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Blog Archives
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July 2nd, 2020Read More »Our e-newsletter with the latest on redrock wilderness news and events.
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July 1st, 2020For the Kids / Para los Niños
Download the Desert Bighorn Sheep coloring sheet below and color it in to participate in our first summer art contest! To enter, post a photo of your kiddo’s creation (or your own if you are under 18) on social media and use #ProtectWildUtah in the caption so we can see your entry. Winners will earn SUWA swag, like one of our unique Nalgene water bottles or a hat. Happy coloring!
¡Descargue el carnero del desierto abajo para colorear y pintelo participar en nuestro primer concurso artístico verano! Para entrar, publicar un foto de la creación de su niño y usar el #ProtectWildUtah hashtag en la leyenda así que podemos ver su obra. Ganadores pueden escoger una botella Nalgene o una gorra para su premio. ¡Feliz coloreando!
Rules
- Contestants eligible to win SUWA SWAG must be 17 or younger.
- To enter, post a photo of your kiddo’s creation (or your own if you are under 18) on social media and use #ProtectWildUtah in the caption so we can see your entry.
- Entries can be posted on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and should be set to public so we can see them.
- Winners can choose a SUWA hat or Nalgene water bottle for their prize. We will select 5 winners.
- Contest opens on July 2nd and ends on July 13th.
Art by Alex Cochran. Click image to download.
You can check out this film for some artistic inspiration!
¡Puede ver esta película para inspiración artística!
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June 29th, 2020As you may have heard by now, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wants to open up more than 114,000 acres of wild lands in Utah—including more than 86,000 acres in southeastern Utah—to oil and gas drilling as part of its upcoming September lease sale.
If this massive lease sale goes through, oil and gas wells could appear at the doorstep of Canyonlands, Arches, and Capitol Reef National Parks—as well as near Bears Ears National Monument, Labyrinth Canyon, Dead Horse Point State Park, the Green River, and in lands proposed for wilderness designation in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act.
Tell the BLM: No oil and gas leasing near Utah’s National Parks!
The BLM is accepting comments on the lease sale through next Thursday, July 9th. Trump’s BLM needs to hear from you. Tell them:
- The BLM must put a halt to all new leasing of public lands if there is any chance of avoiding the most severe impacts of a changing climate. Fossil fuels extracted from public lands including oil and gas account for nearly 24 percent of the nation’s annual carbon dioxide emissions.
- Even without the climate crisis, this lease sale would be unacceptable. The BLM is proposing to blanket southern Utah’s redrock country with oil and gas leases, opening the door to development of some of the nation’s most remarkable public lands, including lands surrounding three of Utah’s “Mighty Five” National Parks.
- The BLM is promoting wide-scale lease speculation. The world is currently awash in unneeded oil, as evidenced by the BLM recently giving royalty relief to oil and gas operators in this same area because those operators cannot economically develop the leases they already have.
Click here to tell the BLM what you think about their latest giveaway to the oil and gas industry.
Thanks to SUWA supporters like you, thousands of messages have already been sent to Utah Governor Gary Herbert, demonstrating the widespread opposition to the Trump administration’s attempt to flood southern Utah with new oil and gas wells.
The BLM needs to get that message as well. Please take a moment to submit your comments today.
Thank you for taking action.
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June 26th, 2020
June is Pride month! In this episode, we explore how mother nature can cultivate confidence, healing, and embodiment for LGBTQ+ people. SUWA Community Organizer Olivia Juarez and guests Eva Lopez of Orgullo Utah and Salvador Oregon-Torres, a Utah-based LGBTQ+ and undocumented community advocate, delve into queerness in the wild.Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.
Listen on your favorite app!
wildutah.info/Stitcher
wildutah.info/Apple
wildutah.info/Spotify -
June 22nd, 2020At the doorstep of Bears Ears National Monument, the White Mesa Uranium Mill in southern Utah wants to acquire tons of new radioactive waste shipped all the way from Estonia.
The mill’s owner, Energy Fuels Resources, lobbied the Trump administration to reduce Bears Ears National Monument in 2017. If the license application is approved by the Utah Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control, the White Mesa Uranium Mill would begin accepting 660 tons of radioactive waste to process in the first year alone.
Bringing Estonia’s radioactive waste, which contains about 0.05% uranium ore, to the White Mesa Uranium Mill for processing would add millions of tons of toxic waste to the pits that lie just a few miles from the Ute Mountain Ute’s White Mesa community.
White Mesa Uranium Mill, copyright EcoFlight
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has voiced concerns about Energy Fuels Resources’ proposal and the threat of contamination to the Tribe’s drinking water. Scott Clow, the Environmental Programs Director for the Tribe, lamented to the Salt Lake Tribune how the White Mesa Uranium Mill is becoming “the world’s radioactive waste dump.” He added, “The Tribe does not want these materials to continue to be delivered to their neighborhood, their traditional lands, and stored there forever.”
Energy Fuels Resources already has a questionable track record when it comes to handling toxic and radioactive materials. Within the last five years, trucks driving through southern Utah on their way to White Mesa have spilled radioactive waste twice, and the mill itself releases toxic and radioactive air pollutants, which residents of White Mesa have reported smelling.
The public comment period on Energy Fuels Resources’ proposal is open through July 10, 2020.
Click here to submit your comments to Utah regulators today.
Thank you for taking action.