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Bill H.R.5718 “Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area Act (NCRA)” is legislation that is critical to watershed health and resiliency.  Support and movement of this bill is imperative, for it will safeguard watershed areas as well as public land in the Central Wasatch from future development and further fragmentation.

The Central Wasatch is a beautiful natural area that offers many values worth protecting— ecological, natural, scenic, cultural, historical, geological, and wildlife— Bill H.R.5718 lays out.  Besides those values local watersheds provide over 60% of the water supply to the Salt Lake Valley.  In a conservative estimation 30% of the Central Wasatch has been developed.   If in further development the water that watersheds generate become contaminated local water treatment plants may not be able to process and supply water.  The NCRA would establish a Watershed Protection Area which would ensure that watersheds are being properly managed and can continue producing pristine water. 

Protecting public land keeps landscapes intact providing public with clean water, recreational opportunities, and accommodate population growth.  With your support, collaboration with our elected officials and environmental organizations we can make the NCRA a reality, ensuring Utah has a clean and prosperous future.

Ben Schoffstall

I was born in Sandy, Utah, a city located along the Wasatch Front. However, I grew up in Clayton, California which is similar to Sandy, it also has a close approximation to wilderness and areas of nature. Growing up I was very connected to nature, I had a passion for collecting and identifying insects, exploring local trails, and visiting National and State Parks. Throughout high school and college, I enjoyed many outdoor activities including: cycling, swimming, hiking, backpacking, and competitive cross country running. I was also a member of Boy Scouts and through this experience I had the opportunity to hike the entire John Muir Trail, a 211 mile trail, which exposed me to breathtaking landmarks and landscapes in several wilderness areas along the Sierra Nevada mountain range.  It was through my Boy Scouts of America experience, especially the journey leading up to earning the rank of Eagle Scout, that really inspired me to want to protect the environment, including its natural resources and spaces. Eventually, preserving our environment became one my central passions, and an education and career goal.

I attended my local community college, Diablo Valley College, where I earned two Associate’s Degrees, one in Political Science and another in Natural Science. This fall I will be attending the University of California at Santa Cruz where I will be working to obtain a degree in Environmental Studies combined with Biology.

I am extremely grateful that I was selected as an intern for Save Our Canyons, because their mission and staff are very motivating and inspiring. Furthermore, I am getting experience related to my studies, and am witnessing how environmental organizations identify, approach, and advocate environmental issues. This experience will truly be beneficial to local wilderness areas, my future, and hopefully to Save Our Canyons.

Wasatch Environmental Update for July 21, 2019

By John Worlock

Here is a good question:  “What’s with the Utah Inland Port?”  Since there are a variety of answers, two weeks ago I attended some informative sessions hosted by Envision Utah, who are organizing surveys to figure out what the people of Utah want in a new Inland Port, or if they would rather not have one at all.  I am pleased with what I learned, but I need to learn a lot more.

First of all, I was not entirely ignorant.   Salt Lake City had begun to rezone some land in its so-called Northwest Quadrant, with the idea that some transportation-related development might take place in the future.  The State of Utah decided that a good idea needed to be pushed along, They quickly set up an Inland Port Authority, whose major asset would be the control of the normally municipal tax revenues within a massive district stretching well beyond the borders of Salt Lake City.  The State’s actions and words scared a lot of people who envisioned trains and diesel trucks and airplanes bringing in a lot of cargo and running it around in warehouses until it could be shipped elsewhere.  It would be a very messy and polluting business, threatening the welfare of not only the nearby human population but also millions of migratory birds and lots of more stationary wildlife.

Two weeks ago some of those scared and upset people were protesting the Inland Port, and scuffled with police downtown, at the same time that we were calmly learning about it, in civilized discussions organized by Envision Utah.  What a contrast!  But I’m still upset and suspicious.

We are told that “nothing has been decided” and that it’s up to us, the public, to help with the decisions.  But the Port Authority Board raises our suspicions by not opening its meetings to the public.  If “nothing has been decided,” what has been going on in those meetings? What ambitious plans are in the minds of the board members?

Finally, before Envision Utah brings us a new survey on the Inland Port, I hope they take the trouble to help us learn about the current state of cargo traffic in and out of Utah and how the Inland Port would potentially change it.

