Last year, leaders of the Outdoor Industry Association threatened to move their twice-a-year trade show - by far the largest cash cow of the local convention business - out of Salt Lake City in retaliation for what they reasonably saw as state actions that were bad for their business. Those threats may be made good as soon as today.
Such a drastic step would be the wrong move, not only for Salt Lake City but also for the industry and for the Utah wilderness the industry has an interest in protecting.
Even if it has the appearance of backing down, even though the threatened bug-out hasn't moved the current administration or either of the two major party candidates for governor to commit to real wilderness protection, it would be better for everyone if the outdoor folks would stand and fight.
What shocked the makers of hiking, camping and climbing gear who are now setting up their massive trade show in and around the Salt Palace was the surprise deal between then-Gov. Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton to remove ad hoc wilderness protection from 6 million acres of federal land in Utah.
These business men and women, many of whom would love the wildness of America even if they weren't in the trade, properly saw the threat of turning millions of acres of wilderness into oil rigs, shale pits and gated communities as a knife pointed at their hearts - and wallets. Actions taken since then can only have deepened the OIA's concern, as Interior oil leases and management plans take absolutely no notice of the reasonable-sounding suggestion by Leavitt and Norton that there were other ways, short of the rigorous wilderness label, to protect wild lands for future generations.
The cynical response to the OIA's threat to move the $32 million-a-year extravaganzas to Las Vegas or Disney World is that the shows' managers want to move anyway, and that the wilderness fight is just face-saving cover. That, plus the fact that the Salt Palace can't seem to grow fast enough to keep up, may mean the shows are fated to move no matter what.
Still, the OIA could do more to preserve Utah, and its own bottom line, if it remained a real presence here instead of an unhappy memory.
A full-time lobbying effort, perhaps funded by a small surcharge on the thousands of dollars it costs to rent a booth at the trade shows, could buy the business, and wilderness, a lot more influence here than could ever be won by a slammed door.
