Keep up by reading Industry Buzz. Here are today's top headlines:
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- Ryan Zinke does good: The Interior Secretary announced the designation of 19 new National Recreation Trails (NRTs)—a total 370 miles across 17 states, such as the 1.1-mile Fort Larned Historic Nature Trail Loop in Kansas to the 100-mile Guadalupe Ridge Trail in New Mexico and Texas. The trails already existed, but the designation means the trails get markers, inclusion in a database, and other benefits.
- Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk announced his retirement Friday as Interior Department officials decide whether or not to reassign him to Washington. The proposed reassignment also includes six others senior execs. Zinke and his deputies have said the shifts are a way to invigorate the department’s approach to decision-making.
- On Saturday morning, expert climbers Tim Klein and Jason Wells were killed while speed climbing on the lower pitches of the Salathé Wall on El Capitan—a section called Freeblast. A scream was heard and both climbers fell, roped together, 1,000 feet to the ground, Climbing magazine reported.
- Tariff news: Outdoor Industry Association thinks that the 10 percent aluminum tariff and 25 percent steel tariff on imports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union could hit the outdoor industry hard by raising costs for products like trekking and ski poles, tent frames, carabineers, crampons, stoves and other products made in the United States by outdoor companies.
- Employees from Big Agnes, Honey Stinger, and retailer BAP will soon set out to hike the length of Colorado in celebration of the 40 anniversary of the Continental Divide Trail and the 50 anniversary of the National Scenic Trails Act. L.L.Bean is doing something similar on the AT.
- Vail Resorts is packing more ski areas under its wing with the acquisition of four more resorts: Okemo in Vermont, Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire, Crested Butte in Colorado, and Stevens Pass in Washington.
- Gerber, a global supplier of personal knives, multi-tools, and problem-solving outdoor gear, appointed Andrew Gritzbaugh as general manager. He joined Gerber in 2011 and has held multiple roles in the company.
- Arc'teryx promoted Megan Cheeseborough and George Weetman to the company's senior leadership team. Adam Ketcheson, vice president of global marketing and B2C, left the company at the beginning of the month.
