Oregon is now the fourteenth state with a “friends of” Utah wilderness group formed under the umbrella of the Utah Wilderness Coalition led by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The mission of this broad coalition is to advocate for the passage of America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (ARRWA), which would protect 8.2 million acres of wilderness quality, public land in Utah. The ARRWA already has the support of three of our Representatives and both Senators. The goals of these state-based affinity groups are to bring more visibility to local support for Utah wilderness, to cultivate new leadership, and to build connections among participants. A steering group composed of several Oregonians sharing an affinity for Utah wilderness has been hard at work with SUWA’s Washington/Oregon coordinator, Jenny Holmes, this year – mostly via Zoom in deference to the pandemic – to lay the groundwork for this grassroots group.
Our initial efforts have been focused on building relationships with the Oregon Congressional delegation and encouraging continued support for ARRWA as well as building awareness of several emerging issues threatening the public lands in southern Utah and elsewhere on the Colorado Plateau. Once the pandemic abates, we’ll look to establish regular presences at local environmental events, to further support SUWA, and to plan an autumn work trip for group members to southern Utah.
For more information on our plans, we now have an initial web site posted at https://www.oregoniansforwildutah.org and a Facebook presence under the group Oregonians For Wild Utah.
If you’re interested in joining us or even getting involved in setting our direction with the steering group, please email us at info@oregoniansforwildutah.org.
Thanks for considering!
-Kelsey Kagan and Steve Corbató, interim co-chairs
P.S. If your group or school class (middle school through graduate school) is looking for an informational program via Zoom this fall, SUWA is providing Wild Utah presentations spanning from 20 minutes to an hour. Please contact Jenny Holmes at waor@suwa.org to schedule.