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Utah Wilderness
Take Action! Ask your member of Congress to cosponsor America's Red Rock Wilderness Act.
Utah's red rock country is one of our nation's most magnificent wild landscapes, dominated by towering buttes, red sandstone plateaus and deep, winding canyons. Unfortunately this wonderful land is at great risk from oil and gas exploration and rampant abuse by off-road-vehicles, which destroy vegetation and leave tracks that can last for a generation in the fragile desert ecosystem.
America's Red Rock Wilderness Act will protect Utah's wild land
The goal of the Sierra Club's Utah Wilderness Campaign is to build congressional support for America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, a bill that would give wilderness protection to more than 9 million acres of federal public land in southern Utah, land that belongs to all Americans. An interim goal is to protect Utah's remaining wildlands from development and bad legislation that would damage its wilderness characteristics and render it ineligible for the highest form of protection.
Over the past two decades, America's Red Rock Wilderness Act has enjoyed significant national support, culminating in 168 cosponsors in the House and 23 in the Senate in the 111th Congress, which ended December 2010. We are working hard to increase that number substantially in the new Congress.
Sec. Salazar's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Lands Policy was a major victory in 2010. It replaced the Bush era "no more wilderness" policy that stopped the BLM from using its authority under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to identify and protect wilderness characteristics on the land it manages. Unfortunately as part of the deal to approve the Federal budget for 2011 the House Republicans would not approve any funds to implement the Wild Lands Policy.
With the new House leadership largely opposed to protecting public lands, defeating attacks on land conservation measures will be a necessity. There are many damaging policies and management practices still remaining from the Bush Administration that need to be addressed by the Obama Administration. For example, Resource Management Plans recently created by the BLM allow off-road-vehicle routes and oil and gas leasing in wilderness quality lands, and the BLM refuses to inventory lands they manage for wilderness eligibility.
One Man's Work to Protect Utah Wilderness
There are many people across America who volunteer to help protect the red rock canyonlands. Rich Csenge is one of them. Rich has spoken from the heart to hundreds of people in Maine and helped to start a festival in Utah celebrating public lands. Watch this five-minute film of Rich's story, set to the music of a symphony commissioned to celebrate "America's Red Rock Wilderness Act," or
click here to see it on YouTube.
What You Can Do
Send an email with one click!
Send your congressperson an email urging them to cosponsor America's Red Rock Wilderness Act. EVERY CLICK COUNTS!
Become a Sierra Club Utah Activist
The Sierra Club's National Utah Wilderness Team works to increase Congressional support for America's Red Rock Wilderness Act by encouraging Sierra Club members across the country to become involved in the grass roots campaign to protect Utah's magnificent wild lands. The Utah Wilderness Team has a dozen members and active participation from volunteers across the country, several of whom are listed below.
For more information and to learn how you can get involved, contact Bob Jordan, Chair, bobjord@earthlink.net, or Clayton Daughenbaugh, Vice Chair, claytonhd@xmission.com.
Sierra Club's National Utah Wilderness Team
California:
Vicky Hoover (Vicky.hoover@sierraclub.org)
Mike Painter (mike@caluwild.org)
Illinois:
Anne McKibbin (amckibbin@law.gwu.edu)
Patrick Murphy (antaeus@northwestern.edu)
Clayton Daughenbaugh (claytonhd@xmission.com)
Indiana:
Linda Myers: (myersjl2@comcast.net)
Iowa:
Jim Baker (bakerjim@avalon.net)
Del Holland (DelHolland@aol.com)
Mark Madsen (mark-madsen@uiowa.edu)
Bob Sessions (bsessio@kirkwood.edu)
Maryland:
Chris Yoder (chris.yoder@mdsierra.org)
Michigan:
Patrick Dengate (PDengate436@aol.com)
Bev & Dave Wolf (bev_wolf@comcast.net)
Minnesota:
Joshua Houdek (joshua.houdek@sierraclub.org)
New Mexico:
Norma McCallan (nmccallan@mindspring.com)
New Jersey:
John Kashwick (johnkashwick@optonline.net)
Utah:
Jim Catlin (jamesc@xmission.com)
Wayne Hoskisson (wyh@xmission.com)
Kevin Walker (kevin@canyon23.net)
Vermont:
Bob Jordan (bobjord@earthlink.net)
Virginia:
Pete Bsumek (pkbsumek@gmail.com)
Find out more
Photo of Rimrocks in Escalante, Utah, courtesy James Kay; used with permission. Blue Hills Badlands photo © Ray Wheeler; used with permission.