Thursday, November 14, 2013

Heading North

I will be off to Utah for a couple of days to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.  I have been a board member there for twenty years.  This is one of the most successful and resolute regional landscape protection organizations in the United States.  Any one who knows the Red Rock country of Utah would appreciate the work done by them.  It would be great to send them a little donation to keep up their work on protecting this land.  Click here to help.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The fact that we even have wilderness areas owes almost entirely to groups like this. This Red Rock area Jim mentions, centered around Moab, is a good example. That area is well known to New Mexicans. It's convenient for weekend getaways and I know people who have little vacation properties up there. Many spectacular places like Canyonlands Natl Park are within that Red Rock area. The Dick Cheney's and Ted Turners who love the outdoors can buy up big chunks of it and keep us off of it, and they do, but the places that have been saved from privatization and degradation by groups like Jim's are places that we the people can all enjoy.

As is most of New Mexico and the West that's mostly BLM land. George W Bush as he left office, in a final thumb in our eye, opened up that entire area to off road vehicles and oil and gas drilling, but the Environmental press this week is heralding a court victory by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance that stops that.

It's easy to imagine why Jim with his experience running the BLM, his broad inside knowledge of how government works, how the media works, would be a valuable member of that board. Personally I'd rather not spend my free time going to meetings, but I appreciate the fact that someone does. That's quite an influential group, made up of regular people, and they do a lot besides fight the government and the oil and gas industry in court, such as running programs for kids, and I second the recommendation to donate to them, which I am going to do right after I submit this.

Anonymous said...

It must be nice to be on one or more of these boards. I would guess they pay for these boondoggles. Problem is, I seldom, if ever, hear of anything productive they do.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, you are one of those peculiar people who see no good. you are obviously a tea party type and are very unhappy. Groups like this do great things and the pay is zero for board members of non profits. Grow up. Be happy. Volunteer to make life better. Or just sit around and be a shit head.

Anonymous said...

Update!

Today I received my first email newsletter as a member of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. It's very interesting, informing you of all that's on their very full plate trying to save the beautiful and unique Utah wilderness lands just up there beyond Shiprock from these dominionist type Republicans who look to the horizon and see only dollar signs, who seem to derive a sadistic pleasure from spoiling the landscape.

It's written in a little bit of what some might consider a folksy style, but it comes across to me as a reflection of the people who are the activists, just folks. It makes for nice reading.

There's also rare pictures of Sarah Palin driving a bulldozer topless. Sign up today!