Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Top outdoor brands will boycott trade show if it moves to Utah
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Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Cedar Mesa Citadel in Utah's Bears Ears National Monument. Photo by Bob Wick, BLM ([link removed])

Twenty five of the outdoor industry's biggest brands (including Patagonia, REI and The North Face) announced ([link removed]) they will not attend the Outdoor Retailer trade show if it is moved from Denver to Salt Lake City, citing Utah's poor record on protecting public lands. The brands made their views known in a press release published by the Conservation Alliance ([link removed]) , calling out Utah as "a state that leads the fight against designated national monuments and public lands."

The Outdoor Retailer show moved from Salt Lake City to Denver in 2017 after several outdoor brands, including Patagonia, took a stand ([link removed]) in February, 2017 after Utah lawmakers asked President Donald Trump to repeal the newly designated Bears Ears National Monument. By December, President Trump had reduced the size of the monument by 85% and Patagonia sued the administration.

The City of Denver's contract to host the show will expire at the end of this year, kicking off a bidding war between Denver, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Orlando, or Salt Lake City. Ryan Gellert, CEO of Patagonia said in a statement ([link removed]) , "Our position on the location of the Outdoor Retailer trade show remains clear and unchanged: The show belongs in a state whose top officials value and seek to protect public lands.”

While President Biden has restored protections for Bears Ears, The Conservation Alliance says Utah’s political leaders are still trying to undermine monuments. Despite Utah Governor Spencer Cox's efforts to lure the show back to Utah ([link removed]) , the state-led opposition to restoring 2 million acres ([link removed]) of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments tells a different story.
Quick hits


** Interior Secretary Deb Haaland tours civil rights sites in Mississippi
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Nevada county urges Biden, Congress to honor Avi Kwa Ame national monument proposal
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Las Vegas Review Journal ([link removed]) | Las Vegas Sun ([link removed])


** Environmentalists call on Biden to protect mature trees and forests from logging
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Washington Post ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Wyoming hunters charged with trespassing on lands they never touched
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High Country News ([link removed])


** What BLM director Tracy Stone-Manning means for oil and gas
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E&E News ([link removed])


** The oil and gas industry's plans to help save the lesser prairie chicken
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Carlsbad Current-Argus ([link removed])


** Top outdoor brands won't attend trade show if it moves to Utah
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Outside Business Journal ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Why does Big Oil blame Biden for gas prices? (Hint: to prevent climate progress)
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Grist ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” Tracy's [Stone-Manning] kind of superpower is how collaborative she is, like the fact that she can go into, you know, a union hall, or a ranchers association, or to a coal mine and be as comfortable as she is in a room with a bunch of NGOs.”
—Collin O'Mara ([link removed]) , CEO of the National Wildlife Federation
Picture this


** @USGS ([link removed])
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#Geology101 - How did Half Dome, the massive rock monument in Yosemite National Park, acquire its unique shape? Here's the answer: [link removed]

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