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SUWA Action Alerts Archives
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December 21st, 2018The Winter Solstice has always been a time of celebration and reflection.
Here at SUWA, some of our most meaningful moments have taken place in the redrock. Whether viewing ancient petroglyphs, floating muddy rivers with family and friends, or wandering solo in the canyons, one can’t help but be touched deeply by the beauty of the precious wilderness that belongs to us all.
And because of the support of thousands of people like you, the canyons are still wild, peaceful, and stirring to the soul.
Please, consider making a year-end donation to SUWA today.
Snow Covered Fins, Proposed Behind-the-Rocks BLM Wilderness, Utah La Sal Mountains beyond. Photo (c) Tom Till.
We at SUWA live to protect the redrock. You know this. We stand up to the greed and scare tactics of Utah’s politicians, and to President Trump’s “Energy Dominance” agenda. We challenge the federal agencies when they seek to lease lands that should be protected as wilderness to oil and gas companies, or when they clearcut pinyon and juniper forests to create more forage for cattle and big game species.
Defending Utah wilderness is what we do — but we can’t do it without the support of people like you.
Join thousands of others in protecting Utah wilderness by making a contribution to SUWA today.
The end of the longest night heralds a shift to brighter days. With your support, we can ensure that those days include the same redrock country and opportunities for solitude we know today, for us and for generations to come.
Thank you for your support, and Happy Solstice.
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December 11th, 2018Relentless. That’s the word that best describes the assault on Utah’s public lands from the Trump administration and Utah politicians over the past 12 months.
From President Trump’s illegal reduction of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments last December to the nearly seven-fold increase in oil and gas leasing we’ve seen in Utah under the Trump administration, the people who would tear up Utah’s magnificent wilderness for fossil fuel development haven’t once let up.
But SUWA has been relentless in defending the Redrock throughout 2018. And that defense is only possible because of the support from people like you.
Click here to make a year-end contribution to SUWA today!
The results of the midterm elections brought a ray of hope. The Democratic victory in the House of Representatives means Trump’s Department of Interior will finally face much-needed oversight in 2019.
But the fact is, we still have at least two more years of the Trump administration, and they aren’t going to let up in their efforts to roll back protections and continue implementing their drill-everywhere “Energy Dominance” agenda.
And the state of Utah, emboldened by the president’s relentless assault on Utah’s public lands, isn’t letting up either.
Help defend Utah’s redrock wilderness in 2019 and beyond by making a special contribution today.
With two more years of the Trump administration ahead, 2019 will be a time of defense. We need your support to:
- Defeat President Trump’s illegal monument proclamations in federal court and restore Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments.
- Fight back against the State of Utah’s more than 20 lawsuits that seek to gain rights to approximately 14,000 “hoax highways.” The state brought these cases with the express goal of blocking protection of Utah’s wild lands and turning them over to extractive industries and off-road vehicles. After years of depositions and behind-the-scenes lawyering, SUWA will be defending the land against the state of Utah and Kane County in the first “bellwether” case this winter.
- Hold onto the land until it can be permanently protected as wilderness or national monuments. That means our day-to-day work of defending the land against proposals big and small, from challenging energy leasing and development to blocking “chaining” projects to halting off-road vehicle abuse.
- Build the movement to protect the Redrock. SUWA’s life blood for political strength and financial support comes from members like you. Our membership ultimately gives us our core political strength for both legislative and executive branch work.
To meet these big challenges, we’ve set a big goal — raising $250,000 online by the end of this month.
Can you help us reach that goal by making a special tax-deductible year-end contribution today?
Click here to help protect the Redrock in 2019 and beyond.
SUWA will never rest in our defense of America’s redrock. But our work is only possible with the support of people like you.
Thank you for standing with us to defend Utah wilderness.
Karin Duncker
Development Director -
December 5th, 2018It’s finally December, which means, blessedly, that Congress is about to go home! But first they’re in a frenzy to complete their work for the session and pass as many bills as possible.
Senator Orrin Hatch is trying to use this freneticism to glue the Emery County Public Land Management Act (S. 2809) to a potential public lands package being negotiated by the House and Senate.
We can’t let this happen. Contact your representatives now and tell them to oppose Sen. Hatch’s “Not-so-Swell” bill!
San Rafael River. Copyright Ray Bloxham/SUWA
We’ve told you in the past that the bill fails to protect deserving landscapes like the San Rafael Badlands, Muddy Creek, and Labyrinth Canyon. And while Hatch has made some changes at the margins of the bill, they are not sufficient. The bill still protects far too little land, and the places it claims to protect are riddled with off-road vehicle routes. It also releases currently protected land for a coal mine and facilitates a land exchange that would allow the State of Utah to acquire nearly 12,000 acres of proposed wilderness! Finally, it gives away federal public land to the State of Utah for an expansion of Goblin Valley State Park.
Don’t let Hatch hatch another anti-wilderness scheme! Contact your representatives now!
Bottom line: the land that we fight for is better off if the bill doesn’t pass.
Here’s what you can do. Click here to tell your members of Congress not to allow this bill to be attached to a public lands package—or any other.
Then, call the Capitol Switchboard and say it again: 202-224-3121.
Together we can make sure Sen. Hatch doesn’t get the coal mine he wants in his stocking.
Thanks for all you do!
P.S. Help us protect the San Rafael Swell in 2019 and beyond by making a tax-deductible year-end contribution to SUWA today. Click here to contribute.
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November 19th, 2018Even as it solicits public comments on how to (mis)manage the illegally-reduced Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is moving forward with two terrible “vegetation management” proposals within the original boundaries of Grand Staircase.
These two proposals would strip sagebrush and pinyon-juniper forests from more than 110,000 acres of Grand Staircase-Escalante. All told, the BLM is looking at “landscape-level project[s]” on more than 560,000 acres of your public lands.
Copyright Ray Bloxham/SUWA
In the Paria River watershed, the BLM is considering letting loose the chainsaws and mechanical masticators on up to 93,000 acres of public lands within a 565,000 acre area. Still in the initial scoping phase of planning, comments on the Paria River Project are due on Monday, November 26th.
In the Skutumpah Terrace area northeast of Kanab, the BLM has completed an Environmental Assessment of a “treatment” proposal to remove pinyon and juniper from more than 22,000 acres of public land. The BLM is requesting public input on this plan by Monday, December 3rd.
Large-scale vegetation removal projects are an extreme and unproven management approach that simply do not belong on our public lands, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument should certainly never be the subject of the most aggressive and invasive treatments like chaining, mastication, and mulching.
Please take a moment to join us in defending Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from bad management decisions by submitting your comments today.
Thank you for taking action.
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November 13th, 2018This Thursday, November 15th, marks the closing of the comment period for the Trump administrations’s hastily-drafted management plans for the illegally reduced Bears Ears National Monument.
If you haven’t already done so, please click here to submit your comments now.
Copyright Jeff Foott
You’ll recall that back in August, President Trump’s Interior Department released its draft management plans for what’s left of both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, as well as the lands that were illegally excised from those monuments.
Their vision for the monuments is one of rampant oil and gas leasing, coal mining, and barely-restrained off-road vehicle use.
It was only last December that the president unlawfully attacked both of these monuments. Now his administration has put together plans that not only fail to protect the monuments’ irreplaceable values, they invite their destruction.
The public comment period for Bears Ears ends this Thursday, and the comment period for Grand Staircase-Escalante ends Nov. 30th. If you haven’t already done so, please click here to submit your comments for either or both monuments now.
Thank you for standing up for Utah’s national monuments.