The latest sent to me by SUWA. Hope this helps in the fight for the public lands.
-SAMI
============================================================
This alert is brought to you by the Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance 1471 S. 1100 E., Salt Lake City, UT 84105, 801-486-3161,
suwa@suwa.org
============================================================
In this issue:
*****UPDATES*****
(1)WILDERNESS WEEK IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
(2)CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET TAKES AIM AT OUR WILD LANDS
*****EVENTS*****
(3)WILD UTAH SLIDE SHOW SPRINGS INTO ACTION
(4)WILD UTAH PROJECT PRESENTATION AT REI
IN SALT LAKE CITY THIS WEDNESDAY
=============================================================
*****UPDATES*****
(1)WILDERNESS WEEK IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
Bringing the fight to protect Utah wilderness to the halls of
Congress, activists from across the country dawned their yellow
"Protect Wild Utah" buttons as they made their rounds on Capitol
Hill earlier this March. About 50 activists from as far away as
the Yukon territory, California, Minnesota, Massachusetts and
everywhere in between convened in Washington, DC on March 5-9 to
help drum up support for America's Redrock Wilderness Act.
Returning Utah wilderness champions Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)
and Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) helped kick off the week's
Utah wilderness outreach by announcing their intention to
reintroduce America's Redrock Wilderness Act once again in the
109th Congress. We can expect the legislation some time in early
to mid-April according to the bill's sponsors.
This year's "Utah Wilderness Week" was highlighted by several key
events. Senator Durbin, sponsor of America's Redrock Wilderness
Act, spoke to a full-capacity crowd of wilderness supporters upon
receiving an award for his leadership in protecting wild Utah.
James Kay, a renowned wilderness photographer and avid
outdoorsman, presented and narrated a vivid slide show of the
spectacular places up for protection in the aforementioned
legislation.
As we look ahead, we want to continue building on the momentum of
Wilderness Week to ensure that America's Redrock Wilderness Act
gains as many cosponsors as possible. The next couple of weeks
are critical to amassing that initial support. In 2003,
America's Redrock Wilderness Act was introduced with 145 original
cosponsors and 13 Senate cosponsors. We have high hopes of
exceeding those numbers with your help. Please write/email/ or
call your Member of Congress and urge them to cosponsor America's
Redrock Wilderness Act.
We will be in touch with you in the coming weeks to let you know
who we can thank for signing on and which members of Congress
need to hear more about protecting wild Utah. Thanks to you all
for your support and help!
To write a quick email to your House Representative follow this
link:
http://www.capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=5204441
To write a quick email to your Senator(s) follow this link:
http://www.capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=5205031
(2)CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET TAKES AIM AT OUR WILD LANDS
Last week the House and Senate leadership eked out a slim
majority of votes to pass budget blueprints for the federal
government. The resolutions address a broad range of issues
including funding for social programs, tax cuts, and other
sweeping federal priorities. However, within this web of numbers
is a poisonous provision that seeks to open up a jewel of our
wild public lands, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to
drilling.
Wilderness champions, led by Senators Cantwell (D-WA) and Snowe
(R-ME), mounted a fight to cut out the arctic drilling provision
from the federal budget. In a disappointing turn of events, the
amendment that would have removed the drilling language from the
budget was narrowly defeated by a vote of 51-49. There will be
further opportunities to fight to protect the Arctic before
drilling rigs are ushered into this wild landscape. Though Utah
wilderness, for now, is spared from harm in the budget, the
attempt to open up Alaska's wild places to drilling threatens all
of our wild public lands in a fundamental way.
A political cartoon recently published by the Washington Post
depicts Uncle Sam at a pawn shop desperately selling off a
jeweled ring symbolizing the Arctic Refuge for a few bucks of
which Uncle Sam hopes to spend at the nearby bar to temporarily
satisfy his unhealthy addiction to oil. The fight to protect the
Arctic is surely far from over, and thankfully, not all
politicians in Washington are as hopelessly short-sighted as the
Post cartoon suggests.
Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is part of the
larger battle that Utah wilderness activists have waged to keep
oil and gas rigs off America's Redrock Wilderness. While the
sandstone-studded wilds of Utah seem largely disconnected from
what is happening in the caribou-rich slope of northern Alaska,
wilderness protection or the violation of our wildest places
concerns us all both philosophically and practically.
Utah wilderness has felt the sharp edge of anti-wilderness
political extremists before. When Interior Department Secretary
Norton settled a lawsuit with the State of Utah declaring that
the BLM could never again designate wilderness study areas except
those originally declared areas in Utah in the 1980s, it was not
only Utah wilderness, but all potential wilderness lands that
suffered. The threat of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge has just begun to send ripples across all public lands.
Bit by bit the BLM has tried to pawn off wilderness quality lands
for oil and gas leasing or stood by as damage from Off-Road
vehicle abuse persisted in some of our most treasured places.
The same attitudes that have condoned and even encouraged these
policies also motivate some in Congress to try to pawn off the
Arctic Refuge for a quick fix of oil. There are a few special
places like the Arctic and the Redrock country of Utah that
deserve to be free from drilling. As the fight to prevent
drilling in the Arctic continues, take a minute to let your
Member of Congress know that protecting our wild public lands is
important to you.
*****EVENTS*****
(3)WILD UTAH SLIDE SHOW
SUWA's nationally acclaimed slide show, "Wild Utah: America's
Redrock Wilderness," is touring the southwest including Colorado,
New Mexico, and Arizona, as well as the mid-Atlantic including
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey in April and May. To see
the tour schedule, go to www.suwa.org, click on "Events" at the
top of the page and then on "Slideshow Tour" in the left margin.
(4)WILD UTAH PROJECT PRESENTATION AT REI
IN SALT LAKE CITY THIS WEDNESDAY
This Wednesday, March 23rd, Wild Utah Project's Jim Catlin will
be giving a free presentation at the REI in Salt Lake City that
aims to teach outdoor recreationists how to play an active role
in public land management and planning, using the off-road
vehicle travel plan for the Ogden District of the Wasatch Cache
as an example (the travel plan is currently being revised). If
you want to learn more about the work of the Wild Utah Project,
go to www.wildutahproject.org
SPECIAL PRESENTATION AT REI: "Having a say in the future of your
National Forest trails"
When: Wednesday, March 23rd, 7pm
Cost: Free of charge to the public
Where: Salt Lake City REI store, 3285 East & 3300 South.
We all need to get to those sweet spots by road or trail and Utah
has more than its share. But how do we balance quiet recreation
with those who motor? Using the upcoming revised off-road
vehicle travel plan for the Ogden Ranger District of the Wasatch
Cache Forest as an example, the Wild Utah Project will describe
how decisions are made about open and closed vehicle routes and
how you can made a difference. We will explain how science, some
special computer mapping, and activist field checking plays an
important role in this process.
Learn about the Utah Quiet Forest Coalition and their work with
the Forest Service to give you a say in the future of Utah's
National Forest trails. Using monitoring methods developed by
the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, local groups (Sierra Club,
Bear River Watershed Council) are collecting information on
off-road vehicle management to identify solutions and problems in
the Wasatch and Bear River Mountains. Other coalition partners
(Western Resource Advocates) are working with the Wild Utah
Project and other partners to help the Forest Service meet their
obligations. Learn more about their work and how to become
involved.
**** For more information, please call 486-2100 or visit
www.rei.com and click on the stores & events link and select Salt
Lake City****
======================================================
To join the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, go to
http://www.xmission.com/~suwa/join_form.php Since our early days
as a small locally-based advocacy group, SUWA has remained a lean
issues-focused organization with low overhead costs and a
commitment to on-the-ground wilderness protection. Nearly 80% of
our funding comes from individual donations from concerned
citizens like you. PLEASE JOIN SUWA TODAY and participate in one
of the nation's most effective forces for wilderness protection.
Thank you.
To change your list settings or to unsubscribe, go to
http://www.suwa.org/AlertList/settings.html. You can also use
this page to change your password to something more memorable or
to add your zip code, which allows us to be more effective in our
use of this email alert system. Thank you for your support.
