A call to action for educating the consumer: Read the hang tags, know the lasting performance of the gear you are purchasing. Maybe you feel a little trickle on your skin, or you see rain soaking into your jacket where it used to bead right off. Both are signs that your shell—which was once your…
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Early attempts at making earth-friendly equipment came with some unwelcome tradeoffs, but the latest generation of DWR treatments promises to perform. Green gear isn’t what it used to be—and that’s a good thing. A decade ago, when manufacturers first started to offer sustainably-made versions of outdoor fabrics and equipment, hikers couldn’t always count on the…
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Reintroducing the big bear makes more than just ecological sense: We should be freaked out in the woods sometimes. Dear North Cascades, First off: Thanks for your fanged peaks, plunging gorges, and thunderous rivers. (Sorry for cursing them in the moment, with the big pack on. I never really mean it. It’s just, well, you’re…
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Time would beat record by 8 hours, but malfunctioning SPOT impeding confirmation. There’s a new claimant to the Appalachian Trail’s self-supported throne. Dan “Knotts” Binde, 25, says he broke the self-supported speed record on the Appalachian Trail on July 19th just before 2 p.m. However, the record’s gatekeepers have been slow to confirm his story,…
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Made up 2% of GDP, more than mining, oil, and gas The outdoor industry contributed $373.7 billion to the United States economy in 2016, according to a new preliminary report from the Department of Commerce The statistics, gathered by the department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, found that the gross output of the outdoor industry made…
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Vets, local leaders fighting for Southern New Mexico reserve. Garrett Reppenhagen had just two hours to help save Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. It was late July, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was visiting the site in New Mexico as part of his review of National Monuments, and Reppenhagen, Rocky Mountain director of the nonprofit Vet…
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Lawyer-lobbyist with ties to bottled water manufacturer was confirmed as deputy interior secretary in July. The National Park Service has ended a six-year-old ban on the sale of bottled water in some of its units, just weeks after a lawyer and lobbyist whose firm represented one of the country’s largest producers of bottled water was…
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But won’t recommend that president revoke designations. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is expected to recommend to President Donald Trump that he should decrease the boundaries of some national monuments. Zinke told the Associated Press Thursday morning that he would not recommend eliminating any monuments, and that none of the land in question would be sold…
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Teenager allegedly sparked blaze with fireworks. They were wearing flip-flops and bathing suits after a short 1.9 mile hike in and a Saturday spent cooling off in the Columbia River Gorge’s Punchbowl Falls. But the bang of a firecracker in the lush but dry forest turned Labor Day weekend into a hellish survival story for…
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The Land and Water Conservation Fund has bought land for national parks and long trails, and doesn’t cost taxpayers a thing. So why does the White House want to cut it? The LWCF helped protect Oregon’s Sandy RiverJonathan Asher didn’t know much about the Land and Water Conservation Fund when he started working for the…
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