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Conservation Colorado Announces Campaign to Convince the Outdoor Retailer Show to Move to Colorado

Contact: Jessica Goad, 720-206-4235

Conservation Colorado this morning announced a campaign to bring the Outdoor Retailer show to Denver after the show’s contract with Salt Lake City expires in the summer of 2018.

The organization will be urging decision-makers in the outdoor industry to choose Colorado as the new location for the show based on the state’s long record of investing in and protecting national parks, monuments, forests, and other public lands.

The campaign will kick off with paid advertisements in the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News touting the assets that Colorado offers when compared to Utah, including stronger beer, taller peaks, “higher” recreation, and, most importantly, a deep commitment to public lands.

“There’s no better place than Colorado when it comes to protection and stewardship of our public lands,” said Pete Maysmith, Executive Director of Conservation Colorado. “From embracing our newest national monuments, to being the first state to establish a holiday to celebrate our lands, to soundly defeating eight bills in our state legislature that would have turned our lands over to private interests, we fully recognize the myriad benefits that public lands bring to our state and to the nation.”

The Outdoor Retailer show brings $45 million to Utah in direct spending each year, and its leaders announced last week that they are “exploring location options” beyond Salt Lake City in part due to the state of Utah’s continued antagonism towards and attacks onAmerica’s public lands. The industry recently noted that an important consideration in choosing the new location of the show will be whether it “upholds our industry’s core values around the importance of America’s public lands system.”

In addition to the advertisements, Conservation Colorado’s campaign will also include working with outdoor businesses and tourism associations to make the case for Colorado as the new location for the Outdoor Retailer show, as well as digital media advertising to key decision-makers.

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Conservation Colorado Reacts to Trump Executive Actions on Immigration, Vows to Stand With All People of Colorado

Contact: Jessica Goad, 720-206-4235

In response to the news that President Donald Trump is intending to sign executive orders to build a border wall with Mexico, ban some refugees to the U.S., and punish “sanctuary cities” like Denver, Conservation Colorado Executive Director Pete Maysmith released the following statement:

As an organization that does significant organizing with Latino and immigrant communities, we see firsthand how these sorts of extreme policies would impact people across the board and hurt our neighbors, friends, and colleagues. We are appalled by these announcements, which are immoral and contrary to our American values.

These policies will also have major impacts on the environment, including the border wall’s destruction of one of the most unique habitats and important wildlife corridors in the American Southwest.

Our America is better than this, and Conservation Colorado pledges to stand with all people of Colorado as we fight for a better environment and future for our families. We call on the president to reconsider these policies that will hurt so many among us, and call on Senators Cory Gardner and Michael Bennet to stand up for Colorado families rather than ideological and hateful rhetoric that hurts and degrades our communities.

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Conservation Colorado Outlines 2017 State Legislative Priorities

Contact: Jessica Goad, 720-206-4235

As the 2017 legislative session kicks off today, Conservation Colorado, a 22,000-member-strong environmental organization, outlined its key priorities for the session.

“We’re feeling positive and optimistic about this year’s session, and look forward to making progress with supporters on both sides of the aisle to protect what we love about Colorado: our way of life,” said Pete Maysmith, Executive Director of Conservation Colorado. “The election hasn’t changed what we plan to do here, and no matter who’s in charge in Washington, D.C., we must clean up our air, conserve our water, protect our lands, and ensure that every person in Colorado lives in a healthy environment.”

Specifically, Conservation Colorado has four key legislative priorities:

Chart our own path forward and create clean energy jobs.

  • Ensure we have the cleanest air in the nation and a thriving cleantech sector.
  • Help communities in rural Colorado become economically diversified, especially those that have been historically dependent on natural resource extraction.
  • Defend against attacks from the legislature, such as last year’s ill-fated effort to gut the budget of the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment or attempts to turn our national public lands over to the state or private interests.

Plan for the future, particularly with regard to transportation and growth.

  • Advocate for investments in public transit, walking, and biking options.
  • Build upon the work the legislature did last year to make Colorado the best state in the nation to buy an electric vehicle. Now we must make sure that we’re the best state in which to drive one.

Protect the health of our children.

  • Ensure that oil and gas infrastructure does not encroach on our communities.
  • Make more progress on clean air and renewable energy, considering that children are one of the most susceptible populations to air pollution.

Incentivize the sustainable use of our resources and work to prevent waste and pollution.

  • Implement policies that help conserve precious water resources.
  • Promote solutions for saving energy.

“Importantly, the anti-conservation, anti-enforcement agenda did not win here in Colorado,” Maysmith continued, “as seen in the fact that pro-environment candidates won down our state ballot. Citizens in our state value a healthy environment and the Colorado way of life, and we will fight to turn those values into real change this session.”

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