Pika are a rabbit like mammal that inhabits Rocky Mountain slopes, known as talus in high elevation areas such as the upper reaches of the Wasatch Mountains. In North America, the Pika depends upon the forage of wildflowers, grasses, and mosses as its main source of food to sustain it year round. These intriguing little creatures, recognized from the “cheep” that reverberates amongst the granite fields of areas like White Pine and Mount Baldy are facing two major threats which is why we are highlighting them in our custom t-shirt designed by the talented Anna Hansen of The Hex Press.

For decades, our focus has been on preserving the highest reaches of the Wasatch Range that act as our reservoirs for year round water that supplies the population below. Research by the US Geological Survey between 2012 and 2015 found that climate change is the single most significant factor impacting this once broadly distributed herbivore. As the Pika’s populations decrease and they seek habitat at higher elevations the pressures increase due to existing and proposed development from ski areas in the Wasatch Range.

Like the Pika, Save Our Canyons is operating at a time where conservation of these important habitats is being undermined and the future is less and less certain. Therefore, your support goes a long way. Adding your voice and passion propels our message of comprehensive, landscape scale conservation and stewardship of the irreplaceable water source and lands of the Wasatch even further when you join us as a supporting member.

The other way you can help the Pika is by signing the Central Wasatch National Conservation & Recreation Area (CWNCRA) petition. Our current goal in partnership with Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Sandy City, the State of Utah and the USFS is to protect 80,000 acres of public land by working with Congress to designate the CWNCRA. Once passed, this legislation will connect fragmented land with areas currently under federal protection, designate additional wilderness areas, and limit future development on public domains of the Wasatch, all while protecting our shared values of natural places.

Take Action Today! Click HERE to support the Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area.

As a community driven, grassroots organization Save Our Canyons is here to provide information, education and resources to our members and the community at large. As an organization working at many levels of government from federal to state to municipal, we know that engaging and developing working relationships with elected officials is very beneficial in furthering our work to protect the Wasatch Range. 

As you know, times of in person events have changed or temporarily been postponed. Save Our Canyons is evolving with the times and still rely on our community to help us achieve our mission. Check out our newsletter, sign and share our NCRA petition, and stay tuned for spring and summer 2021 events by visiting our events calendar. 

To find information about all of this, our newsletter talks all about it! Reading that is highly recommended! Other than that, the information and resource links highlighted below are also great to educate yourself about. Again, you don’t need to be an expert so feel free to take a look at what interests you most. What events and opportunities are coming up? Check out our events calendar today. 

Current Campaigns and Project Highlights:

• Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area Act
  • This collaborative, conservation bill will protect 80,000 acres of public land between Parley’s Canyon to the north and Little Cottonwood Canyon including designating 8,000 acres (Mt Aire and Lone Peak) as Wilderness Areas

• Advocacy Corner
  • Here you will find a number of resources to help you become an effective advocate for the Wasatch Mountains. Please contact  if you have questions or would like discuss current topics for a Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed article. 

• Wilderness Stewardship Project 2021 *Pending
  • This project is for volunteers to participate in stewardship project in Wilderness Areas in the Wasatch Mountains.
  • This summer, we will be focused on Lone Peak Wilderness Area
  • We’re recruiting up to 15 volunteer for each project date and interested volunteers can sign up on our website under “Get Involved.”

Save Our Canyons was founded, and continues to run largely on the passion and assistance of our amazing volunteers. People like you! We are excited to have you join us and if you have other questions, please don’t hesitate to contact our office at 801-363-7283.

On May 5th, Save Our Canyons took 120 8th graders from Mount Jordan Middle School on a tour of the Little Cottonwood Water Treatment Plant and for a hike on the Temple Quarry Trail. Part of what made taking out this group special was the fact that 40 of the 120 students who participated in the field trip had never been in the Wasatch Mountains, foothills or canyons before. Taking out a group with so many who were new to the Wasatch made it especially important to make sure that everyone got something out of this experience and took a valuable memory home with them. To effectively educate every single student, we split the group into two groups and sent one group to the treatment facility and another to the trail head. Once each group got to their location we then split the two groups into two more smaller groups making a total of four groups. While one group toured the treatment facility, the other small group did a watershed worksheet with Djinni, a SOC intern. The tour of the treatment facility was a huge hit. Students, chaperones and teachers enjoyed it and were able to learn about the treatment process to purify the water to make it drinkable. This purpose of the activity portion at the treatment plant was to help them learn to identify parts of a watershed area. After the large group that went to the trail head split into two groups, one went on a hike with volunteer extraordinaire Taylor and the other watched a watershed presentation and did an observation and scavenger hunt activity. During the presentation we discussed what a watershed area is, why ours is so important, watershed rules, other usages such as hydroelectric power and how they can protect the watershed. The purpose of the observation and scavenger hunt worksheets was to have the students connect with the environment that surrounds them, to learn about the watershed and to learn about the history of the area. Once both groups were finished with the location they were at, the two large groups swapped places. The group that went to the trail head then went to the treatment facility and vice versa.

