[NOTE: The following letters from SUWA Executive Director Scott Groene and Board Chair Tom Kenworthy appear in the Autumn/Winter 2024 edition of our Redrock Wilderness print newsletter.]
In September, I stood in a raucous Washington, DC bar watching the inaugural gathering of the newly minted National Wilderness Coalition. It was powerful to see new groups and individuals come together under the wilderness banner—not only to mark the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act but to commit collectively to the bedrock belief that we must protect America’s remaining wild places.
I’m proud to say SUWA played a leadership role in launching the Coalition and laying a foundation for its success.
Looking out at the crowd, I saw a revitalized and reinvigorated wilderness movement. There was a time when I knew every face and every name in almost any wilderness gathering I attended. No longer. Many of these faces were new to me. And the attendees have become more diverse over the past decade. This is all exceptionally good news for the wild places we care about.
Gratitude and Hope
This reassurance about the future of wilderness makes it a little easier to leave SUWA, as I will at the end of this year. I’ve been fortunate to have the best job, working with the best people, on behalf of the most spectacular landscape on earth.
I’m excited for SUWA’s future, with its blend of new and experienced staff, and the support of the SUWA board. The upcoming transition will allow SUWA to grow and evolve into an even better defender of the redrock.
SUWA has faced many obstacles over the years: entrenched bureaucracies, the greed of short-term development schemes, the rise of motorized toys, climate change, and the never-ending foolishness and mean-spiritedness of Utah’s politicians. But together, and beyond anyone’s expectations, we have successfully defended the redrock over the past four decades.
Consider that in a 50-year period, from roughly 1935 to 1985, we lost—to drilling, damming, chaining, and roads—more than half of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in Utah that would have qualified for wilderness protection. That loss totals approximately 13 million acres. In the subsequent 40 years, from 1983 to present, we’ve lost less than one percent of the remaining 9.5 million acres of redrock wilderness. That 40-year span corresponds to SUWA’s existence. That is no coincidence.
Over 5 million Acres with Some Level of Protection
We have achieved significant protection for these remaining lands, including three congressional wilderness enactments that, with associated land exchanges, protect a million acres of redrock. And with executive branch actions (national monument proclamations, for example), there are now more than 5.5 million acres of proposed wilderness in Utah with some form of protection. This surpasses what was once considered a naïve and unattainable goal when early advocates had the audacious dream of protecting 5.1 million acres.
We succeeded because we dared, and because of you and everyone else who has been part of this movement.
I first moved to Utah (Mexican Hat) nearly 40 years ago, and have since been blessed to spend much of my life exploring southern Utah with friends, my partner Christy, or alone. But my greatest joy has been teaching my daughters Maggie and Sadie to row the muddy rivers, ski the high backcountry, and navigate the redrock canyons. I trust in SUWA to make certain that there will always be plenty of wild canyon country for my daughters, and all of our children, to roam.
I imagine SUWA as a mythical desert river flowing through time. There’s no guidebook for this river. Its flows are unpredictable. Every bend, every season, brings new views and challenges. Many have paddled it in the past, and there are uncharted miles ahead of us. It’s been an incredible journey for me, but it’s time to step off the raft and find a new adventure. I remain full of faith and trust in the next generation as it navigates its own stretch of river.
Through thick and thin, SUWA never gives up and never gives in. I am grateful for the chance to be part of this organization and its inextinguishable spirit. And I am equally grateful to all of you for your friendship, support, and hard work on behalf of the redrock. See you down the trail.
For the Redrock,
Scott Groene
Executive Director
Letter from the Board Chair
When I joined the SUWA Board of Directors back in 2011, I figured out something pretty fast: this was not a job that involved a lot of heavy lifting. By that time SUWA was a well-established and smoothly functioning nonprofit with almost 30 years of experience.
It had a fiercely loyal membership of roughly 13,000 people from across the country, all totally dedicated to the task of protecting wilderness-quality federal lands. The SUWA staff was, in my view, the best in the land conservation business, with many of them hardened veterans who stuck to their guns even when other groups were compromising away their principles. And the organization was on a secure financial footing, thanks to its generous members and its wise decision not to depend too much on any one funding source. All traits that remain true today.
And at its helm was Scott Groene, who had been executive director since 2004; aside from a few brief career detours, he had been a SUWA staffer dating back to the early 1990’s. I first met Scott in 1992 when I was covering public lands for the Washington Post and he took me out on a field tour. Within the first hour, he nearly tore the bottom off my rental SUV and I was immediately hooked. He’s been a great friend and, once I got out of the newspaper business, a wonderful colleague ever since. Scott’s been an immensely talented leader at SUWA—wise, strategic, empathetic, smart, politically savvy, and definitely not afraid of a fight.
Now comes the heavy lift.
Scott is retiring at the end of this year, and it’s the board’s unfortunate task to find his replacement. He’s been the executive director long enough that none of us currently serving on the board have been through this at SUWA before. To assist us, we’ve hired a search firm that specializes in nonprofits and comes highly recommended to us: Kittleman & Associates.
The team at Kittleman is guiding us through a well-crafted and thorough process that will take several months. As I write this, they’re surveying the entire SUWA staff and board to understand what makes SUWA unique, its strengths and weaknesses, where it should be headed, and the qualities necessary in a new leader. After that comes a broad search for suitable candidates, winnowing down that list, conducting interviews of finalists, and then the board picks a new executive director.
This is, without a doubt, a big change for a remarkable organization. On behalf of the board, I want to assure you of how seriously we’re taking this search for the next leader of SUWA and the Protect Wild Utah movement. Please be on the lookout for additional updates in the coming months.
Tom Kenworthy
Board Chair
