Look who’s throwing its granola-fed weight around. The 4,000-member Outdoor Industry Association is threatening to pull an important trade show from Salt Lake City unless Utah stops its plans to horn in on millions of acres of federally protected lands.

A lot of money and a lot of land is caught up in this debate.

As the AP points out, Americans spend $640 billion (yes, almost two-thirds of a cool trillion) on gear, travel and services related to outdoor recreation. And the companies that benefit from (and promote) all that hiking and biking and rock-climbing are dismayed at recent actions by Utah’s legislature and Gov. Gary Herbert, “a staunch supporter of mining, oil and gas development.”

So dismayed, that they’ve threatened to pull a biannual outdoor trade show that brings big crowds and “injects more than $40 million yearly into the state economy.” It also promotes the image of Utah as a Mecca for outdoor enthusiasts. Which it is, in part because of 28 million acres of federally protected land—about half of the entire state.

“At issue is legislation signed by Herbert in March that demands the federal government relinquish control of public lands in Utah by 2014.”

Herbert says the legislation doesn’t touch the state’s five national parks. Or any congressionally approved wilderness areas. But it would lay claim to a lot of other federal land, including “the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which President Bill Clinton designated in 1996. Since then, state officials and residents of the rural area, which is dominated by red rock landscapes, have waged an endless battle with federal authorities over land use.”

Can a state just take federal land because its legislature wants it? We would guess no, and the AP notes that the “governor has been warned by his own attorneys that the push will likely be found unconstitutional.” So why do state legislatures, which are typically lawyer covens, pass unconstitutional laws? We don’t know. To rile up backpackers? To grab headlines? To show their good intentions to certain moneyed donors?

Meanwhile, the outdoor industry folks are looking at alternative trade show sites in Denver and Las Vegas. But after a lot of pointless huffing and puffing on both sides, they’ll probably stay in SLC.

Photo: “Showing biceps” by ~ggvic~ via Wikimedia Commons.