Save Our Canyons Citizens’ Committee to Save Our Canyons
www.saveourcanyons.org
Fall 2018
Speak Now or Forever Live With Pieces of the Wasatch Save Our Canyons
is the quarterly publication of the Citizens’ Committee to Save Our Canyons CONTENTS: The Strongest of Pressures Need the Strongest of Defenses…………………………………..........P2 Welcome, Utah Valley Coordinator …….............P3 Alta the Hun……..................................……..............P4 A Great Wasatch Defender……………................P5 Brighton Incorporation Update………...........…P6 For the Community —by the Community….....P7 Fighting for White Pine………….........…............P8 Leave it Better than you Found it………............P9 Trails and Proposed Federal Designation…...P10-11 Don’t Check Twitter, Check This……..…..........P12 Welcome Luke Golden…………....……...........P13 Wilderness Stewardship Project……................P14 West of Eden: Nordic Valley Goes Big……......P15 Good, Bad and Ugly………..................…...........P16-17 Thanks for Helping Save Our Canyons…..…..P18 Protecting Our Mountains Isn’t Magic....….....P19
ALEXIS KELNER Editor Emeritus Will Grizzly Gulch be left in pieces or preserved for all? Read more on page 4.
The Strongest of Pressures Need the Strongest of Defenses by Carl Fisher, Executive Director Several years ago, while putting the finer points on the Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area Act, I had an interaction with the then district ranger for the Salt Lake Ranger District. The issue has been, and still is today, the Forest Service’s opposition to protecting lands as Wilderness. This conversation came as a group was working to decide which lands in the region would receive varying levels of protection choosing from: National Conservation and Recreation area, Wilderness Area, or Special Management Area. The district ranger asked, why Save Our Canyons was so determined to designate wilderness, especially because many of these areas already have Roadless protections afforded to them? There are tiers, a hierarchy if you will, to different protective designations of the land. Wilderness as we often state is one of the highest and most restrictive designations. Roadless Areas are units of land that for all intents and purposes are intact and lack intrusion by roads and have a legal mandate to protect those roadless characteristics. Only 2% of the continental U.S. land mass qualifies as roadless. When the U.S. Forest Service recommends the creation of new Wilderness Units, they are required to pull from the roadless inventory for their recommendations. This contrasts with regular old public land administered by the forest service, which has a multiple use mandate and where pretty much any proposal for use must be considered by the USFS. Save Our Canyons seeks to place protective designations on the land to protect the naturalness of land, aid in protecting our precious water resources, and to winnow down the “multiple uses” that can be proposed on public land, namely roadbuilding, ski area expansion, power lines, cell towers, etc. We value solitude, community, wildlife, recreation, but don’t believe everything is appropriate everywhere otherwise it takes from some other value, often times the value of wildness and beauty (I concede beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however).
political environment, I don’t believe that this law of the land will stand the test of time in protecting these special and rare units of land. I felt compelled to explain as well that it wasn’t that I didn’t think that she personally wasn’t going to protect these units, but that this policy — put in place by the Clinton Carl Fisher, Executive Director Administration challenged by the Bush Administration where in 2001 the courts upheld the Clinton Administration rule — was lacking in permanence and susceptible to challenge. Fast forward to October 2018 and our fears are being realized. The State of Utah is currently seeking to petition the USFS to rewrite the Roadless Rule, which currently protects some 4 million acres of land in Utah. In recent years, Colorado and Idaho have successfully petitioned to alter the roadless rule, Alaska’s Tongass National Forest is currently in the process, and Utah is sprinting to merge its petition with Alaska’s. It is also important to note that this interaction with the district ranger was well before the Trump Administration came to be (it was probably in June of 2015). We have seen an all-out assault on protective regulations, practices, check and balances. The reason we seek federal legislation to place protective designations on the land is to insulate these lands from the political tides of change.
My reply to the district ranger was “certainty.” I explained that while I acknowledge and support the roadless rule that protects these areas in this hostile-toward-the-land
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The Wasatch is one of the most intensely used and pressured forests in the entire country. We might not know exactly the threats and pressures that will come to this region, or how exactly they will manifest themselves. What we do know is that they are coming and using history as our best predictor of future actions, we can only expect in the absence of withdrawing the ability for roads to be built, resorts to expand and pristine peaks being converted to tram towers and conference centers, these projects will continue to permanently wreak havoc on the Wasatch.
