The Pennsylvania Wilds (PA Wilds) has a lot to offer. With more than two million acres of public land — as much as Yellowstone National Park — the region boasts beautiful views, scenic rivers and the largest wild elk herd in the Northeast.

This notably rural landscape, which comprises 12 full counties and half of another, represents a quarter of the state’s land area but only 4% of its overall population.

In the past, the PA Wilds counties were divided in their approaches to economic development and oftentimes lacked the infrastructure — public bathrooms, signage to guide visitors, cell service — to support many of the region’s main attractions, such as elk watching, or encourage outdoor recreation and tourism.

In 2003, recognizing the nature and heritage tourism opportunities the PA Wilds had to offer, representatives from the region partnered with the state to form the PA Wilds Initiative to strategically grow tourism on a regional level. PA Wilds partners focused on ensuring stewardship on public lands, safeguarding the character of area communities, supporting local businesses and products, and investing in infrastructure to enhance the visitor experience.

Our Role

After attending our Conservation Leadership Network’s “Balancing Nature and Commerce” workshop in 2007, representatives from the PA Wilds decided to convene a regional working group focused on sustainable community development. The place-based workshop more deeply engaged stakeholders from the region to find common priorities and adopt a collaborative approach to building outdoor recreation and nature and heritage tourism infrastructure. Eight geographically based teams identified the area’s assets and how they could be strategically connected. For example, one team from McKean County developed a plan to connect their previously unconnected recreational trails, which allowed all the communities along the trail to benefit from the resulting recreation revenue.

The action plans that resulted from the workshop considered how to use the region’s natural assets and local art and crafts traditions to promote tourism and support thriving economies and communities.

PA Wilds partners have continued to build on these efforts by investing in destination facilities at state parks and forests in the region and pursuing innovative strategies to enhance tourism. Their efforts include creating a youth entrepreneur curriculum, relaunching a regional marketing strategy, promoting a broader conservation stewardship message and establishing business development opportunities around PA Wilds-branded merchandise and locally crafted products — such as the PA Wilds Artisan Trail, which has grown into the regional, 250-member Wilds Cooperative of Pennsylvania.

Why It Matters

The PA Wilds has grown to become one of the largest and most successful rural regional branding efforts in the country. It continues to grow, with visitors to the area spending an estimated $1.7 billion annually.

Between 2009 and 2014, visitor spending in the PA Wilds grew by 33.7%, tourism employment grew by 13.4% and labor income from tourism jobs grew by 26%. State and local taxes collected from tourism categories during this time grew by 22.7% and federal taxes collected grew by 22.4%. Most recently, PA Wilds received the 2018 President’s Award from the Pennsylvania Parks and Forest Foundation in recognition of their successful efforts to protect open space and promote conservation and outdoor recreation.