I very much appreciate the sentiments shared by Hervé Sedky, president and CEO of Emerald Holding, Inc., the Outdoor Retailer (OR) show’s producer. For over 25 years, I’ve been an attendee, I’ve worked building booths (to help pay for outdoor gear and trips), and I’ve hosted brands and retailers when I worked in Utah’s hospitality and tourism industries for over a decade. I’m an outdoor enthusiast who prioritizes taking care of nature over simply enjoying it. Thank you for calling it a critical issue.
For those of us who have called Utah our home (it’s the only home I’ve ever known), who have stayed here despite the challenges and who actively work to engage leaders to protect, steward and defend the iconic landscapes enjoyed by brands, retailers and consumers, I am disappointed in the lack of understanding about how Utah politicos and some of Sedky’s listed allies are actively attacking critical landscapes.
The people of Utah have been quite proactive in trying to grapple with issues confronting our state, environment and recreational interests. For example, in 2016, after a multi-year collaborative process called the Mountain Accord, it took Utah leaders less than a year to attack the landmark agreement in the Wasatch Mountains. Here are a few of the intended outcomes of the Mountain Accord … and what is presently transpiring.
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Designate a National Conservation and Recreation Area with an addition of new Wilderness Designation acres. Utah’s delegation has now stripped all conservation elements from the proposal and advanced solely the wilderness reductions, which passed Congress last year.
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Transportation improvements for the Cottonwood canyons. Currently, it is looking only at a gondola for Little Cottonwood and hasn’t even begun looking at Big Cottonwood despite the pleas of the conservation community and local governments. In the Wasatch Front Regional Council’s plan, Big Cottonwood is receiving about $6 million, or 0.004% of what Little Cottonwood is receiving, despite having greater needs.
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Transit improvements in Parleys Canyon. Whereas, Utah is advancing a 634-acre gravel pit operation and transit improvements took a back seat to the $1.4 billion gondola.
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Pilot a shuttle service in Millcreek Canyon. Currently, Millcreek City and Salt Lake County are looking to widen the roadway to accommodate more cars rather than invest in transit — destroying wetlands and making the canyon more dangerous for recreation.
It feels a lot like Lucy with the football in the Peanuts cartoons, where they yank the thing we all want away at the last minute. We call it “The Utah Way,” in which Utah’s leadership actively thwarts holistic and collaborative environmental discussions and aggressively and insularly pursues a future that could not be further from well-documented input of Utahns and its visitors. Public comment periods are an endurance sport, and I’m fairly certain our community holds the FKT.
Utah isn’t listening to its people, it isn’t listening to local governments closest to these people, and only listens to the industries who stand to benefit at the expense of our communities and our environment. Hundreds of thousands of comments, petitions and testimonies at public meetings, even resolutions from local governments and statements from outdoor companies all fall on deaf ears. As a matter of fact, at a most recent meeting of the Wasatch Front Regional Council, Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini told the audience it would be “illegal” to listen to public input, despite the fact planning policy clearly states these decisions are not reviewable by the courts. That’s right, Utah leaders believe protecting the environment is illegal and every time there’s an opportunity to take a meaningful step, it shows cowardice over courage, hiding behind its self-created bureaucracy, believing that standards put in place are the ceiling, when in fact they are the floor. I’ll never understand why for environmental issues Utah strives for least-worst, when it should aim for the best.
Most concerning was Sedky suggesting we should find comfort in meeting with Visit Salt Lake, which is chaired by gondola grifters who own the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, and also has representation from Snowbird, Ski Utah, and others in the GondolaWorks Coalition. Collaboration cannot happen when critical interests aren’t represented in any of the circles or initiatives mentioned. Backroom meetings with industry groups that have sanitized themselves of environmental and community interests are not the solution — they are acutely the problem. Boards and panels across the state are saturated with industry insiders willing to and setting policy to develop and exploit our watersheds, critical habitat for the flora and fauna and pollute our air.
Utah residents want what Outdoor Retailer is selling — we love what you’ve built as an industry, we share your values and we enjoy your energy, but if environmental interests are of importance, we need to be at the table, too. By not understanding the context, engaging with industry, politicos and gondola grifters who have actively undermined good faith efforts to engage on the protection and sage management of Utah’s land, air, wildlife and water — the concern is that your presence lauds the mismanagement of the very thing your and our community values most. Utah continues to attack its own people and the public lands and waters we are dependent upon and which impact our daily lives.
We eagerly wish to join you in meaningful policy discussions and can bring real world experience, people and ideas to advance the protection of Utah’s threatened outdoor landscapes and ecosystems. We generally bring our own tables wherever we go and welcome everyone to sit at them and discuss the important issues confronting Utah, Utahns, and for us, the fate of the Wasatch Mountains.
Carl Fisher is executive director of Save Our Canyons. He’s worked on land, air, water, wildlife, public lands and quality of life issues for Utahns and visitors to our great state for over 20 years.