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$1 Million Enticement Not Enough To Get Outdoor Industry To Embrace Utah

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Utah's public landscape, which includes five national parks, is priceless. But the enticement of $1 million is not enough to get the outdoor gear and recreation industry to keep its annual conventions in the state/NPS

A $1 million enticement from the Utah Legislature is not enough to convince the outdoor industry to overlook the state's anti-public lands stance and keep its lucrative convention in Salt Lake City.

On Wednesday the legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee added the $1 million to the chamber's funding bill with hopes it would be enough to keep the twice-yearly Outdoor Retailer shows in Salt Lake City. The shows, winter and summer, generate an estimated $45 million for the capital city each year and spread another $300 million in indirect spending throughout the state.

Outdoor industry leaders decided last month, after a teleconference with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, to move their conventions out of the Beehive State because of politicans' request that President Trump decommission the 1.35-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument, which President Obama designated in the closing weeks of his term, and reduce the size of the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that President Clinton designated in 1996. The legislature earlier this year passed resolutions to that effect, and the state's congressional delegation carried them to the president.

“It is important to our membership, and to our bottom line, that we partner with states and elected officials who share our views on the truly unique American value of public lands for the people and conserving our outdoor heritage for the next generation,” Amy Roberts, executive director of the Outdoor Industry Association, said in a statement after the meeting.

On Thursday, asked if the $1 million offer would get the industry to change its mind, Ms. Roberts didn't hesitate with her answer.

"No. It doesn't change our position," she told the Traveler in an email.

Earlier in the week the Salt Lake City Council passed a resolution imploring the outdoor industry to stay. While council members said they don't share the anti-public lands position, the resolution also wasn't enough to get the industry to alter its position.

Comments

YES!!!!   Thank you, Amy Roberts  :)


The outdoor industry should all get a medal of honor for this standing!  Republicans can only think in money terms so hitting them in the pocket book will hurt them the most.  I love the state of Utah and all the national parks and monuments.  We have taken more road trips to the state than I can count.  But no more does Utah get my hard earned tourist money until these wrong headed republicans get smart.  You rock Amy Roberts and all of you outdoor industries!


Utah got what it deserved.  I wish more industries would stand up against the GOP's anti-environment policies.


Ditto Lee Dalton.  What I find sadly amusing is that the Utah legislature would rather offer that amount of money as a $1 million bribe instead of taking that same amount and applying it toward the maintenance / upkeep of these natural places so beloved by the tourists who come to that state (and to the places that depend upon those tourist dollars).


Good for them!  I wish bribery backfired like this more often.


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