RELEASE: New report first to highlight climate, extinction benefits of protecting Utah’s Red Rocks Wilderness

Contact

Courtney Bourgoin, courtney.bourgoin@sierraclub.org

Mathew Gross, mathew@suwa.org 

Utah— Today, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Sierra Club released a report that highlights how the America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act would play a vital role in slowing the extinction and climate crises. 

The report comes just as the Biden administration announced a nationwide effort to protect 30% of lands and water in the country by 2030 to protect biodiversity and aid climate mitigation. Lands protected in the America’s Red Rocks Wilderness Act would provide over 1.5% of the needed protections. Conserving the area would also retain emissions equivalent to 5.7% of the country’s carbon budget— an amount necessary to prevent a 1.5°C global temperature rise. 

Read an overview of the report here— including highlights about the legislation’s benefits for the 30x30 initiative, protection of Tribal sacred and ancestral lands, and wilderness’ ability to work as carbon sinks. 

**Representatives below and report author are available for interviews**

In addition to the report release, representatives of the organizations released the following statements: 

“Wilderness protection can help mitigate the climate crisis and protect wildlife connectivity, but wilderness also plays an important role in protecting ancestral, cultural, and sacred sites,” said Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk board member at SUWA and member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. “Maintaining roadless areas is the largest and least costly deterrent to looting, inadvertent driving over sites, and vandalism on sacred sites. We are committed to working together to make these protections happen. By braiding western science, and indigenous knowledge and wisdom, common ground can be established to achieve this bold effort.”

“The Red Rock climate report offers first-of-its-kind data that emphasizes the critical role that large-scale landscape conservation plays in ensuring we prevent the worst effects of climate change and support healthy communities and balanced environments,” said Carly Ferro, Director of the Sierra Club’s Utah Chapter. “Natural solutions like lands, water, and wildlife safeguards must play a key role in our climate policy. Passing this legislation and other lands protections invests in a future that sustains our livelihoods today and into the future.”

“Passing America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act helps to address this problem by connecting ecosystems and sustaining the lifelines for wildlife that stretch between them. Such connectivity isn’t just important for wildlife, it is critical for humans,” said Sharon Buccino, Senior Director of the Land Division at NRDC. “Right now, we are fragmenting our land and waters and the natural systems upon which all life depends. We owe it to our children to pass on these lands as they exist rather than trashing them for short-term profits today.”

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About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.