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SUWA Action Alerts - Page 30 of 34
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February 11th, 2011
A key tool to protect Utah’s redrock country is coming under attack! Please contact your Members of Congress today to let them know how important the Bureau of Land Mangement’s “Wild Lands” Policy is to you!
Want more information about the “Wild
Lands” policy? SUWA’s Associate
Director Heidi McIntosh offers her take
in this video.Late last year, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a policy that restores wilderness values to their proper place under BLM’s multiple use mandate. For Utah, this means added protection for up to 6 million acres of lands proposed for wilderness in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act – land that remain open to off-road vehicle routes that damage rare desert streams and historically valuable cultural resources.
Now, the oil & gas industry, ATV manufacturers and their allies in Congress are drawing up plans to handcuff the BLM and keep Bush administration policies in place. In the coming weeks, Congress is set to take up a Continuing Appropriations Resolution – where anti-wilderness representatives may try to block implementation of the “Wild lands” policy.
Please contact your Members of Congress today to let them know that the vast majority of the American public supports the new “Wild lands” policy – that this is not a “land grab” as wilderness opponents claim, but a restoration of a necessary authority used for decades to protect the redrock’s most special places.
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February 3rd, 2011
Utah’s wild canyonlands are once again threatened by oil and gas leasing – this time by a little known state agency, the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration or “SITLA.” This past Monday, SITLA held an auction for oil, gas, and other mineral leases that cover some of Utah’s most iconic landscapes, including Muddy Creek, the Dirty Devil, and several scenic parcels within eyeshot of Canyonlands National Park. Please ask Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to protect these sensitive lands so they are no longer vulnerable to such threats.
View from Harts Point, one of several
proposed wilderness areas threatened
by SITLA’s lease sale.The leases sold at the auction comprised a hit list of special places and wilderness-quality lands in the Greater Canyonlands region. SITLA offered 29 separate lease parcels for oil and gas development or mineral development that impacted lands proposed for protection in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, setting the stage for new well-pads, roads, pollution, and other destructive impacts associated with drilling. The largest grouping of parcels lies within the Harts Point, Shay Mountain, and Bridger Jack Mesa proposed wilderness areas, all of which sit just east and south of Canyonlands National Park. This gives you an idea of where SITLA parcels conflict with wild lands in Utah and their proximity to Canyonlands National Park.
The Greater Canyonlands region is a landscape of jaw-dropping beauty and unsurpassed wilderness. Three rivers – the Colorado, Green, and Dirty Devil – come together in a stunning labyrinth of deeply incised gorges, towering mesas, and a mind boggling maze of sinuous canyons. Archeological artifacts abound; the striking stone architecture of the ancient Puebloan and Fremont cultures stands essentially undisturbed across the terrain. These national treasures were sacred to many in the past and continue to inspire and draw visitors from around America and the world.
The threat to these lands posed by the SITLA oil, gas, and mineral leases is compounded by the additional threats of tar sands and potash mining, and the damage inflicted by off-road vehicle (ORV) use in ecologically and archeologically sensitive areas. The fragmentation of the region’s management, as demonstrated by this lease sale, only serves to magnify these threats. In order to sustain the natural and cultural resources of this great piece of our national heritage, the Obama administration should act to ensure that the Greater Canyonlands region receives the greatest possible protections. Please tell Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to protect the Greater Canyonlands region today!
Thank you!
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January 19th, 2011
Last week, wilderness protection in Utah got a needed boost as National Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Bob Abbey came to Utah to discuss the new BLM wilderness guidance that has the potential to give needed protection to 6 million acres of wilderness-quality lands across the state.
In the face of some antagonistic questioning by Utah Governor Gary Herbert and his “Balanced Resources Council,” Director Abbey held firm, saying that the new wilderness guidance is a tool to provide protection to BLM-managed wild lands until Congress acts to officially designate wilderness.
Over a hundred Utah wilderness supporters showed up to the meeting to thank Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and BLM Director Abbey for their commitment to giving wilderness its rightful place as an equal among the range of other resources BLM must manage and protect — a critical first step towards ensuring the permanent protection of our last remaining wild lands in the West.
Click on the video below to view clips from a news conference we organized featuring SUWA’s Heidi McIntosh along with Utahns Bryson Garbett, a former Republican legislator and owner of a prominent home building company, and Eve Miller, a new mom and co-founder of Women Protecting Wilderness.
The new policy also reverses the much-maligned and illegal 2003 back-door agreement between former Utah governor Michael Leavitt and former Interior boss Gale Norton by which Norton renounced the BLM’s authority to manage public lands to protect their wilderness character.
But, we all know that good policies are only good if they are implemented correctly, so we’re going to be watching implementation of this new wilderness guidance closely, and will urge the BLM to take a robust approach to protection of wild lands under its jurisdiction.
A big thanks to all of you who love and support Utah’s wild lands! Working together we can continue to ensure that these amazing places remain wild so the generations that come after us can experience them in their natural splendor.
If you haven’t done so already, please take a moment to thank Secretary Salazar for the new wilderness guidance policy.
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January 11th, 2011
On December 24, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reversed the Bush-era “No More Wilderness” policy, creating a new “Wild Lands” policy that could potentially protect 6 million acres of wilderness in Utah (see our Associate Director’s note).
National BLM Director Bob Abbey will be visiting Salt Lake City this Friday, and we will hand deliver everyone’s notes at that event. Please show your support for protecting Utah wilderness by thanking Secretary Salazar today!
Thank you!
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January 7th, 2011
Happy New Year from all of us at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Thank you for your strong support in 2010. Now let’s get to work in 2011!
2010 ended on a bright note with Secretary Salazar’s new wilderness guidance that could give needed protection to 6 million acres of Utah’s redrock wilderness. Thanks to all of you, this action reverses the Bush administration’s “No More Wilderness” policy, which left these lands vulnerable to off-road vehicle damage and inappropriate energy development.
Only with your activism and support can we seize this opportunity to secure these lands the protection they deserve. Wilderness opponents are already promising to block this policy: the oil and gas industry and off-road vehicle advocates are fuming, and politicians like Utah Senator Orrin Hatch are declaring they’ll do everything possible to stop us.
To blunt this opposition, newly minted House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Ed Markey (D-MA) is already circulating a letter to members of Congress asking them to thank Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for the new policy. Please take a moment now to ask your representative to sign Mr. Markey’s letter!
For Utahns: Please take a moment now to ask let your Utah Congressional representatives know that you support Secretary Salazar’s action.
This type of action will encourage the Obama administration to continue issuing conservation-oriented policies for public lands by demonstrating broad popular support.
Thank you!
P.S. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of supporters like you, we met our year-end goal and won a matching gift of $100,000! Your financial contributions are absolutely essential to the important work of protecting America’s redrock for current and future generations. Sec. Salazar’s new wilderness guidance demonstrates that your support is yielding results!