Colorado: I Ling Q&A | The Nature Conservancy

Get Involved:

I Ling Matthews, Outdoor Industry Association

Boulder, Colorado

Find out how she is making a living from healthy forests!

Paul Bunyan the lumberjack made a living out of harvesting trees. But healthy forests provide a living for many, many other people, like Colorado resident I Ling Mattthews.

nature.org:

What do you do?

I Ling Matthews:

I am Vice President of Communications for Outdoor Industry Association. OIA is a national trade association that represents more than 4,000 companies in the outdoor recreation marketplace.

nature.org:

How does a healthy forest help outdoor businesses?

I Ling Matthews:

Our customers live an active outdoor lifestyle and desire a range of outdoor recreation experiences from the backyard to the backcountry – and it all begins with access to healthy public lands and waters.

nature.org:

What does OIA hope for the future of our forests?

I Ling Matthews:

It’s critical that we move beyond ‘either-or’ thinking about how our forests are managed. America’s network of public lands and waters are the basis for a national outdoor recreation system that supports more than 6.5 million jobs and drives more than $289 billion annually in direct retail sales and services.