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Congressional Research Serve
~lnforrning the legislative debate since 1914
Updated May 12, 2025
Recreation.gov: Overview and Issues for Congress
For many people looking to experience the country's
federal lands and waters, their trip begins with a visit to
Recreation.gov. Recreation.gov is a cloud-based website
that offers federal recreation information, trip planning
services, and reservation booking to the public for roughly
4,000 federal recreation sites and more than 120,000
campsites located at national parks, forests, wildlife
refuges, waterways, and other locations. Booz Allen
Hamilton Inc. (BAH), the current contractor, operates the
website and reservation system in partnership with federal
agencies.
Background and History
Public reservation systems for federal lands and waters
have been in place since at least the early 1970s as a means
to manage visitation and facilitate recreational use of these
lands. Until the 1990s, federal agencies offering reservation
services generally did so independently, with little
coordination. In 1995, the U.S. Forest Service (FS) and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) led the first
interagency reservation initiative, known as the National
Recreation Reservation Service (NRRS). In 1997, Park.net
Inc. (later renamed ReserveAmerica Inc.) was awarded the
contract to develop and operate the NRRS. In 1999,
Park.net launched ReserveUSA.com-the first website
offering online reservations and ticket sales for federal
lands and waters.
Further efforts to consolidate and streamline federal
recreation data and user experience began under the George
W. Bush Administration and continue today. In 2002, the
Recreation One Stop (RIS) program was established as part
of President Bush's E-Government initiative. RiS refers to
a multipronged, interagency program that oversees federal
recreation reservation and trip planning services. It includes
online booking services (i.e., Recreation.gov),
administration of a joint federal recreation database (known
as the Recreation Information Database [RIDB]), and a
Technology Innovation Fund to allow for responsiveness to
rapidly evolving technologies. As part of the RlS program,
additional federal agencies joined the FS and USACE
contract and consolidated their reservation and booking
systems into one centralized online system. By 2007, this
booking system had been rebranded as Recreation.gov.
Current Structure and Administration
In 2016, FS awarded a multiyear contract for management
of Recreation.gov to BAH, following a competitive
selection process. Pursuant to the contract, BAH is
responsible for hosting, operating, and maintaining the
Recreation.gov system in partnership with the participating
agencies. This includes the aggregation, storage, and
maintenance of transaction data, as well as customer and
technical support responsibilities. The federal government
owns and is responsible for providing recreation data from
the RIDB, including facility types, mapping coordinates,
and maximum occupancy details. The RIDB contains data
from 14 participating government agencies (see Table 1).
Table 1. Recreation.gov Participating Agencies
Agencies Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of
Offering Reclamation, National Archives and Records
Reservations Administration, National Park Service, Naval
District Washington, Presidio Trust, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service
Agencies Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Federal
Sharing Data Highway Administration, National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration,
Smithsonian Institution, Tennessee Valley
Authority
Source: CRS, Recreation.gov, About Us,
https://www.recreation.gov/about-us, February 20, 2025.
The FS administers the contract for Recreation.gov.
Pursuant to a 2018 memorandum of understanding, the
participating agencies fund the operational costs associated
with the RlS program. Each participating agency covers
agency-specific operational support costs. Joint costs
associated with program staff salaries, supplies, travel
expenses, and preparation of contracts and agreements are
determined by an annual budget review and are split
equally between FS, the National Park Service (NPS), and
USACE, the three agencies with the largest shares of
facilities and services managed through Recreation.gov.
Revenues from Recreation.gov-which include entrance,
special use, recreation, and reservation fees charged to the
customer-flow to the contractor (BAH), the participating
federal agencies, and others in accordance with applicable
underlying authorities, contracts, and agreements. Revenues
are deposited into a U.S. Treasury account managed by FS
through the RiS finance operations center. Disbursements
are made on a monthly basis to participating agencies,
concessioners, and BAH. Agencies may elect to have funds
withheld from their monthly distributions to cover certain
operational costs for the RlS program. Alternatively,
agencies may transfer funds to FS to cover costs.
Usage and Revenue
Visitation to and use of Recreation.gov has generally
increased in recent years. Based on RIDB data, roughly 9
million reservations were processed through Recreation.gov
in FY2023, up from 3.5 million in FY2019 and 2.6 million
in FY2013 (see Figure 2). FS has reported slightly higher
(10 million) FY2023 figures, which includes non-
reservation transactions for digital site passes and items
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