviewer recommendations by the Washington Office Policy Office and program leads, is expected to run about two months. The agency has said the plan is to rescind most of those field-level supplements and revise the national directives to line up with the reorganization, with public and tribal notice-and-comment on the rulemaking.

What this does to your permit matters more than the milestone itself. This is the machinery that will eventually revise the handbook chapters governing special-use authorizations, including the FSH 2709.11 provisions that set outfitter and guide permit terms, conditions, and cost-recovery obligations. Nothing is final, and the two-month validation window means Washington Office guidance changes are unlikely to reach permit administration before late summer. We recommend treating current cost-recovery and permit-term language as operative for this season’s renewals. If you have a renewal or amendment in progress, you may want to clarify with your local office whether any directive changes are expected before you sign.

The May 29 Off-Road Vehicle Executive Order: Little Changes Today, but the Rulemaking to Watch Is Coming

This touches both motorized-access operators and quiet-use operators on Forest Service and BLM lands, but we expect its effects will come through follow-on rulemakings rather than an immediate change on the ground.

AO has completed its initial review of the May 29 executive order that rescinded Executive Orders 11644 and 11989, the two 1970s orders that directed agencies to designate where off-road vehicles can and cannot go, apply “minimization” criteria to those designations, and close routes causing considerable resource damage or user conflict. The new order rescinds those directives immediately and frames them as outdated, subjective, and redundant with other authorities like NEPA, ESA, and FLPMA, but it does not by itself reopen any route, amend a BLM resource management plan, change a Forest Service motor vehicle use map, or alter a single permit term; instead, it directs Interior, Agriculture, and other agencies to begin rulemakings to revise or rescind the regulations that carried those orders out.

For now, nothing on the ground has changed automatically. Existing BLM open, limited, and closed designations stay tied to current resource management plans, Forest Service motor vehicle and over-snow vehicle maps remain enforceable, and NEPA, ESA, NHPA, and FLPMA still apply to whatever the agencies propose next. The 2005 Travel Management Rule was written in part to implement the now-rescinded orders, which has led some to read the EO as a repeal of that rule; that reading seems to be a reach on its face. The rule stays in force, but the EO does put pressure on agencies to review and potentially revise regulations and provisions—especially the minimization-criteria pieces—that were built on those orders, and any change to the rule itself would have to go through notice-and-comment rulemaking, where comment periods generally run 30 to 60 days.

A general approach to this might be to treat your current permits, operating plans, and route designations as the baseline until an agency formally changes them. Members may also want to start documenting the specific routes, camps, trailheads, put-ins, and seasons your permit depends on. Members will land in different places on whether more or less motorized access is good for their stretch of country. That variation in perspectives is to be expected in an industry as broad as ours and generally localized. But the shared interest is narrower: clear rules, accurate maps, and permit decisions durable enough to plan a multi-year business around. No docket numbers, proposed text, or comment deadlines exist yet; when a rule does post, the comments that carry weight will be the site-specific ones, which is the kind of material worth assembling now, before what is likely to be a contentious implementation period.

Congress and Federal Legislation

Bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act 250 Introduced | House Field Hearing Set for June 12

On June 10, Representatives Ryan Zinke (R-MT), Bruce Westerman (R-AR), and Jared Huffman (D-CA) introduced the Great American Outdoors Act 250, a reauthorization of the 2020 GAOA that would put $1.9 billion over five years (fiscal years 2026 through 2030) into deferred-maintenance work across public lands through the renamed America’s Legacy Restoration Fund.

The House Natural Resources Committee holds a legislative field hearing on the discussion draft on Friday, June 12, at 10:00 a.m. CDT in Hot Springs, Arkansas. [See the press release from Zinke’s office]

For working outfitters, the relevance is in the condition of the ground you operate on. The fund pays for priority deferred maintenance, campgrounds, trails, boat ramps, restrooms, water systems, and hunting and fishing sites, and the draft splits the money 70 percent to the Park Service, 15 percent to the Forest Service, and 5 percent each to the Fish and Wildlife Service, BLM, and Bureau of Indian Education. Two pieces are worth a closer look. The draft sets up a pilot program, funded by up to 15 percent of each agency’s share, that requires the Park Service, Forest Service, BLM, and Fish and Wildlife Service to each carry out at least two outdoor-recreation or sportsmen’s-access projects per year in every one of their regions (directing resources toward the access points your guests actually use and requiring agencies to deliver results everywhere, not just in high-visibility corridors). The bill also leans on cooperative agreements, good-neighbor authority, and cross-boundary partnerships to get work done, recognizing that access often depends on the connection between federal and adjacent non-federal ground. That’s where outfitter labor and local knowledge already operate. The bill does not authorize any new federal land acquisition.

