The Corps is the largest federal provider of outdoor recreation on over 450 lakes and rivers in 42 states hosting over 300 million recreation visits each year. The $15 billion visitors spend annually to engage in recreation on Corps lakes supports over 500,000 full- and part-time jobs and provides other benefits to communities around these lakes.

Research and development in this area focuses on creating tools to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Corps of Engineers recreation program in meeting the diverse needs of visitors to Corps lakes. Much of this work is conducted under the Recreation Management Support Program with guidance from the Recreation Leadership Advisory Team. The Natural Resource Management Gateway is a knowledge management tool used to enhance technical assistance to field staff and is the primary tool to support the recreation community of practice.