May 2013

Here’s what is happening this month with the redrock:
1.  Join Neil Young and Daryl Hannah in our Greater Canyonlands photo campaign.
2.  Bad news for Hatch Point in Greater Canyonlands.
3.  Help increase congressional support for Utah wilderness.
4.  Attend an upcoming redrock event in NJ, NY and CT.

Take a Protect Greater Canyonlands photo! Daryl Hannah and Neil Young did.

Recently, actress/director Daryl Hannah and rock legend Neil Young were in Moab and showed their support for protecting Greater Canyonlands!

Join them by taking a Protect Greater Canyonlands photo!  Click here to print out your own black and yellow sign and then upload your own photo: http://bit.ly/GCCampaign

More ways to get involved this summer:

Our Greater Canyonlands postcard campaign has been a great success!  Staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality have noticed the thousands of signatures from redrock supporters throughout the country, and we will continue to deliver signed postcards to President Obama throughout the summer.

Sign up to collect postcards in support of protecting Greater Canyonlands from your family, friends and beyond by clicking here.

You can also visit http://bit.ly/GCCampaign to send an email to President Obama, tweet to the White House, ask your friends to like the Protect Greater Canyonlands Facebook page, and more.

BLM green lights potash drilling on Hatch Point

The Moab Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved a mining company’s proposal to drill four exploratory potash* wells on Hatch Point.  K2O Utah LLC, owned by a large Australian mining company, has little concern for the harmful effects its drilling and development activities have on the outstanding scenery of the Greater Canyonlands area; it is interested in making a profit.  Period.  Yet, the tens of thousands of visitors that flock to the Hatch Point and Needles Overlook area annually are not doing so to view drill rigs, sludge pits, tanker trucks and industrial equipment.

Area of Hatch Point that would be affected by potash development.

The BLM has acknowledged that its current management plan failed to correctly identify areas where oil, gas and potash development should occur.  As a result, the Moab BLM is currently conducting an evaluation of public lands near Moab (known as the Master Leasing Plan process) to correct this defect.  As part of the Master Leasing Plan, the BLM is considering new management constraints for various areas, such as closing the Hatch Point area to leasing.   The BLM’s draft Master Leasing Plan is scheduled for release later this summer.

The BLM’s resolve to rush headlong into a decision to allow potash drilling on Hatch Point illustrates the immediate need for a higher level of protection for the lands in Greater Canyonlands.

Read more on our blog by clicking here.

Help grow congressional support for Utah wilderness!

In April, redrock champions Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, legislation that would protect over 9 million acres of spectacular public lands in Utah.

Currently, the redrock bill has 71 House and 12 Senate cosponsors — those members of Congress who have officially signed on in support of this visionary legislation.  Now, our task is to continue to grow this support during the coming months.  Contact from you — their constituents — is what really makes the difference.

What you can do:

1) Send an email to your members of Congress by clicking here.

2) Sign our petition to Congress by clicking here.

If your members of Congress have already cosponsored America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (see list by clicking here), please thank them by clicking here.



Attend a Utah wilderness event!


Learn more about Utah wilderness, the Greater Canyonlands campaign, and how you can get involved.  In the coming weeks, presentations will be held in New Jersey, Connecticut and New York.

Click here for the upcoming schedule of presentations and events. To suggest a venue or group for a presentation in your area, please contact Clayton (clayton@suwa.org) in the Midwest and Jackie (jackie@suwa.org) in the East.



Sign the petition to protect Greater Canyonlands

The Moab Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved a mining company’s proposal to drill four exploratory potash* wells on Hatch Point.  K2O Utah LLC, owned by a large Australian mining company, has little concern for the harmful effects its drilling and development activities have on the outstanding scenery of the Greater Canyonlands area; it is interested in making a profit.  Period.  Yet, the tens of thousands of visitors that flock to the Hatch Point and Needles Overlook area annually are not doing so to view drill rigs, sludge pits, tanker trucks and industrial equipment.

BLM’s decision puts the cart before the horse.

The BLM has acknowledged that its current management plan failed to correctly identify areas where oil, gas and potash development should occur.  As a result, the Moab BLM is currently conducting an evaluation of public lands near Moab (known as the Master Leasing Plan process) to correct this defect.  As part of the Master Leasing Plan, the BLM is considering new management constraints for various areas, such as closing the Hatch Point area to leasing.   The BLM’s draft Master Leasing Plan is scheduled for release later this summer.

The BLM’s resolve to rush headlong into a decision to allow potash drilling on Hatch Point illustrates the immediate need for a higher level of protection for the lands in Greater Canyonlands.

*Potash is the common name for mined compounds of potassium in water-soluble form.  It is used primarily as one of the main ingredients in common varieties of fertilizer.

On April 18, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (S. 769/H.R. 1630), which would protect 9.2 million acres of Utah’s incredible wild canyons, mesas and deserts in their natural state for the benefit of future generations of Americans.

Please thank the members of Congress who cosponsored America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act!

The lands in the bill belong to—and are beloved by—millions of Americans from across the country. So, it’s no surprise that America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act already has 11 cosponsors in the Senate and 67 cosponsors in the House of Representatives—Congress members who hail from 27 different states and the District of Columbia.

Tell your members of Congress that you support America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, too!

Without the incredible dedication of our champs in Congress, as well as the help from activists like you, protecting the redrock would be nearly impossible. Please thank those who stand up for wild Utah today!

And if your members of Congress are not on the list yet, please ask them to cosponsor America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act by clicking here.

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 113^th 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.