One provision matters specifically to operators with international clients. Section 3 codifies the foreign-visitor fees: it amends the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act so that foreign visitors pay an entrance or standard amenity fee of not less than $100 per person, on top of any other fee, and sets a foreign-visitor annual pass at not less than $250. That is the same fee structure now being litigated.

The bill is still a discussion draft, no markup is scheduled, and as of late last week no witness organizations had been confirmed, which means the text is not locked in. If maintenance backlogs, the per-region access-project requirement, the partnership mechanisms, or the foreign-visitor fee bear on your operation, this is the time to get specifics in front of committee staff, or voice your support.

A Big Day in Senate ENR

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (SENR) convened a business meeting and oversight hearing to address public lands management, forest policy, and the ongoing water allocation crisis in the Colorado River Basin. During the session, the committee moved through a significant public-lands agenda, the most notable outcome being the advancement of the Wildfire Prevention Act, which now includes Senator Mike Lee’s amendment to nullify the 2001 Roadless Rule.

Bills That Moved

A cluster of recreation and conservation bills moved with bipartisan footing.

The bill that matters most to day-to-day operations is the America the Beautiful Act (S. 1547), which would reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund at $2 billion a year for eight years. The Forest Service share funds the trail repairs, road maintenance, and campground infrastructure our members rely on to reach their operating areas, and it begins to chip away at a $41 billion deferred-maintenance backlog that degrades outfitter corridors every season. Of everything on today’s agenda, this is the item with the most direct line to member operations.

On the river side, the Oregon Recreation Enhancement Act (S. 888) would establish the Rogue Canyon Recreation Area along one of the West’s premier commercial rafting corridors, a designation thirteen Rogue River outfitters have already endorsed. The Gila River Wild and Scenic Act (S. 1476) would protect 446 river miles that anchor the only outfitting corridor in the Gila Wilderness, barring future dams and diversions and stabilizing the operating conditions members depend on. The Wild Olympics Act (S. 1737) drew broad support from Olympic Peninsula steelhead and salmon guides for the same reason: permanent habitat protection sustains the guide economy.

In Colorado, the CORE Act (S. 764) would create recreation and conservation management areas designed to preserve existing uses, including hunting, fishing, and guiding. Outfitters working units near the new Eagles Nest and Holy Cross wilderness additions should note that wilderness designation brings the standard prohibition on motorized and mechanized transport, which tightens shuttle and access options inside those specific boundaries. The Bolts Ditch Act (S. 365) and the PUBLIC Lands Act (S. 3526) carry lighter operational weight but reinforce the same recreation-first direction.

One Item to Put on Your Watch List

S. 1476 does more than designate river segments. It also transfers approximately 440 acres of Gila National Forest land to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, moving that ground from Forest Service administration to the National Park Service. The broader river corridor—and the USFS special use permit framework governing most Gila outfitter operations—is unaffected by this transfer. For most members the river protections are the headline, but any outfitter running trips in or adjacent to the transferred parcel should track this closely: a shift from a Forest Service Special Use Permit to an NPS Commercial Use Authorization or concession framework changes how access is allocated, priced, and renewed. The acreage involved is modest and sits near the monument rather than across the whole corridor, but a change in administering agency is exactly the kind of detail that surfaces at renewal, not before it. We will confirm the parcel boundaries and flag affected members directly.

The Amendment to Watch

The most consequential development of the day came out of an otherwise familiar wildfire bill.

The Wildfire Prevention Act (S. 140) is, on its own terms, probably neutral for outfitters. Title I accelerates vegetation treatments on National Forest System land and directs faster, more transparent hazardous-fuels work, which the bill defines to include mechanical thinning and prescribed burning. Section 203 establishes a categorical exclusion for high-priority hazard trees, the standing dead and beetle-killed timber that falls across trails, campgrounds, and river put-ins after a burn. Section 202 expands timber sales that carry out that thinning. For members, the operational logic is straightforward: catastrophic fire is what closes a season, and the post-fire aftermath (washed-out access roads, hazard trees over the trail, damaged put-ins) can negatively impact the seasons that follow. Faster mechanical thinning and hazard-tree removal could reduce both the closures and the corridor damage that could cost our members trips every year.

A point of concern for many members is the inclusion of the roadless rule nullification within this bill. Many in our industry support the goals of road construction and forest management, but there is significant concern regarding the mechanism chosen for this amendment. The amendment introduced by Senator Mike Lee replaces a stakeholder-inclusive process with a single mandate that ignores the wide variation in local conditions, economic dependence, and operating realities across tens of millions of roadless acres. For many outfitters, the character of roadless country is a primary driver of client demand, and a broad-brush rollback risks the exact landscapes that sustain their businesses. Attaching that repeal to an otherwise-supported fuels bill couples two issues that our members seem to prefer addressed separately. The combined bill now moves to the full Senate; AO will track floor scheduling and amendment opportunities and report back as the situation develops.

