Herbert on Outdoor Retailer show: 'I think we can come together'


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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah. Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday he is anxious to meet with organizers of the Outdoor Retailer show to detail why Utah remains the best public lands state to host the lucrative convention.

Patagonia announced it is boycotting the twice-a-year event, and trade show officials have said they are considering moving it elsewhere, in part due to Utah's recent adoption of a resolution urging President Donald Trump to rescind the designation of the Bears Ears National Monument made last December. Arc’teryx, a Canadian outerwear and equipment company, announced Thursday it would also withdraw from the shows.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said in late January that his state is a better venue to host the shows, which have been staged in Salt Lake City since 1996. The shows draw close to 30,000 attendees and generate an annual economic impact of $45 million.

Herbert, during his weekly meeting with reporters, said Colorado is not a better public lands state than Utah, stressing that it has only 4 acres of public land per capita compared with Utah's more than 12 acres.

Utah, too, has the largest active watershed and wildlife habitat restoration program in the nation, with 1.3 million acres restored over the past 11 years, he said.

"Our Department of Natural Resources tells us that when it comes to conservation efforts, developing our fisheries, developing our deer herds, our elk herds, our moose herds, our bighorn sheep, we spend more money than the next two or three Intermountain states combined," Herbert said. "So we are putting a lot of money where our mouth is."

There are also 253 additional restoration projects being carried out that target 265,000 acres. Six current and three proposed projects are within the Bears Ears National Monument area in southeast Utah, he added.


Our Department of Natural Resources tells us that when it comes to conservation efforts ... we spend more money than the next two or three Intermountain states combined.

–Gov. Gary Herbert


The governor's office confirmed Thursday that a meeting with Outdoor Industry Association officials has been scheduled for next week.

"Frankly, I think we can come together," Herbert said, adding he "truly believes" Salt Lake City is the best stage for the outdoor show.

"We need to sit down face to face and have that kind of discussion," he said. "The convenience of our public lands is unparalleled."

The state also has purchased about a half-million acres of private land for conservation purposes, Herbert said, pointing to the acquisition of the archaeologically rich Range Creek in eastern Utah, not far from Nine Mile Canyon.

"The accusation that we are trying to take away public lands … does not stand up to scrutiny," he said.

Organizers' contracts to stage the shows in Salt Lake City are up in 2018, and officials this week announced they would solicit bids from other cities to host the trade convention.

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Several years ago, the trade show threatened to leave the state over threatened litigation by Utah to gain control of certain lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.

Last month, Black Diamond founder and outdoor industry activist Peter Metcalf pushed the show to leave Salt Lake City because of the state's position on key public lands issues, including its anti-monument fervor over Bears Ears and the continuing angst stoked by the 1996 designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The resolution on Bears Ears was signed by the governor Friday and was delivered to Trump this week by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

Herbert, however, believes the state and organizers can come to some sort of agreement.

The state, Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City contribute $1.4 million each year for the summer show, and more than $3 million has been provided by the state in tax incentives to outdoor recreation businesses, he added.

"I'd like to see if we could take politics out of this issue," Herbert said.

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Amy Joi O'Donoghue

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