Cedar Mountains Wilderness Victory!
100,000 Acres Will Be Designated Wilderness

Today's a day to celebrate! Thanks to an outpouring of phone calls, emails, letters, and lobby visits by wilderness advocates throughout the country, Congress will soon pass a Cedar Mountains Wilderness bill.

On December 15th, House and Senate conferees accepted the Cedar Mountains Wilderness provision of the Defense Authorization Act.  Since the Defense bill is expected to pass both chambers easily and be signed by President Bush, we are confident that within a week or so there will be an official Cedar Mountains BLM Wilderness Area permanently protecting 100,000 acres of stunningly beautiful public land. The bill will also block the transportation of nuclear waste to Skull Valley and extend the life of the Utah Test and Training Range.

This is the first wilderness bill specifically for Utah that Congress has passed in over 20 years, so we all have cause to celebrate.

The bill was first introduced by Representative Rob Bishop (R-UT) and had the bipartisan support of the entire Utah Congressional delegation, as well as Governor Jon Huntsman. We thank the delegation, and particularly Representative Bishop and Governor Huntsman, for their commitment to achieving this victory for wilderness.
 
This never would have happened without YOU, and without the hard work of many, many other SUWA volunteers, members and activists who have been passionate advocates for wilderness for the past 20 years. It is also thanks to the work of friends and allies in the Utah Wilderness Coalition, including the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, the Wasatch Mountain Club, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Californians for Western Wilderness, and many others. Our friends at Public Citizen also took the lead in rallying their supporters on behalf of the bill.

Special thanks go to our friends and activists in Virginia, Michigan, Missouri, California and Nevada who made calls to the House-Senate conferees in the last couple weeks. In three days, volunteers made over 3500 phone calls on behalf of the bill. 

This is a victory for wilderness and a victory for all people who care about preserving a legacy for our children and grandchildren. It proves that reasonable people can work together and agree on a good wilderness bill. We hope it bodes well for the future.

THANK YOU!