Recognizing the Thousands of People Working for Conservation in Southwest Utah
This year was a grand success for Conserve Southwest Utah (CSU) and everyone who supports the cause of conservation here. Our most notable accomplishment was to organize a ground swell of opposition to the Lake Powell Pipeline and the Norther Corridor Highway Draft Environmental Impact Statements, and support for conservation-minded alternatives. We end the year in a much stronger position to stop these harmful projects and to start working on sensible solutions.
Every movie ends with credits recognizing everyone who helped make the film. In the same spirit, this Bulletin recognize the many individuals and organizations that contributed to our success in 2020. Please take the time to roll through these credits below to see the breadth and depth of participation that came together in 2020.
Roll the Credits!
Everyone Who Wrote Comments Opposing the Lake Powell Pipeline and the Northern Corridor Highway
During late 2019 and throughout 2020 thousands of people from Southern Utah and around the nation made comments opposing the Lake Powell Pipeline and Northern Corridor Highway Draft Environmental Impact Statements. Your efforts helped delay Lake Powell Pipeline, laid the groundwork for opposition to the Northern Corridor Highway and opened the door to sensible alternatives and positive solutions.
Our Partners
CSU formed two coalitions of conservation organizations to bolster our work on the Lake Powell Pipeline and the Northern Corridor Highway. These coalitions lent both technical expertise and credibility to our positions.
Lake Powell Pipeline Coalition Conserve Southwest Utah
Center for Biological Diversity
Glen Canyon Institute
Grand Staircase Escalante Partners
Great Basin Water Network
Living Rivers Colorado Riverkeeper
The Rewilding Institute Grand Canyon Chapter Sierra Club
Utah Chapter Sierra Club
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Utah Audubon Council
Utah Rivers Council
Western Wildlife Conservancy
Wild Arizona
The Wilderness Society
Red Cliffs Conservation Coalition Member Organizations
Conserve Southwest Utah
Conservation Lands Foundation
Advocates for the West
Center for Biological Diversity
Desert Tortoise Council
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Basin and Range Watch
Back Country Horsemen of America - Utah
Defenders of Wildlife
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
Sierra Club - Utah
The Wilderness Society
Utah Audubon Council
Utah Native Plant Society
Western Watersheds Project
WildEarth Guardians
The Writing Team
The achievement of 2020 was largely the result many individuals working separately and together to create written comments submitted to regulators, letters to the editor and opinion editorials to local and state newspapers, and communications with our members.
The CSU Writing Team Tom Butine
Susan Crook
Bryan Dixon
Art Haines
Martha Ham
Joe Monterella
Lisa Rutherford
Sarah Thomas
Paul Van Dam
Jane Whalen
Letters to the Editor and Opinion Editorials Written by Community Members Andrew Kramer
Arlene Green
Barbara Huehle
Bill Mader
Carol Bold
Carol Nichols
Helene Jorgensen
Kayla Koeber
Lucas Brinkerhoff
Melanie Florence
Melinda Kaye
Raymond Kuehne
Richard Spotts
Thomas Smith
Soames Summerhays
Warren Wright
Social and Electronic Media
Thanks to the efforts of a few dedicated individuals, CSU made major improvements in our website and social media communications.
Thanks to:
Adele Pincock, Social Media Consultant
Wendy Womack, Communications and Website Advisor
Hans Glasmann, Filmmaker.
Special recognition to Hans’ work to produce multiple wonderful film clips we used in Instagram, Facebook, and website to save Red Cliffs.
Hands On Volunteers
The Covid Pandemic limited the opportunities for hands on, in person work. Here is a sampling of 2020 volunteer conservation efforts for the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.
Over 40 volunteers presented our NCH Review Scoping comments to the Bureau of land management – January 2020.
56 volunteers helped BLM plant 2,400 creosote, ephedra and white bursage plants in the burn scar of the 1,600-acre Cottonwood Trail Fire in the Red Cliffs NCA. Habitat restoration in the desert is slow and labor-intensive, but dedicated volunteers can heal the land.
Volunteers built cages made of chicken wire to protect the young desert plants from being eaten by rodents, rabbits, and deer, and helped the BLM cage 1,500 native plants that will eventually provide sustenance, shelter, and beauty.
Volunteers from Dixie State University’s Outdoor Leadership Academy (OLA) fill wheel barrows with trail-base for laying new trail. CSU is thrilled to partner with groups like OLA who organize trips to national parks (and other public lands) for under-represented youth racial and ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ community, those with disabilities and people from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
Enthusiasm for public lands is infectious! Many families interrupted their hikes to help build trails and protect the sensitive species that live in this area.
Not all volunteering involves hauling water and digging holes. These volunteers showed up at Pioneer Park days before the Northern Corridor Highway Draft EIS public comment period ended to participate in a letter-writing campaign. More than twenty people wrote letters in defense of the Red Cliffs NCA. Big thanks to Save Pioneer Park, the community group that banded together in defense of Pioneer Park and the amazing recreation opportunities in the Red Cliffs NCA. They organized this event!
Our Funders
CSU depends upon the generosity of others. We have two critical sources of funds:
For more than a decade the Conservation Lands Foundation has led the only national movement of grassroots advocates to protect, restore and expand National Conservation Lands. CLF’s generous monetary and technical support has made this year’s success possible
2020 broke our fundraising record. Your generosity this year supported current expenses and created a financial foundation for 2021 and beyond. Thank You!
The CSU Team
The CSU team is a group of very hard-working volunteers supported by a hard-working staff, consultants, and advisers.
CSU Board of Directors Tom Butine, President
Art Haines, Vice President
Jane Whalen, Treasurer
Martha Ham, Community Outreach Coordinator
Bryan Dixon, Director
Kerry Kastler Burt, Director
CSU Advisors Lisa Rutherford
Paul Van Dam
Susan Crook
Staff and Consultants Sarah Thomas, Director, Public Lands Program
Carol Golichnik, Accounting, Donor Data, Advisor to the Board
Patrick Barickman, retired board member, Pika’aya Tooveep project manager
Adele Pincock, Consultant, Social Media
Ben Harding (Lynker Technologies, LLC) - Hydrologic Modeling Review
Peter Mayer (Water Demand Management, LLC) – Lake Powel Pipeline technical review.
The Many Other Leaders and Advocates for Conservation
Unlike the movies, our credits cannot capture every name that helped CSU and the cause of conservation in 2020. We know that there are many silent and not-so-silent leaders in our community that are vital to our mission.
To everyone, near and far, who supports the work of conservation in Southwest Utah, we say “Thank You!”
May you feel the blessings of the Holiday Season and may the New Year bring you happiness and peace.
The achievement of 2020 was largely the result many individuals working separately and together to create written comments submitted to regulators, letters to the editor and opinion editorials to local and state newspapers, and communications with our members.
2020 broke our fundraising record. Your generosity this year supported current expenses and created a financial foundation for 2021 and beyond. Thank You!
