Help Save Utah's Greater Canyonlands
When Franklin Roosevelt first proposed to protect Utah's canyon country in 1936, he envisioned a 4.5-million-acre area. But when Congress finally designated Canyonlands National Park in 1964, political pressure had whittled it down to just 257,000 acres.
Today much of the land around Canyonlands is still wild. Narrow canyons cradle endangered species like southwestern willow flycatchers and yellow-billed cuckoos. Four rivers sustain highly endangered fish and provide water to 40 million Americans. And stark geology and sacred American Indian sites reveal a deep history.
But the march of industrialization is at the doorstep. Rampant fossil fuel development, mining and uncontrolled ORV use are pushing farther and farther into these remote wildlands, threatening to rob them of their wildness.
With the stroke of a pen, President Obama can enact long-overdue protections for this region by designating a 1.8-million-acre Greater Canyonlands National Monument -- but only if the public convinces him to do so.
Take action today -- urge Obama to fulfill Roosevelt's vision and forever protect these canyonlands.
President Obama:
Few federal lands are more worthy of protection than the Greater Canyonlands region -- the 1.8 million acres of magnificent BLM and national forest lands surrounding this national park in southern Utah. I'm writing to ask you to leave a legacy that will be appreciated for generations to come by proclaiming Greater Canyonlands a national monument.
[Your comment will be added here]
Greater Canyonlands is one of the largest remaining wild areas in the lower 48, and it's arguably the most beautiful and geologically spectacular. It also contains an untapped wealth of human history and scientific resources, with hundreds of cliff dwellings, granaries and rock art panels of the Ancestral Puebloan people, as well as well-preserved Ice Age hunting camps.
In Greater Canyonlands the Green, Dirty Devil and San Rafael rivers meet the Colorado River -- a watershed upon which more than 40 million Americans in seven states rely. It's an ecologically diverse region that sustains rare and threatened species while attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
But it's also all at great risk now as threats from oil, gas and tar sands development mount. Please use your power under the Antiquities Act to protect this national treasure -- some of America's last, best wild canyon country.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
