Industry Voices Largely Missing In The Discussion Over Fate Of Public Lands

Six years ago Columbia Sportswear didn’t mince words when the government shut down. “Make The Parks Open Again,” the company demanded in a full-page newspaper ad.

"This is about … allowing access and protecting the assets that we have invested in so heavily as a country," Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle explained in an interview with CNBC in January 2019. "This is not about which political party is more in favor of the outdoors."

But so far during the current shutdown, Columbia Sportswear and many others in the outdoor recreation circle have been silent over the implications for public lands and their managing agencies — the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others operating under the Interior and Agriculture departments.

It's a pretty drastic reversal from 2019, when REI wrote a blog about damage inflicted on national parks since that shutdown kicked off in December 2018, the North Face used a social media campaign to voice disapproval with the shutdown and asked its customers to donate to the National Park Foundation, and Columbia Sportswear's Boyle was quoted extensively.

"During the 80 years [Columbia Sportswear has been in business] I’ve never seen our national parks treated with the level of disrespect that’s being shown during the federal government shutdown,” Boyle told one media outlet at the time. “To leave the parks open but understaffed is a blatant disregard for our natural treasures.” 

This time around, it took some inquiries to get some industry viewpoints.

The National Parks Traveler reached out to both Columbia Sportswear and REI last week about the current shutdown, but received no reply. Officials from Patagonia and the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, though, did respond when the Traveler asked for their thoughts on the current impasse and impacts on public lands and their managing agencies.

"Public lands have never been more under threat in this country. Since January, we’ve seen potential recissions to rules intended to manage and protect these uniquely American places, rollbacks to our oceans and cherished landscapes in Alaska and beyond, and even attempts to sell off, and sell out, our public lands," Keith Shattenkirk, the lands and waters environmental program officer for Patagonia, wrote in an email.

"The current government shutdown, and the mass firings and furloughs of National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management employees, will not only negatively impact local economies that rely on outdoor recreation, but will hinder the ability to conduct critical ecological research, monitoring and enforcement that ensure enjoyment of our public lands for current and future generations," added Shattenkirk.

At the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, a coalition that represents dozens of outdoor industry companies, from conservation organizations such as American Prairie in Montana to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, President Jessica Turner told the Traveler no one benefits from the shutdown but many lose.

"Access to public lands and waters isn’t just essential to Americans’ health, it’s also foundational to the $1.2 trillion outdoor recreation economy. When the government is shut down or investments aren’t being made in infrastructure and stewardship, that takes its toll—especially in rural communities," she said. "We need long-term, reliable funding and adequate staffing to ensure certainty for businesses and communities.

"The outdoor recreation industry has long supported bipartisan solutions that strengthen conservation and access—like the Great American Outdoors Act and the EXPLORE Act. ORR is calling for that same spirit of cooperation to prevail now," Turner added.

Such messaging from the outdoor recreation industry largely has been missing since Trump kicked off his second term in January and made reducing the federal workforce a priority. Since then the administration has pushed out nearly a quarter of National Park Service staff, while the Forest Service also has lost thousands of positions, and there are concerns more firings are in the offing.

While groups such as the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, the Association of National Park Rangers, the National Parks Conservation Association, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, among other non-governmental entities, have been vocal throughout the year to draw attention to the plight of public lands and federal employees who tend to them, to date there’s little evidence that powerful economic interests have been moved to speak out, notwithstanding that in the past some have shown common interest with environmental groups.

Indeed, the outdoor industry was much more visible in opposing how Trump approached federal lands and their agencies during his first term. Many within the industry agreed with the decision made by organizers of the Outdoor Retailer convention to move the show that lures outdoor retailers to see the latest creations from outdoor companies from Salt Lake City to Denver to make a statement over Utah's support of the president's shrinking of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

"I think one of the things that the environmental community might work on and do a little better is working on allies in messaging with people that they don't normally work with," Bob Krumenaker, a retired Park Service employee who spent more than four decades with the agency, many as a park superintendent, said during a recent conference call with reporters. "The economic interests, the business community, conservatives. ... I think there's a lot of common ground that we have yet to figure out how to mobilize, and that would help."

Scott Fitzwilliams, who left the Forest Service rather than agree to the administration's demands to fire workers, agreed that engaging a broader community has been challenging.

"That's a hard question, given everything going on in the country right now," he replied when asked how that engagement can be triggered. "But I keep thinking that our public lands are pretty unbiased as far as who they serve. And at some point, people are going to start to see for themselves the impacts, whether it's resource impact, impact of services. 

"I think eventually, some of the economics is going to catch up with folks," he continued. "I think people have to get out there and tell the story and make sure that people understand that this is what the ramifications are of not funding our public lands and not staffing them or shutting them down, for that matter."

Emily Thompson, the executive director of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, pointed out that the public was successfully rallied earlier this year to derail U.S. Sen. Mike Lee's efforts to allow the selling of millions of acres of public lands to help finance the president's fiscal vision, which includes tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

"It was a pretty diverse coalition of folks that got the public land selloff pulled from the reconciliation bill, and I think that's a great example of how education and advocacy and community organizing can be effective, and I think it's something that we need to keep in mind as we move forward," she said.

Dale Sexton, owner of Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop in Livingston, Montana, also was on the conference call and said communities that draw their lifeblood from Yellowstone National Park were "trying to build a firewall around Yellowstone and all the gateway communities, basically to shore up support and make a statement as to the importance of Yellowstone to our communities."

"We're hoping to transmit that model that we're building to all national parks. It's really hard, with the amount of egregiousness that's happening, and it's not just at our national parks and our public lands, but at every level, and it's somewhat overwhelming," he acknowledged.

"Everybody kind of thinks that these shutdowns are — people do their posturing, and then the adults enter the room, and eventually we're all able to pick up the pieces and move on," said Sexton. "But I'm afraid that maybe the adults aren't gonna step up this time."