As the child of a military family, Janel Lawton moved often as a kid, including stints in Key West, Florida, rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and urban New Jersey. She opted to attend college in New Hampshire, and although she’s lived and worked in other places since then, the Granite State has drawn her back each time. An avid snowboarder, skier, biker, and hiker, Janel is now the director of the state’s Office of Outdoor Recreation Industry Development, which has been in operation since 2019.
I wouldn’t say I was necessarily an outdoorsy kid, but back in the ’70s and the ’80s, that’s what we did – we just went outside and played. I didn’t have a lot of exposure to outdoor recreation until I moved to New Hampshire for college. That is when I really started to recognize the importance of the outdoors in my life. I attended Colby-Sawyer College in New London, and the amazing outdoor resources in that area – from Whaleback and Sunapee to the lakes – really helped me realize that my quality of life was linked to the outdoors.
When I graduated from Colby-Sawyer, I knew I wanted to work in the outdoor industry, so I moved to Lincoln, New Hampshire, and I worked for Loon Mountain. After a few years, I went out to Lake Tahoe and I worked at Heavenly Ski Resort. But I boomeranged back to New Hampshire, and I worked for 13 years in the e-commerce industry. My last gig in e-commerce was at Performance Bicycles down at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Then I came back to New Hampshire again, and I was a small business owner for six years. I sold that business during the pandemic, and I wasn’t really looking for work during that time. I was still trying to figure out what I wanted my career to be. And I just started talking with folks, specifically focused on the outdoor rec industry, trying to really understand what the opportunities were. That led me to work at the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs. I started at BEA as the rural economic development administrator, and I became the director of ORID in 2022.
My primary responsibilities are to help develop strategies for outdoor recreation and business growth, to support workforce and educational training, and to coordinate outdoor recreation industry efforts with state and federal resources. We work to establish relationships and facilitate communications with national organizations, state agencies, businesses, and groups that depend on the state’s natural resources – to promote equitable, inclusive outdoor recreational access.
A big part of what I do is based in collaboration, and it needs to be – I’m an office of one, as many of the state offices of outdoor recreation are. We really rely heavily on our strategic partnerships. This includes the Granite Outdoor Alliance, which is basically the outdoor business alliance for the state of New Hampshire. I also work closely with our partners at UNH on many different levels and for different programs regarding workforce or sustainability. I work with private businesses, both profit and non-profit, to connect to federal and state resources. So it’s lots of meetings, and because it’s outdoor rec, sometimes those meetings are on a chairlift or on a bike trail.
There are 16 states in the U.S. that have this office established and have signed to be part of the Confluence of the States, which is an organization developing a national platform to grow the outdoor recreation industry. These offices can look very different in each of these states, but we share the common goal of coming together to serve as a single voice for the outdoor industry.
One of the interesting projects that I worked on in my first year was an Outdoor Inventory Assessment for the State. The project’s goal is to set a foundation and establish a baseline for ORID’s work. We partnered with SE Group to define and quantify New Hampshire’s outdoor recreation industry. It was a dynamic process involving various stakeholders, regions, businesses, and recreation enthusiasts – all working together for a better future for outdoor recreation in New Hampshire. The outcome will be an inventory and assessment of how outdoor recreation intersects with our economy.
In New Hampshire, the outdoor recreation industry is responsible for 28,000 jobs, $1.2 billion in wages and salaries, and a total economic contribution of $2.7 billion to the state’s economy. Not only is outdoor recreation contributing to the economy, but it’s contributing to the quality of life for our residents and our visitors. We have jobs, we have tourism and spending, we have small businesses, we have community well-being, we have infrastructure based on outdoor recreation, we have increased real estate and property values based on outdoor recreation. We have events, like the Graniteer that was just held in Franconia a few weeks ago and brought in 750 people to a small, rural community. There’s so much that gets tied to outdoor recreation, and we are now recognizing its importance and measuring its impact to the economy.
I call Franconia home, and I’ve always volunteered in one way or another. I think that’s a really important aspect of being part of a community. Everyone should have that opportunity to give back – and give back in a way that resonates with them, that they connect with and can feel part of something bigger than themselves. I was on the board for Copper Cannon Camp for several years. It’s an amazing organization that is bringing the traditional summer camp experience to low income kids. I’m also involved with the Franconia Area NEMBA (New England Mountain Bike Association) chapter. Part of our work is to collaborate with many property owners across a very large space to try to build and maintain a multiuse recreational area.
In my mind, everyone should be able to walk out their door and in five minutes have access to the outdoors – whether it’s a green space in your community or the White Mountain National Forest. Many non-profit and volunteer organizations are doing great work across the state to provide resources for folks to recreate outside. During the pandemic, we saw an uptick of usage of these resources, and that is not waning, which brings a stronger focus to conserving and sustaining our natural resources.
I get excited about all the different places I get to go for my work, and I always come away feeling like this is the best place in New Hampshire. I still have new experiences, which is amazing for a small state. New Hampshire is unique in that it can offer most outdoor recreation activities within our state. My favorite activities include biking, skiing and snowboarding – and always in good company, including that of my 25 pound Tibetan Terrier, Pabu
Everyone in the outdoor recreation industry wants to collaborate and work together, and that is one of the coolest things. It’s the collaboration, the convening, the pulling together of people and places to support outdoor recreation. I’m always learning something new. I love working with people. I love being in the outdoor space around people.