Protecting Greater Canyonlands
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The Greater Canyonlands area is a landscape of plateaus, stunning geologic formations, 10,000 year old archeological sites, and unmatched natural beauty — including iconic Utah landmarks such as Labyrinth Canyon, Indian Creek, White Canyon, Fiddler Butte, Robbers Roost, Lockhart Basin and the Dirty Devil River. The area encompasses 1.4 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) land surrounding Canyonlands National Park.
President Obama has the power to protect the 1.4 million acres of public BLM land surrounding Canyonlands National Park with the stroke of a pen – if we can convince him to do so. But so far, the Obama administration has continued to defend President Bush’s plans that leave this area open to rampant off-road vehicle abuse, proposed uranium and tar sand mining, and oil and gas development.
To protect these scenic landscapes, in March of 2011 SUWA –along with members of the Greater Canyonlands Coalition including Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Parks Conservation Association, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and Coloradans for Utah Wilderness — made a formal request to the Secretary of the Interior requesting that Secretary Salazar bar off-road vehicle (“ORV”) use on 1,050 miles of ORV route in sensitive habitat, streams, wetlands, riparian areas, archaeological sites and other vulnerable areas until it can conduct further studies on the impacts of the activity and determine whether it is, in fact, a sustainable use. The petition would leave open 1,400 miles of ORV route within the petition area, and about 13,000 miles of routes open in the four BLM field offices surrounding Greater Canyonlands.
Unfortunately, in August 2011 the Obama administration refused to host a public discussion on protecting the Greater Canyonlands region. Even worse, it claims the management plans written by the Bush administration already provide adequate protection. These are the same Bush plans that designated more than 3,000 miles of off-road vehicle trails in proposed redrock wilderness. Please tell President Obama to stop defending Bush’s environmental record and start protecting Greater Canyonlands.
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