Some two decades ago a handful of Utah Chapter Sierra Club volunteers, led by Jim Catlin, began detailed field work to determine which lands in Utah, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, qualified for wilderness designation.

Their efforts mushroomed, and by now thousands of hours of field work by Sierra Club volunteers and others have led to the citizens' proposal to designate 9.1 million acres of BLM wilderness in Utah. The Sierra Club is one of the founding and principal members of the Utah Wilderness Coalition, which developed and actively supports legislation based on the citizens' wilderness proposal.

The Sierra Club's Wildlands Campaign designated Utah's Wilderness as a national treasure in need of permanent protection. And, through the Utah Sierra Club's Adopt-A-Wilderness Program, volunteers are monitoring the condition of proposed wilderness areas and working with the BLM to ensure their continued protection.

You can learn about various ways to protect the Wildlands of Utah by following the links above. Or, you can get out there and discover for yourself why these places are true National Treasures by taking a Sierra Club Outing.

You are invited to participate in the effort to save one of the nation's last great wildernesses. As Edward Abbey said, "Wilderness needs no defense, only more defenders."

Utah Main page

Scenes from the film The Wild Heart of Red Rock.

Check with your local PBS station for broadcast times. Video copies available from The Video Project at http://www.videoproject.org. Phone: 1-800-4-PLANET.