Redrock Report
April 2009

Find out what's happening this month with the redrock:
1.  Thank you for your activism!
2.  Congress examines the connection between public lands and climate change.
3.  Appeals court rules against Utah counties. 
4.  See where SUWA's slideshow presenters are visiting in May.

 

Thank You to Everyone Who Has Taken Action for the Redrock Bill!

Over the past couple months, SUWA's grassroots staff has been inundated with messages from Utah wilderness activists who have contacted their members of Congress to ask them to cosponsor America's Red Rock Wilderness Act.  Without your enthusiastic response to our calls for action, redrock champions Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) would have never been able to introduce the redrock bill on April 2, 2009 with 15 cosponsors in the Senate and over 100 cosponsors in the House.  Thank you to everyone who has helped with this effort!

The cosponsorship drive has not concluded with the introduction of America's Red Rock Wilderness Act!  If your members of Congress are not on the current list of cosponsors, please ask them to sign on to the bill by clicking here.

 

Congress Eyes Public Land's Role in a Changing Climate

U.S. Geological Survey photo of a dust storm along Indian Creek
U.S. Geological Survey photo of a dust storm along Indian Creek, near Canyonlands National Park, on March 22, 2009 (Credit: Mark Miller, USGS)
During the recent congressional recess, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, chaired by Red Rock cosponsor Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) held a field hearing to explore the nexus of public land management and global warming with focus on the national parks.  One important takeaway: threatening activities outside of parks such as “oil and gas development on nearby federal and state lands, too many roads and too much unregulated off road vehicle activity in sensitive locations” will impact the resiliency of these special places to a changing climate.  The solutions take a look at managing large swaths of public land to minimize these activities that are known to damage the environment.  With massive dust storms now regularly occurring in red rock country and carrying dust all the way to the Colorado Rocky Mountains causing early snow melt, management of Utah’s BLM lands play an important role in the coming debate about solutions for our changing climate.

As science from the U.S. Geological Survey has indicated, the prevention of surface disturbing activities in southern Utah is critical to controlling regional dust.  Designation of lands as Wilderness is the best way to prevent undue surface disturbance.  This past March, SUWA submitted testimony for a hearing before the same subcommittee on the role of federal lands management in combating climate change.  To read the testimony, click here.

 

Court Rules Against Utah Counties in Battle over Roads in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Utah’s Kane and Garfield Counties lost another round in their seemingly endless quest to claim control of public lands in southern Utah.  The most recent loss was handed down by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals when it ruled on April 13 that the counties, which are seeking ownership of various trails that cross federal lands in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, must take their road claims to federal court; the counties cannot sidestep the legal process by trying to force BLM to make these ownership decisions.  But even then, as this editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune noted, maybe it's time “for Kane and Garfield counties to quit wasting Utah taxpayers’ money chasing a court ruling they have been repeatedly denied.”

 

See a Utah Wilderness Presentation in May!

See SUWA's multi-media slideshow presentation, Wild Utah: America's Redrock Wilderness, in May...

Clayton Daughenbaugh, SUWA's Midwest Field Organizer, will be presenting in Minnesota and North Dakota this May.  For more information or to schedule a slideshow in the Midwest, email Clayton at clayton@suwa.org. 

Jackie Feinberg, SUWA's National Grassroots Organizer, will be in Poughkeepsie, NY at the end of May.  For more information or to schedule a slideshow along the East coast, email Jackie at jackie@suwa.org. 

To schedule a slideshow in the West, email Barbara Eubanks at barbara@suwa.org. 

Click here for a complete slideshow schedule.