The Post editorial: Gear up and get outdoors in 2018 and support our public lands.

Downtown Denver is humming this weekend with the energy of thousands of people attending the four-day Outdoor Retailer + Snow Show convention: an exciting development that is not only an economic coup for the city and state, but a political one, too.

We welcome both victories. Colorado should be known as the epicenter of outdoor recreation, and what better way to celebrate that than by having industry experts spend a long weekend here learning about the latest and greatest gear, technology and brands.

Whether it’s a local fly shop offering guided trips, gear and friendly advice, or a massive sporting goods store filled with every brand and style of bikes, skis, tents and guns, retailers serve as gatekeepers providing the know-how and inspiration to get outdoors.

Owners of outdoor recreation stores from across the country have come to Denver to stock their stores, and the 28,000 attendees are expected to spend millions on hotel rooms, meals and entertainment while they are here.

Colorado stole the show from Utah last year after Outdoor Retailer leaders left our neighbors to the west in protest over what was characterized as an anti-public lands sentiment among elected officials, some of whom were lobbying for a reduction in size of Bears Ears National Monument.

With ideal timing, Colorado College released its annual 2018 Conservation in the West poll this week, showing that in Colorado and across seven other Western states there is a great appreciation for and use of public lands. In Colorado, 77 percent of those surveyed said outdoor recreation will be “very important” to the economic future of the state and region. Sadno ly, such sentiment was even higher in Utah, with 80 percent saying it was “very important.”

But when it came to supporting the public lands that fuel outdoor recreation, particularly federal public lands protected as national monuments, Coloradans had a slightly more positive view. Specifically, 39 percent of those surveyed in Utah felt the monuments tied up too much land that could be put to other uses while but 26 percent of those in Colorado felt that way.

Regardless of the strong public sentiment in Utah for protecting lands and supporting outdoor recreation, it was the voices of those like Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, who briefly promoted a bill to sell off 3.3 million acres of federal land, that led Outdoor Retailer to find a new home.

The conversation here is different.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Jared Polis, two Democrats from Colorado, introduced a bill this week that would designated 90,000 acres as wilderness, recreation management, or wildlife conservation areas to protect it for future generations. The land in question would come from expanding existing protected areas and creating three new ones that lie on or close to the Continental Divide.

Federal management of lands isn’t perfect. There is much to be desired in terms of fire management, public access to lands, and allowing for reasonable authorized uses.

But that doesn’t mean we should stop investing in these places for the future, or worse, that we should start divesting from them.

So whether you’re hitting a ski slope on leased National Forest land this winter or planning an epic backpacking trip on the Colorado Trail, gear up and get out in 2018 and support our public lands.