We have few places left that represent the raw beauty and the history of our American West like Desolation Canyon, in my home state of Utah.

It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1968 for good reason. John Wesley Powell explored Desolation Canyon a century earlier, one of the last uncharted places in the lower 48 states. For thousands of years before that, the region was home to American Indian tribes including the Hopi, Fremont and Ute people. Their pictographs and petroglyphs still line the canyon walls; silent reminders linking us to the most fundamental roots of civilization.

Yet now, much of that is at risk.

The Interior Department is on the verge of approving a Denver company’s proposal to drill nearly 1,300 gas wells in northeast Utah.

Denver-based Gasco Energy wants to drill more than 200 of these wells in the Desolation Canyon proposed wilderness area alone. It wants to put more holes into the surrounding plateaus that until now have remained unthreatened for all of history.

Think about the consequences:

Scenic roads throughout the region would suddenly be clogged with diesel trucks and drilling equipment. Debris from drilling and construction of pipelines and service roads would threaten tributaries to the Green River. Sounds of drilling would replace the last vestiges of natural silence and would be heard at Sand Wash, the put-in for recreational river runners vital to Utah’s tourism industry. One of the most remote places in America would be despoiled.

Is this what we really want to do to our country? Certainly, it’s not what most Americans want.

Read the rest of his op-ed by clicking here.

Then, join Robert Redford’s call to protect Desolation Canyon by signing our Change.org petition and spreading the word!

A claimed route in the Bridger Jack Mesa proposed wilderness. Copyright Ray Bloxham/SUWA.

For Utah families, life is filled with questions about the future.  How is my child doing in school?  Is he/she getting enough individual attention?  How do I save for college, for retirement, for that vacation we’ve dreamed about?  How do we get quality time together in a world with endless pressures and demands?

Utah families don’t mull these questions and conclude that the answer is to rip apart Utah’s wilderness with tens of thousands of bogus road claims. Only Governor Gary Herbert does that.

Tell Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that roads to nowhere are not a family value!

In a jaw-droppingly tone deaf press conference on Tuesday, Utah Chief Deputy Attorney General John Swallow claimed that the thousands of gullies, cow paths and dry washes Utah has claimed as highways “. . . do go somewhere and we need to make sure they are safe enough to provide access to Utah’s families and resources.”

Families?  The State of Utah is prepared to spend millions litigating faint desert tracks through Utah’s wilderness, but it would blanch at the thought of spending that money on education.

Tell Sec. Salazar to defend our land against Utah’s bogus road claims!

If these Utah politicians really cared about families, they would know that now, more than ever, we need our wild lands protected.  They are places where we can reconnect with our children, away from the lure of technology – places where we can tell stories around a campfire and try to name the stars.

Utah seeks these rights-of-way to prevent wilderness from being protected.  It’s that simple, and that awful.  They are seeking to destroy our children’s wilderness heritage.  We can’t let that happen.

Tell Sec. Salazar that paving our last great wild places is not good for families.

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President Obama: Protect Greater Canyonlands!

For our part, SUWA staff spent the day discussing the Greater Canyonlands campaign with the local community, including conversations about the existing and foreseeable threats to the region (such as oil, natural gas and potash exploration, mineral leasing and off-road vehicle use), what SUWA’s doing to help increase protection for the region and how individuals can get involved to help raise awareness of Greater Canyonlands locally and nationally.  The message was well received and those present expressed vast support for additional protections for this awe-inspiring area that we all know and love.  We’re looking forward to keeping the drum beating on Greater Canyonlands and hope that the noise carries all the way to the White House.  Speaking of President Obama, he even showed up to the event and graciously took photos with Greater Canyonlands supporters all afternoon (well, it may have been a really life-like cardboard cutout).

Check out the Protect Greater Canyonlands Facebook page for more photos, and mark your calendars to come and celebrate sustainability, community and Greater Canyonlands in 2013!

Photo of the Boulder Banner Brigade taken by Gina Iannelli

With a collective yelp of frustration, however, this devoted group watched the motorcade approach and then – apparently due to a last minute surprise decision – detour around to another part of Boulder to visit a pizza parlor!  Who would have known?

Still, as many of us have learned, persistence often pays off, and it did in this case.  A few hours later, after his speech on campus, the President and his motorcade drove right past this fantastic showing of support for protecting Greater Canyonlands.  And he couldn’t have missed the message echoing from sign to sign.

Plus, two creative activists loaded their signs on to their bikes and again intercepted the motorcade on its way to the airport, reinforcing our message!  President Obama was waving and looking right out the window, and as the only demonstrators on site they were unavoidably visible.

The banner brigade also caught the eye of the media!  While they didn’t end up running an interview with Arnaud Dumont of Coloradans for Utah Wilderness, the banner brigade did get a few seconds of screen visibility in this story: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/30946994/detail.html

A big thanks to everyone who turned out!  Great work!

This banner brigade is the fourth and largest “bannering” effort in Colorado.  Our goal is to continue showing up with our bright yellow signs whenever President Obama visits the state – which he is already scheduled to do again on May 23 in Colorado Springs.  So if you live in Colorado and would like to be on our list of potential banner brigaders, let us know: sign up by clicking here or send an email to terri@suwa.org.  It’s a great way to capture the President’s attention and have some fun!

About 80 people gathered at the Utah governor’s mansion today to protest a slew of anti-environmental policies, including recent threats to take over 30 million acres of public land and to sue the federal government over more than 25,000 bogus “road” claims across parks and proposed wilderness.  The jovial crowd held signs reading “Governor Herbert: Stop the War on Utah’s Wilderness” and “Keep Public Lands in Public Hands,” among others.  Honks of approval from passing cars were heard from inside the mansion, where governors from neighboring western states had been invited for an environmental strategy session.

• threatening to take over 30 million acres of our public land
• pushing for destructive tar sands development
• suing the United States over 25,000 bogus road claims
• pushing new ski development in the Wasatch Mountains
• ignoring Salt Lake City’s air quality problems
• blocking new wilderness protection
• endorsing Rio Tinto’s mine expansion
• helping his friends put a coal mine next to Bryce Canyon National Park

Please join us tomorrow at noon and make your voice heard!  You can RSVP by clicking here.

The far side of the river and the canyons in the background are protected as part of Canyonlands National Park – the White Rim Trail.  The gooseneck of the Colorado River and the land to the left have been left unprotected.  What you can’t see in this photograph is that further left, potash mining is taking place – still in view from the Dead Horse Point overlook.