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How Low-Impact Camping Benefits California
What do you think is the biggest benefit of low-impact camping?
How Low-Impact Camping Benefits California
Today's campers enjoy spending the night under the stars on unique, beautiful, and quiet land like yours. Fewer sites, more privacy, and a commitment to leaving the land better than you found it — this is what we consider low-impact camping.
Low-impact camping increases affordable access to California’s outdoor destinations, helps conserve land and biodiversity, supports California’s small farmers and ranchers, and drives economic development in our rural communities. Let's explore each of these benefits more.
Increasing affordable access to California’s outdoor destinations.
Low-impact camping increases access to the outdoors for more Californians without impacting long-term housing availability. Here’s how:
• Providing an economical accommodation option: Low impact camping requires little or no infrastructure. This means Californians can experience our stunning – yet often expensive – outdoor destinations for as little as $5 per night.
• Increasing access to the coast: Affordable accommodations are especially important for increasing access to the coast. More than 150 low-impact camping areas offer access to California’s coast.
• Preserving long-term housing availability: Because low-impact camping sites aren’t suitable as long term residences, they add places for visitors to stay temporarily without putting additional pressure on the limited amount of long-term housing units.
Conserving land and biodiversity
Low-impact camping supports California’s objectives to protect and restore biodiversity and build resilience to climate change. Here’s how:
• Connecting more Californians to nature: When we get outside, we can’t help but fall in love with the natural world. Developing deeper connections to nature increases the likelihood that we’ll take action to protect it for the future.
• Creating a self-sustaining economic engine: Hosts use the income they earn from hosting to pay their property taxes and mortgages. This protects these natural areas from sale, subdivision, or commercial development.
Supporting California’s farmers and ranchers
The majority of low-impact camping areas in California categorize their land as a farm, ranch, and other working land. Agricultural lands are highly desirable locations for low impact camping, and they benefit our farmers and ranchers too. Here’s how:
• Promoting agricultural heritage: Low-impact camping directly connects Californians to agricultural lands and lifestyles. These opportunities are invaluable in educating the next generation about the importance of farming and ranching.
• Supplementing income: Low-impact camping provides sustainable revenue to keep working lands working and avoid land sale or subdivision.
• Diversifying revenue: Low-impact camping is an important diversification strategy for landowners who are working tirelessly to hedge against low commodity prices, higher production costs, drought, wildfires, and more.
Driving economic development in our rural communities
Low-impact camping harnesses the financial power of outdoor recreation to create sustainable revenue for small businesses, farmers and ranchers, and other local landowners. Here’s how:
• Supporting small businesses: During an average visit, low-impact campers spend $300 at local restaurants, cafes, gear shops, farm stands, and more. Taken together, campers spent $39 million at main street businesses in California in 2022 alone.
• Creating jobs: Hosts are job creators. They are employing local community members as cleaning staff, landscapers, gardeners, farm assistants, and more with the revenue brought in from hosting campers.
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On 2018 I lost two 2 rental units on my 20 acres ranch due to the wildfire in Riverside / Orange County called the holy fire. These two units they were covering majority of my mortgage. 2019 we had great raining season and the rain turned the ranch from Ash to green.
One morning I was having my coffee contemplating what my future is going to look like. Then I tumbled on Hipcamp ad on Facebook. When I signed up, I thought no one will come. it started slow but in a year or so I decided to quit my job and start hosting campers full-time.
I enjoyed the vibe people brought to the ranch, many birthday celebrations held at the ranch camper thanking me for opening up my place to enjoy nature and have a good time with their friends. The whole thing lasted close to three years.
then I got shut down by code enforcement, threatening me to take me to court suing me for thousand and thousand dollars if I don't stop advertising on Hipcamp. I got scared so I did shut down everything.
last month I was thinking of selling my ranch specially, after my insurance doubled because of the fire I had.
This morning after seen Hipcamp email this regarding the senate considering passing a bill to allow rancher earn extra income from Campers. My plan totally changed. I know there's light end of the dark tunnel and I can't wait to go back on Hipcamp again. meantime I just have to sit and wait.
peace
Hipcamp has helped me to keep my land without the need to build a rental home on it. Being a Hipcamp Host has been the best job EVER! Meeting new people from all over the world and helping them to navigate the Joshua Tree area on their vacations is a pleasure beyond anything that I have ever done. Being a Hipcamp Host is HARD but is also extremely rewarding. I love having my land available for people to enjoy and the people who come here are truly grateful that it exists and is open for them to enjoy. I think it is great that the State of California is finally on board with the Hipcamp model. It's truly and win win for everyone!