It is a special moment when you witness a student learning something new, or making a connection between the Wasatch and themselves. Watching their faces light up with excitement gives us that same feeling knowing that they are finding their path to the Wasatch and are wanting to return. It is also amazing as you teach students rules about the Wasatch, how they focus on abiding those rules, and also tell strangers that they see on the trail. One of the parts of the SOCKids mission is to create new memories when they are young because it is our goal for these students to plant their roots in the Wasatch in hopes that they will continue to learn about this area, recreate it in and hopefully be a voice in keeping it beautiful and wild. I would like to thank Emily Draper from Mount Jordan Middle School who contacted SOC to set up this event and whose efforts were crucial to its success. I would also like to thank Annalee Munsey who works at the Little Cottonwood Treatment Plant for letting SOCKids tour the facility, Taylor Monney and Djinni Yancey for volunteering and everyone at Save Our Canyons for their support and help.

We at Save Our Canyons have a lot of different talents, but drawing is not one of them! Thank you Stacy Messerschmidt from Catchafire.org for helping us with these amazing campaign illustrations. She volunteered her time to help with this project — and it never would have been done without her.  If you are on Instagram make sure to follow her today, @stacymesserschmidt, and you’re looking for an illustrator visit her website today: www.stacymesserschmidt.com.

Help Keep Grizzly Gulch Wild by taking our pledge...

I do not support more sprawling development in the watershed and high alpine areas of Little Cottonwood Canyon. In the absence of land exchanges our canyons will be cluttered with more development degrading the viewshed and impact surrounding areas such as Mount Superior, Flagstaff, Grizzly Gulch, and the Cottonwood Canyons ridgelines. 

I will not tolerate a land exchange for Alta, if Grizzly Gulch is off the table. This land which has been central to years’ worth of negotiations throughout Mountain Accord and now the Central Wasatch Conservation and Recreation Area Act. Alta's rehashed land exchanges does nothing to protect plants and animal species outside of the ski resort boundaries. 

Tell the Governor and the USDA that more science and discussion from experts around the state must take place before altering the valuable protections of the Roadless Rule.

We need you to submit comments and perspectives to ensure protections of the roadless rule remain in place for these treasured lands that the Governor seeks to erode. Proposals that impact in excess of 4 million acres should be subject to more public scrutiny and robust, scientific data to inform decisions that will impact the legacy of our public lands for generations. Take Action Today!

By John Worlock, Member of Save Our Canyons

Monday, April 22 will be the 49th Anniversary of Earth Day, and we hope you have some plans for that celebration.  My personal plan is to take a lawn chair and perhaps an umbrella and go sit where I can listen to the birds and the burble of Mill Creek, watching the green leafy things grow and reach for the sun. 

 You, however, can do much more.  You can get up on your hind legs and take yourself deep into one of our extremely accessible Wilderness Areas.  Allow me to remind you how fortunate we are to live with an arm’s reach of three Wasatch wildernesses:  the Lone Peak, the Twin Peaks and the Mount Olympus.

If you want more than a solo celebration, go to the internet and search for a local celebratory activity that suits your fancy.

The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, sprang from a suggestion of a visionary politician, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin.  He had struggled through the 1960’ s to get Congress to take ecological concerns more seriously, and so he proposed a day when citizens, nationwide, would gather to raise awareness of environmental problems.  There would be teach-ins, modeled on the college-campus activism of the 1960’s.

The idea took flight and the first Earth Day more or less organized itself nationwide.  An estimated 20 million Americans gathered to confront the ecological troubles in their cities and states and even the planet.  That event launched a decade of environmental legislation, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Acts, and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Earth Day has bloomed and blossomed and now involves over a billion people in virtually all the nations of the Planet Earth.  It continues to grow even as the environmental winds blow sometimes hot and sometimes cold.  It is even more important during those cold seasons, to express our concern for the livability of our locale and the viability of our planet.

Within the USA, the environmental winds are currently kind of chilly, so let’s celebrate Earth Day, and try to heat ‘em up a bit!