Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

Apply for SUWA's Summer 2025 Internship! Reporting to and working with our Utah Grassroots Organizer on a variety of grassroots campaigns, the intern will support the Grassroots Team as they conduct activities to demonstrate support for protecting America’s Redrock Wilderness—a critical step towards mitigating the climate crisis and protecting biodiversity. Activities may include but are not limited to: coordinating tabling events at festivals and fairs, organizing community-building events, and aiding with issue-based organizing efforts across the state of Utah. This is a great opportunity to gain valuable experience in the day-to-day functions of a nonprofit organization. This paid internship is based in Salt Lake City and runs roughly Mid-May to Mid-August, hours range from 8-10 hours per week. To learn more on how to apply, visit our career page at suwa.org/careers. #ProtectWildUtah?#Internship?#Nonprofit?#Utah?#jobs?#conservation

Coverage from The Salt Lake Tribune on where Utah has lost BLM employees. See quote below from SUWA Wildlands Director, Neal Clark. “Congress has been forcing federal land managers to do more with less for decades, so when you further cut natural resource specialists, river and backcountry rangers, and facilities maintenance workers— the public should expect significant negative repercussions for both the land and user experiences.” —Neal Clark, SUWA Wildlands Director Real the full article here: https://lnkd.in/ggDxZG3V

March's Redrock Report has arrived. This month features: --Trump Administration Begins Attacks on National Monuments --Motorized Groups Sue Over San Rafael Swell Travel Plan / SUWA Moves to Intervene --Mass Firings Throw Federal Workforce into Disarray --Land Exchange Finalized for Protected Areas in San Rafael Swell --Make Your Commitment to Wilderness a Lasting One For more details, visit: https://lnkd.in/gzERh9pF

A new report from The Wilderness Society shows that more than 81% of all BLM-administered lands in the Western US remain open to oil and gas leasing. This means over 200 million acres of shared public lands are open to the oil and gas industry. Here in Utah, almost 22 million acres are open to drill - 83% of the available land. Learn more in The Wilderness Society's full report here: https://bit.ly/4iz3xkz

Writer, photographer, and conservationist Stephen Trimble's latest piece for Writers on the Range: "It's still the West against itself." "According to a recent Colorado College poll,?84 percent of Utahns support?establishment of new national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges and tribal protected areas. Still, Utah’s governor, attorney general, and congressional delegation continue to waste millions on fruitless lawsuits attacking those same preserves. Westerners are evolving; politicians aren’t keeping up. And yet we keep re-electing these same officials. Maybe, just maybe, the Trumpian war on civil servants will force a reckoning. We’ll re-evaluate why we need a robust federal presence in the West. And our war against ourselves will end." https://lnkd.in/gXjtNu9J

Our 2025 Stewardship season has begun! Over the years, our stewardship volunteers have requested we create an emblem of the program—something they can use to rep being a SUWA Steward. To celebrate the tenth year of our program, we partnered with local artist @pine.bones to create a SUWA Steward design! All volunteers who attend a project this year will receive a decal/sticker of the artwork. Projects are filling up fast! Review the project calendar and fill out an application here: https://lnkd.in/gUfjJCkm Thank you for all that you have done—and will do—to #ProtectWildUtah

"Now is the time to sound the alarm and urge the administration not to dismantle some of the most important places our country has to offer, including Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments. By putting monuments in the crosshairs, the Trump administration is also taking aim at the local communities, businesses and tribes who have for decades advocated to protect these sites. " In today's Salt Lake Tribune and co written by Grand Canyon Trust's Aaron Paul, Earthjustice's Heidi McIntosh, and SUWA Legal Director, Steve Bloch. https://lnkd.in/gUX_4jfQ

Yesterday, the Idaho-based Blue Ribbon Coalition and others sued the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over the recently finalized San Rafael Swell Travel Management Plan. Below is a statement from SUWA Staff Attorney, Laura Peterson. “The motorized recreation groups filing this lawsuit are bound and determined to make Utah’s remarkable San Rafael Swell nothing more than a playground for off-road vehicles and side-by-sides; a place where it’s impossible to find peace and quiet. We’re not going to stand by and let that happen. While BLM’s recently-completed San Rafael Swell travel plan got many things wrong, one thing it did right was not opening roughly 650 miles of so-called “routes” in the Swell to motorized vehicles. These 650 miles include trails that were created in the past fifteen or so years through illegal motorized use and are located in stream corridors and wash bottoms, run through cultural sites and lead to users causing real and serious environmental damage. Others are simply lines on a map that do not exist on the ground.” — Laura Peterson, SUWA Staff Attorney For additional information, visit:https://lnkd.in/gsFrcHec

What is Wilderness Week!? Every March, activists from across the country fly in to Washington DC to lobby for America's Red Rock Wilderness Act (ARRWA)—legislation that would add more than 8 million acres of public lands in Utah to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Our activists spend weeks setting up and prepping for these meetings, so they can inform their representatives on why protecting this land is so important and what it means to them. Check out this infographic to learn more about ARRWA & help support the work these activists are doing by visiting our action page and reaching out to your reps TODAY! https://lnkd.in/gM-G8XsH #ProtectWildUtah #ARRWA #WildernessWeek #PublicLands

Great new Substack that explains the current multi-pronged attack on our pubic lands. See quote below from SUWA Legal Director, Steve Bloch. “When they say, ‘Oh let Utah be in charge of it,’ they’re really saying, ‘Once it’s sold off and privatized, Utah policies that are really pro-development, pro-fossil fuels, pro-extraction, pro-tract housing, strip malls, mansions — that will be what’s leading the way,’” Bloch said. Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/dzY-sYWA