Columbia Sportswear has reported that the Huangpu District People’s Court of Shanghai, China has convicted three individuals for distributing counterfeit Columbia brand products in Shanghai.

A new federal partnership aims to stimulate regional and local economies, create local jobs, improve quality of life, and protect Americans’ health by revitalizing urban waterways in under-served communities across the country. The Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP), a federal union comprised of 11 agencies, will focus its initial efforts on seven pilot locations: the Patapsco Watershed (Maryland), the Anacostia Watershed (Washington DC/Maryland), the Bronx & Harlem River Watersheds (New York), the South Platte River in Denver (Colorado), the Los Angeles River Watershed (California), the Lake Pontchartrain Area (New Orleans, LA), and the Northwest Indiana Area. Each of the pilot locations already has a strong restoration effort underway, spearheaded by local governments and community organizations. Lessons learned from these pilot locations will be transferred to other cities in the country.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has designated six new national natural landmarks in four western states that are home to unique natural treasures including hanging gardens, fossil footprints and rare Palouse prairie.

“One of the major goals of President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative is to develop a conservation ethic for the 21st Century,” Salazar said. “By designating these remarkable sites in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington as national natural landmarks, we help establish and pass down to future generations those awe-inspiring places that make America truly beautiful.”

The Making Public Lands Public Act, introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate in early June, could potentially open hundreds of thousands of acres of federal public land to hunting, fishing, and other outdoor recreational activities.

The House version, introduced by the leadership of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC), Co-Chairs Rep. Jeff Miller and Co-Chair Rep. Mike Ross, and the Senate version introduced by Co-Chair Sen. Jon Tester and Vice-Chair Sen. James Risch would require the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to utilize 1.5 percent or a minimum of $10 million annually of their Land and Water Conservation Fund budgets for projects that secure recreational public access to existing federal lands through easements, rights-of-way, or fee title acquisitions from willing sellers.

Outdoor apparel and footwear companies in Portland, Oregon will soon have the opportunity to accelerate their adoption of the Outdoor Industry Association Eco Index, a framework to benchmark and measure product-level sustainability throughout the supply chain, thanks to a grant from the Portland Development Commission.

A decision by the Department of the Interior to not implement the Bureau of Land Management Wild Lands policy threatens the infrastructure supporting the nation’s recreation economy, according to Outdoor Industry Association. The organization says Secretary Salazar's reversal of his December 2010 decision to allow the Bureau of Land Management to inventory and manage BLM lands as ‘wild lands’ is a step backwards.

After many violent storms and tornadoes swept through parts of the Southeast, many Chaco fans, retailers and employees witnessed and lived through vast destruction. In an effort to lend a hand, Chaco has teamed with their Chaconian fans as well as four Southeast-based retailers, Mountain High Outfitters, Kinnucan’s, Eagle Eye Outfitters and Alabama Outdoors to better understand disaster relief issues and the local need.

Unifi, maker of 100-percent recycled Repreve yarn, has donated funding through its Repreve Recycling Grant Program to four Keep America Beautiful affiliates in North Carolina to increase plastic bottle (PET) recycling. This grant program, focusing on local community-based plastic bottle recycling programs, is the first by Unifi with Keep America Beautiful. Grants were awarded to one western and three eastern North Carolina communities for outstanding proposals to increase recycling in public spaces.