Coming on the heels of a very successful Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in New Orleans, LA, last week, it is very clear to me that Western ranchers have some brand-new challenges ahead of us.
To that end, I could spend the next 750 words outlining the hurdles we’ll face with a newly Democratic majority in the House, or the clock that’s constantly ticking on our robust regulatory wish list for the Trump administration’s first term, or the ever-present threat of radical environmental litigants. But there’s an emerging threat that could prove just as formidable and perhaps much harder to define.
I’m talking about the rapid and aggressive rise of the “recreation economy” both as an impact to public lands and as a lobbying force, and the difficult choices being presented to our elected leaders as a result.
For those who are unfamiliar, here’s a little background. Historically, recreational use of public lands outside of high-profile, well-known areas has been largely manageable. A remote operation might see it’s fair share of hunters during deer season, or four wheelers zipping up and down their Forest Service roads (as a kid, we sat on my family’s front porch outside of Flagstaff and watched those guys take out the same fence panel on our place about once a month—this went on for years), but nothing rising to the level of threatening a family’s livelihood.
Recently, however, that has all changed. The West has experienced an explosion in recreational use of all kinds, and along with it, the rise of groups like the Outdoor Industry Council, the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), and others. These groups are made up of countless businesses and groups engaged in the business of recreation—some like the noted anti-ranching activists at Patagonia and Keen Shoes, but others that are connected to our own industry.
Let me be clear, these aren’t bad people and I don’t believe their intentions are always the same as the Center for Biological Diversity or Western Watersheds. The results of their current efforts, on the other hand, could have the same impact if we don’t address them very carefully.
In the past few years, these groups have managed to secure funding from Congress to produce an economic impact study touting some huge numbers. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the outdoor recreation industry comprises 2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, or about $373.7 billion. The industry itself places that number even higher—$887 billion according to the OIA website.
Now if you drill down into those numbers, I’ll bet you’ll find that they’re happily counting every jacket and SUV sold in America (including my own SUV parked in downtown Washington, D.C., at the moment or the jacket hanging behind my office door—neither is part of the outdoor recreation economy at the moment, I assure you). They’re likely also counting the cheeseburger sold at the road stop outside of your town, and the tank of gas you used to get there.
As I write this column, lobbyists for the outdoor industry are bludgeoning your member of Congress with these figures and demanding that they pass legislation to place their use above all other multiple uses on federal land. If you don’t believe be, look up the Recreation Not Red Tape Act that was debated in the House Natural Resources Committee just last year. And just to be clear, that was a Republican bill. Further, even as I write this, the Senate is debating a massive public lands package and several senators in their speeches of support have referenced recreation’s impacts to local economies.
The simple fact is that our public lands are being loved to death by recreational users. Their right to be there is not up for debate and the concept of multiple use is one we hold dear and fight hard to protect. But when one of those uses seeks to clear others out of its way, it’s critical that we help lawmakers understand that it is often landowners, and more specifically ranchers, that are left to clean up the mess.
Ultimately, we are also the ones who must answer for the degraded range conditions left in their wake. The Public Lands Council passed policy on this issue during our Annual Convention in Park City last fall, and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association followed suit recently in New Orleans.
We will be engaging in this debate wherever it may take us in order to ensure that ranchers are given a rightful seat at the table, and recognition of the critical role we play. I hope each of you reading this will join us. As always, thanks for all you do for our industry. — Ethan Lane, executive director of the Public Lands Council
