Yesterday Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Rush Holt teamed up to introduce America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (S. 769, H.R. 1630) in the 113th Congress, joined by 11 cosponsors in the Senate and 60 cosponsors in the House who understand that Utah’s wilderness is a singular American landscape worthy of the highest form of protection.
The bill began as a labor of love for hundreds of Utahns who plainly saw that the Bureau of Land Management’s initial inventories of wilderness overlooked some of the best, wildest county—not only in Utah, but within the United States—and who set out to rectify those inventory shortcomings with their own time, field work, sweat and blisters.
Since those early days, America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act has stood firm as the seminal legislation to protect Utah’s fantastical sandstone hoodoos, soaring canyons and secret gardens, so that they may endure in their best, wildest state for future generations of Americans.
“The legislation Congressman Holt and I are introducing today will designate as wilderness some of our nation’s most remarkable, but unprotected public lands,” Durbin said. “This land was chosen based on meticulous research and surveying of thousands of square miles to determine which lands should be protected. America’s Red Rock Wilderness is a lasting gift to the American public that will give future generations the opportunity to enjoy a landscape that so many now cherish.”
“Development and irresponsible land use threaten one of this country’s most spectacular landscapes, Utah’s Redrock country,” Holt said. “America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act would preserve and protect these deep red canyons, windswept mesas, and fantastical sandstone formations for current and future generations.”
The protection of the Redrock is an effort that would be impossible without our dedicated champs in Congress and our activists on the ground. It is an effort that has taken years of time and effort by thousands of people. The next chapter begins now.
