Access to Pennsylvania’s Outdoor Recreation Areas

The analysis conducted by TPL’s Research and Innovation Team utilized GIS to understand outdoor recreation in Pennsylvania. Many of these maps are focused on identifying needs. These maps utilize data providing the location of recreational sites (e.g., parks and open access lands, trails, and water access points) to locate areas lacking recreational access, and use demographic data to locate the populations with the greatest need within these areas. Other maps, such as the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum and the two Appalachian Trails analyses, help stakeholders to understand their opportunities. For all of these analyses, in addition to the maps shown in this report, TPL has provided separate Excel tables providing statistics related to population demographics and (in the case of the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum) land cover type, at the county or municipality level.