In Utah, my understanding is that the primary purpose of state owned lands is to generate revenue for the state. Utah uses them to make money, not to protect them. This includes mineral leasing for oil, gas, coal, etc, and grazing, but in some cases, like the "SITLA" School Trust lands, the state will literally auction off land into private hands. This is ostensibly to raise money for public schools. I strongly support public education, but this way of removing beautiful tracts of Utah desert from the public is very final. You can hike around an oil well, and eventually sort of clean them up, but outright selling off limited resources like lands is frustrating. Compared to normal revenue sources, like taxes, these land auctions raise such a small amount for money for the school system it's even more tragic.

The outdoor recreation industry in Utah is growing rapidly, largely part due to the National Parks, Monuments, and other amazing public lands we have to recreate on. Our 5 national parks (Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef) are some of the most visited in the country. This isn't hunting recreation, like the Field & Stream article is about. Most of this is mountain biking, climbing, hiking, rafting, etc. (Think family vacations and young web developers in Vanagons, not gun toting hunters in big trucks.) On top of the burgeoning hospitality industry supporting this tourism, outdoor companies like Backcountry.com, Petzl, Goal Zero, Black Diamond, Altra, Kuhl, Scott, etc have large presences in Utah now. By some counts, outdoor recreation is one of the largest economic drivers in Utah. And between the aspirational outdoor photos people in the city like on Instagram and generally affordable travel, this visitation trend will only continue upward.

In response to Utah's politicians passing resolutions and endlessly promoting "taking back" Federal land into State hands, the outdoor industry that relies on public land access has started to fight back. To make a stand against these anti-federal politics Patagonia, Black Diamond and some other large retailers threatened to boycott the "Outdoor Retailer" trade show, held in Utah. In response, there was a call with the Governor and he basically gave the outdoor industry the finger. They are moving the trade show to another state now - more symbolic than actually hurtful to Utah's economy, but an interesting development nonetheless. After the ceaseless "jobs" and "pro-business" rhetoric from red states like Utah this antagonism towards one of it's largest and fastest growing industries is frustrating and puzzling. I can't tell if my politicians really see using public lands for finite oil and gas extraction as a better plan than protecting them for generations of future vacationers - or if they just get better campaign contributions from those extraction industries. Either way, as someone who likes mountain biking and who has high hopes for solar energy and electric cars, there is nothing positive to me about these state attempts to control my Federal lands. (I do vote, but I will probably not be able to affect Utah's red state politics for a long time.)