Wasatch Environmental Update for Decemeber 29, 2019    

By John Worlock

Holiday Ideas as a New Decade Begins 

             Happy Holidays! 

            We’d like to make a couple of suggestions for how to use your holiday-time as a new decade begins.

            First of all, renew your love affair with the Wasatch Mountains.  They are your friends.  They are your benefactors.  Let us count the ways:

            They are beautiful, providing a spectacular backdrop for our valley-based lives.  They are even more beautiful up close and we can see this in person with just a short trip one of many canyons to reach a trail into the wilderness.

            They are quiet and tranquil, allowing us to listen for the calls of birds, the gurgle of the snowmelt flowing in the streams, and the sound of the wind in the branches of the trees.

            They are filled with the wonders of nature: abundant wildflowers and fall foliage, each in their season, along with hoofedand clawedand furriedand finnedwild things who are free to roam their unspoiled habitat.

            Their snowmelt provides clean drinking water for many valley residents.

            They are the providers of space and terrain for an immense variety of year-round outdoor recreation, and surely you have your own favorite mountain activities.

            OK, now that you’ve renewed your love affair with the Wasatch Mountains, we want you to take a few minutes to become acquainted with the activities of Save Our Canyons.

            Why? Because Save Our Canyons is devoted to preserving those attributes of the Wasatch Mountains that we have just mentioned, the attributes that elevate our lives above the mundane and the quotidian. Our mission statement declares simply that we are (quote) “dedicated to protecting the wildness and the beauty of the Wasatch Mountains, canyons and foothills.’

            Please, then, take a few minutes to learn about current campaigns and activities at Save Our Canyons.  For much of our work, we count on citizen participation, pushing for beneficial actions by the legislature or one or more county or municipal councils.  We also need volunteers, as in our ambitious year-long survey of non-motorized recreation in the Central Wasatch.

            Read about our campaigns and our dreams for the coming year - at save our canyons dot org.  

            Thanks for listening, and Happy New Year!