Blue Sky Mining

Peter Metcalf's hope for a recreation-based economy in the New West

By Doug Schnitzspahn

Peter Metcalf has managed the seemingly impossible—grown a successful business while still remaining true to his wilderness ethics. The co-founder of core climbing-and-backcountry brand Black Diamond, Metcalf has even used his savvy as an entrepreneur to fight for wilderness. In 2003, he demanded that then Utah governor Mike Leavitt rethink his plans to open up Utah’s 9.1-million acres of roadless lands or say goodbye to the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow, which pumps over $24 million into the Salt Lake City economy every year. Under that pressure, Leavitt recanted and last summer Metcalf and board members of the Outdoor Industry Association extracted a promise from present Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr., to bring the outdoor industry to the table in discussions on the state’s roadless lands. Here Metcalf talks about the signs of promise he sees for wild-lands and a thriving recreation-based economy in the West.

What is the biggest challenge that Westerners face in the coming decade?

We need to either wake up quickly or we are at risk of losing so much that we hold dear, so much that has forged the Western personality, so much that has made us those iconic individuals and cowboys. As Stuart Brand wrote, “Natural systems are priceless in value and nearly impossible to replace but they are cheap to maintain. All you have to do is defend them”. Clearly defending them is proving to be the battle of our generation.

With so much news of global environmental catastrophe and a national economic downturn, what do we have to look forward to?

We are on the cusp of environmental catastrophe but we have NOT crossed over. We can still preserve that which defines us as a unique culture and landscape. Look at the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. It remains almost as it was when John Colter first explored it some 170 years ago—unsettled, filled with Grizzlies and wolves, still wild, North America’s Serengeti. All this is not yet lost and the opportunity is present for us to be the generation that said, “damn it, I will not be a passive witness to the loss of our most priceless assets.”

Do you think “Boom-and-Bust” has to be the natural cycle of the economy in the West? What has changed since the days when extractive industries were the mainstay of Western economies?

Absolutely not! The economy of the West has already passed the tipping point into a recreation and knowledge worker economy. This is a sustainable economy. People go outside to recreate regardless of the economy and knowledge workers span multiple and countercyclical economic segments.

Are you upbeat about protecting public lands for non-motorized recreation? What type of West do you see out there for future generations?

As more and more American get obese, lazy, and inactive, the motorized recreation lobby will grow and bring amazing pressure for more and more access. That said, I have been encouraged by the more responsible voices in the motorized communities who have recently spoken up about acknowledging the conflict between motorized and human-powered recreation. But public lands MUST become increasingly zoned into areas open to motorized and those open only to human power. The two cannot mutually reside in the same areas. Fortunately, the public lands in the West are extensive and if people are willing to respect one another and acknowledge the inimical nature of mutual use, we can find appropriate zoning solutions. But it’s urgent to do so now before large tracts are impacted.