=======================================================
-SAMI
============================================================
This alert is brought to you by the Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance 1471 S. 1100 E., Salt Lake City, UT 84105, 801-486-3161,
suwa@suwa.org
============================================================
In this issue:
*****UPDATES*****
(1)WILDERNESS WEEK IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
(2)CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET TAKES AIM AT OUR WILD LANDS
*****EVENTS*****
(3)WILD UTAH SLIDE SHOW SPRINGS INTO ACTION
(4)WILD UTAH PROJECT PRESENTATION AT REI
IN SALT LAKE CITY THIS WEDNESDAY
=============================================================
*****UPDATES*****
(1)WILDERNESS WEEK IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
Bringing the fight to protect Utah wilderness to the halls of
Congress, activists from across the country dawned their yellow
"Protect Wild Utah" buttons as they made their rounds on Capitol
Hill earlier this March. About 50 activists from as far away as
the Yukon territory, California, Minnesota, Massachusetts and
everywhere in between convened in Washington, DC on March 5-9 to
help drum up support for America's Redrock Wilderness Act.
Returning Utah wilderness champions Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)
and Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) helped kick off the week's
Utah wilderness outreach by announcing their intention to
reintroduce America's Redrock Wilderness Act once again in the
109th Congress. We can expect the legislation some time in early
to mid-April according to the bill's sponsors.
This year's "Utah Wilderness Week" was highlighted by several key
events. Senator Durbin, sponsor of America's Redrock Wilderness
Act, spoke to a full-capacity crowd of wilderness supporters upon
receiving an award for his leadership in protecting wild Utah.
James Kay, a renowned wilderness photographer and avid
outdoorsman, presented and narrated a vivid slide show of the
spectacular places up for protection in the aforementioned
legislation.
As we look ahead, we want to continue building on the momentum of
Wilderness Week to ensure that America's Redrock Wilderness Act
gains as many cosponsors as possible. The next couple of weeks
are critical to amassing that initial support. In 2003,
America's Redrock Wilderness Act was introduced with 145 original
cosponsors and 13 Senate cosponsors. We have high hopes of
exceeding those numbers with your help. Please write/email/ or
call your Member of Congress and urge them to cosponsor America's
Redrock Wilderness Act.
We will be in touch with you in the coming weeks to let you know
who we can thank for signing on and which members of Congress
need to hear more about protecting wild Utah. Thanks to you all
for your support and help!
To write a quick email to your House Representative follow this
link:
http://www.capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=5204441
To write a quick email to your Senator(s) follow this link:
http://www.capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=5205031
(2)CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET TAKES AIM AT OUR WILD LANDS
Last week the House and Senate leadership eked out a slim
majority of votes to pass budget blueprints for the federal
government. The resolutions address a broad range of issues
including funding for social programs, tax cuts, and other
sweeping federal priorities. However, within this web of numbers
is a poisonous provision that seeks to open up a jewel of our
wild public lands, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to
drilling.
Wilderness champions, led by Senators Cantwell (D-WA) and Snowe
(R-ME), mounted a fight to cut out the arctic drilling provision
from the federal budget. In a disappointing turn of events, the
amendment that would have removed the drilling language from the
budget was narrowly defeated by a vote of 51-49. There will be
further opportunities to fight to protect the Arctic before
drilling rigs are ushered into this wild landscape. Though Utah
wilderness, for now, is spared from harm in the budget, the
attempt to open up Alaska's wild places to drilling threatens all
of our wild public lands in a fundamental way.
A political cartoon recently published by the Washington Post
depicts Uncle Sam at a pawn shop desperately selling off a
jeweled ring symbolizing the Arctic Refuge for a few bucks of
which Uncle Sam hopes to spend at the nearby bar to temporarily
satisfy his unhealthy addiction to oil. The fight to protect the
Arctic is surely far from over, and thankfully, not all
politicians in Washington are as hopelessly short-sighted as the
Post cartoon suggests.
Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is part of the
larger battle that Utah wilderness activists have waged to keep
oil and gas rigs off America's Redrock Wilderness. While the
sandstone-studded wilds of Utah seem largely disconnected from
what is happening in the caribou-rich slope of northern Alaska,
wilderness protection or the violation of our wildest places
concerns us all both philosophically and practically.
Utah wilderness has felt the sharp edge of anti-wilderness
political extremists before. When Interior Department Secretary
Norton settled a lawsuit with the State of Utah declaring that
the BLM could never again designate wilderness study areas except
those originally declared areas in Utah in the 1980s, it was not
only Utah wilderness, but all potential wilderness lands that
suffered. The threat of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge has just begun to send ripples across all public lands.
Bit by bit the BLM has tried to pawn off wilderness quality lands
for oil and gas leasing or stood by as damage from Off-Road
vehicle abuse persisted in some of our most treasured places.
The same attitudes that have condoned and even encouraged these
policies also motivate some in Congress to try to pawn off the
Arctic Refuge for a quick fix of oil. There are a few special
places like the Arctic and the Redrock country of Utah that
deserve to be free from drilling. As the fight to prevent
drilling in the Arctic continues, take a minute to let your
Member of Congress know that protecting our wild public lands is
important to you.
*****EVENTS*****
(3)WILD UTAH SLIDE SHOW
SUWA's nationally acclaimed slide show, "Wild Utah: America's
Redrock Wilderness," is touring the southwest including Colorado,
New Mexico, and Arizona, as well as the mid-Atlantic including
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey in April and May. To see
the tour schedule, go to www.suwa.org, click on "Events" at the
top of the page and then on "Slideshow Tour" in the left margin.
(4)WILD UTAH PROJECT PRESENTATION AT REI
IN SALT LAKE CITY THIS WEDNESDAY
This Wednesday, March 23rd, Wild Utah Project's Jim Catlin will
be giving a free presentation at the REI in Salt Lake City that
aims to teach outdoor recreationists how to play an active role
in public land management and planning, using the off-road
vehicle travel plan for the Ogden District of the Wasatch Cache
as an example (the travel plan is currently being revised). If
you want to learn more about the work of the Wild Utah Project,
go to www.wildutahproject.org
SPECIAL PRESENTATION AT REI: "Having a say in the future of your
National Forest trails"
When: Wednesday, March 23rd, 7pm
Cost: Free of charge to the public
Where: Salt Lake City REI store, 3285 East & 3300 South.
We all need to get to those sweet spots by road or trail and Utah
has more than its share. But how do we balance quiet recreation
with those who motor? Using the upcoming revised off-road
vehicle travel plan for the Ogden Ranger District of the Wasatch
Cache Forest as an example, the Wild Utah Project will describe
how decisions are made about open and closed vehicle routes and
how you can made a difference. We will explain how science, some
special computer mapping, and activist field checking plays an
important role in this process.
Learn about the Utah Quiet Forest Coalition and their work with
the Forest Service to give you a say in the future of Utah's
National Forest trails. Using monitoring methods developed by
the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, local groups (Sierra Club,
Bear River Watershed Council) are collecting information on
off-road vehicle management to identify solutions and problems in
the Wasatch and Bear River Mountains. Other coalition partners
(Western Resource Advocates) are working with the Wild Utah
Project and other partners to help the Forest Service meet their
obligations. Learn more about their work and how to become
involved.
**** For more information, please call 486-2100 or visit
www.rei.com and click on the stores & events link and select Salt
Lake City****
======================================================
To join the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, go to
http://www.xmission.com/~suwa/join_form.php Since our early days
as a small locally-based advocacy group, SUWA has remained a lean
issues-focused organization with low overhead costs and a
commitment to on-the-ground wilderness protection. Nearly 80% of
our funding comes from individual donations from concerned
citizens like you. PLEASE JOIN SUWA TODAY and participate in one
of the nation's most effective forces for wilderness protection.
Thank you.
To change your list settings or to unsubscribe, go to
http://www.suwa.org/AlertList/settings.html. You can also use
this page to change your password to something more memorable or
to add your zip code, which allows us to be more effective in our
use of this email alert system. Thank you for your support.
=======================================================
