2025-2030 NC Outdoor Recreation Plan
Federal government grants are an important source of funding for parks and recreation in North Carolina. For states to be eligible for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, or SCORP, must be updated every 5 years.
The Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the Division of Parks and Recreation manage the LWCF apportionment for North Carolina. In 2020, the federal Great American Outdoors Act permanently made offshore oil and natural gas royalties a dedicated funding source for the LWCF.
The 2025-2030 SCORP is called "Shaping Outdoor Recreation from Mountains to Sea."
Public Input Opportunity: We Need Your Help!
We are asking any and all residents of North Carolina to provide their input for the Outdoor Recreation Plan.
It doesn't matter if you've never visited any park ever — in fact, we want to hear why that is the case. If you're an avid outdoors person, this is your opportunity to steer grant funding towards things that matter the most to you.
A Public Opinion Survey is now open until August 30, 2024. Use the link below to be taken to Survey Monkey to complete the survey.
When you're done, don't forget to share it on social media or tell everyone you know about it!
Recreation Providers
County, municipality, state, and federal recreation providers have their own dedicated survey. We want to get a better understanding of outdoor recreation across North Carolina. And we want to hear about the challenges you face, so we can work to find solutions together.
If you would like access to the recreation provider survey, please contact us at grants@ncparks.gov.
Public Survey Toolkit: We also have a yard sign, flyer, and social media graphics to use if you would like to help us promote the public survey, so we can get as many responses as we can!
Scientific Survey
If you have received a survey in the mail, congratulations — you have been randomly selected by our partners at ETC for a special survey. ETC has sent out the survey to households, and they will follow up with you until we reach the responses required to "scientifically" certify the survey sampling.