One of Utah’s thorniest issues is public lands. The Legislature and governor are aggressively moving to take over federal lands. A more immediate threat to their plans, of course, is the possibility that President Obama will designate the Bears Ears area as a federal wilderness.
So Utah outdoor folks of all stripes might want to stop by the Outdoor Recreation Summit in Ogden tomorrow (Thursday). Every citizen is, after all, a “stakeholder” in our wildlands—not just the extraction, cattle and rec-equipment industries.
At the summit, Gov. Gary Herbert and the mayors of Moab and Ogden will speechify about the “potential of the outdoor recreation industry in Utah” and attendees will meet in discussion sessions. You really ought to be there, if only to remind Gary and Tom Adams, director of the state Outdoor Recreation Office, that Utah can’t have an outdoor-recreation industry without pristine outdoors.
For some reason, the summit is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., when most stakeholders—other than bureaucrats and politicians and full-time activists—can’t make it. (BTW, Gary will be available for media questions at 9:15 a.m.—isn’t that about the time you take your coffee break?)
If you can grab time away from work, here’s the schedule:
8:30 a.m. – 9:45 speechifying by mayors and Gary
Noon Julia Stamps Mallon, co-founder, REI Outessa, a women’s adventure program
The rest of the day is break-out discusussion sessions.
It’s at Ogden Eccles Conference Center
2415 Washington Blvd, Ogden