The hearing itself offered a useful reference point. Senator Jim Risch (R-ID)—whose state negotiated its own roadless rule and has had it withstand federal court review at every level—framed the broader debate in terms that will resonate with many members of our industry: “All of us want the same thing for the public. We love our public lands. We want to use them. We want to protect them. Each piece is different, and ideally could be addressed as such. This can be done.” While Risch ultimately voted for the Lee amendment, he framed the debate in terms that will resonate with many members of our industry: Risch put it plainly: “We sat at the table and hammered the thing out. Everybody got something. Since this happened, not one lawsuit regarding our roadless area in Idaho. This can be done.” AO has and will continue to share this kind of pragmatic approach—locally informed, stakeholder-driven revision—as the amended S. 140 moves to the full Senate floor.

State-Level Legislative and Regulatory

Another State Model Now One Signature Away

“This started with years of collective effort…”

Arizona’s push for commercial river outfitter liability reform—driven by the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association (GCROA) with AO’s support—is down to one signature. HB 2279, creating targeted liability protections for commercial river outfitters, cleared the Arizona Senate unanimously after passing the House 30–18. It now sits with Governor Katie Hobbs for review.

Championed by the GCROA, HB 2279 is a testament to industry-led advocacy: a discrete, well-scoped fix carried by the people who run the trips, backed by a tourism-sector partner, and passed without a dissenting Senate vote. We respectfully urge Governor Hobbs to sign it (track the bill status here). A signature codifies protections that a unanimous Senate and a bipartisan House majority already endorsed, and it aims to provide Arizona’s river outfitters with the clarity needed to plan seasons, set rates, and carry insurance.

Other state-level outfitter groups have been reaching out to us to discuss potential legislative improvement around liability statutes in their states. If the bill is signed, it becomes another template and case for moving liability reform through state legislatures.

“…to first change antiquated National Park Service policy and allow guests and outfitters to enter into exculpatory agreements and complete liability waivers. This finally happened last year during our AO Camp Washington visit to Capitol Hill. The next step was to ensure these agreements were enforceable by state law, which had its own challenges. While we await the final signature from the governor, we are cautiously optimistic that this will finally happen this week.

This could not have been accomplished without the amazing partnership of America Outdoors Association, Van Ness Feldman, The Bennett Group, The Recreation Law Group, The Policy Development Group, and our key insurance partners. Thank you from all the Grand Canyon outfitters and river guides here in Arizona!”

—John Dillon, Executive Director, Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association

Questions on any of these bills, or interested in replicating the Arizona initiative in your state? Give us a call or shoot us an email. If you hold a permit in the Gila corridor, reach out and we will make sure you are on the list for the parcel-transfer follow-up.

Poplar Boat Launch Reopens on the Nolichucky—Phase 1 Complete

For outfitters and guides operating on the Nolichucky River

After months of reconstruction following Hurricane Helene damage, the Poplar Boat Launch on the Nolichucky River is partially open as of June 12. District Ranger Jen Barnhart of the Pisgah National Forest’s Appalachian Ranger District confirmed that public access has been restored for both private boaters and commercial outfitters and guides. Phase 1 of the reconstruction project is complete.

Access is limited to the concrete parking area and boat ramp. The remainder of the site remains closed for ongoing Phase 2 work, which will add the picnic shelter, kiosk, site electrical, and other amenities. A waterless vault toilet (Phase 3) will follow. Overnight parking is not permitted, and users should yield to construction traffic on site. Full site restoration is expected by fall 2026.

If you encounter any issues at the launch, an HDR representative is on site and available for coordination. You can also contact Alexandra Davison at [email protected] or District Ranger Barnhart at [email protected] / 828-319-4336.

Courts and Liability

A Lawsuit Challenges the New Foreign-Visitor Parks Fee; GAOA 250 Would Lock It Into Statute

Operators with significant international clientele should keep half an eye on Center for Biological Diversity v. Burgum, the suit challenging the 2026 America the Beautiful Pass redesign, including the separate foreign-visitor pass category and the $100 foreign-visitor entrance fee.

Read More:

For the foreign-visitor fee lawsuit:

For the fee policy itself:

Deadlines and Action Items

  • June 12: House Natural Resources Committee field hearing on the GAOA 250 discussion draft, 10:00 a.m. CDT, Hot Springs, AR.
  • June 17: OFLC H-2B webinar for October 1, 2026 start dates, 2:00 p.m. ET.
  • June 26: Comments due on the USFWS hunting and fishing access expansion (Docket FWS-HQ-NWRS-2026-1223) at regulations.gov.
  • July 1: Most America Outdoors memberships renew.
  • July 3–5: Filing window for first-half FY2027 H-2B applications (October 1 start dates).
  • September 15: Petition deadline for the third FY2026 supplemental H-2B allocation.