The strongest of pressures need the strongest of defenses to push back; for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The moment for pro-action is lost, so it is now time to aggressively react and rally behind the consensus Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area legislation to protect what is wild and wonderful about the Wasatch. Failure to do so will result in the qualities we cherish from becoming nothing more than a memory for this community today, and lore for future generations. People are the greatest threat to the Wasatch, but through engagement we can also be this place’s savior.
Welcome, Utah Valley Coordinator Taylor Monney; SOC Utah Valley Coordinator Growing up on the foothills of Mount Timpanogos, I learned from an early age to cherish the outdoors and especially the Wasatch Mountains. Many days spent snowboarding, climbing, hiking, and mountain biking in the Wasatch have helped me to understand not only the grandeur of this range, but also its fragility. Increased development and degradation threaten to permanently scar the Wasatch, diminishing the quality of life for the human and non-human residents of the range, thus the great necessity of conservation efforts. When I think of these mountains, I remember of the oft quoted line of Baba Dioum “in the end, we will conserve only what we love, and love only what we understand.” Save Our Canyons demonstrates a love for, and understanding of this unique environment, and my concern for this area led me to volunteer with this organization. With Save Our Canyons I have been able to participate in trail cleanups and restoration projects in Big Cottonwood Canyon, speak with dozens of concerned Utahns and promote conservation, and become more acquainted with the legislative aspect of environmentalism in the effort to pass the CWNCRA proposal. My work with Save Our Canyons has helped me to understand the positive impact a group can have in the conservation movement, and the need for individuals to get involved to protect the places they love.
www.saveourcanyons.org
Taylor Monney; SOC Volunteer Extraordinaire
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Alta the Hun By Rob DeBirk, Policy Director
Brian, Amy, and Jude helping to #KeepBaldyBald!
For the past year Save Our Canyons has wrestled with Alta Ski Resort. Whether over Alta’s dissatisfaction with the Mountain Accord because the train and tunnel they’ve demanded for Little Cottonwood hasn’t materialized, their recent proposal to put a tram on Mt. Baldy and refusal to swear off additional infrastructure on the peak, or their recent destruction of precious alpine wetlands which earned them a searing reprimand from Salt Lake City and Sandy public utilities, there’s been no end to our recent disagreements. Yet, in August, Alta has finally hit their last straw. Save Our Canyons and conservation and recreation allies have tried negotiating with Alta, we’ve tried trusting and verifying, but now in the final moments, Alta is trying to change the rules. They’re pulling land off the table, Grizzly Gulch, land that’s been beloved by the public long before it was owned by Alta and which has been central to years’ worth of negotiations throughout Mountain Accord and now the Central Wasatch Conservation and Recreation Area Act. Negotiations over the land exchanges have always been conditioned on ski resorts giving up their valuable private pristine and non-developed land outside of their resort boundaries in exchange for desirable, and already impacted, public land at their bases. Far from
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being a giveaway, these exchanges are legally required to follow a Forest Service review process ensuring that the monetary values of the lands exchanged is equal. In Alta’s case the public offering was Grizzly Gulch. Unfortunately, Alta has decided to unilaterally reconfigure their land exchange to no longer protect important areas like Grizzly Gulch, opting instead to consolidate their ownership of lands to maximize alpine development and minimize environmental protections. That’s why Save Our Canyons asked the Central Wasatch Commission to drop Alta from Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Act and proceed without them. Before the few remaining Alta apologists can muster a defense of Alta’s property rights, remember Grizzly’s history. Soon after purchasing Grizzly Gulch in the early 2000’s, Alta petitioned to annex the area from Salt Lake County to the town of Alta. At the time, Save Our Canyons raised a ruckus that Alta’s motivation for annexing the land was because the county’s ordinances and general plan would never have allowed the resort to build lifts and develop Grizzly and that the town of Alta has significantly less restrictive environmental protections.
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To this day, the Town of Alta still lacks a ridgeline protection ordinance, something which Salt Lake County has had on the books - thanks to Save Our Canyons - for decades. Responding to our criticism, Alta stated in a Dec. 7, 2002 Deseret News article that Grizzly Gulch was “not purchased with the idea of increasing the size of the ski area” and that “the land is used by backcountry skiers to access more remote areas beyond Alta, and the resort will do nothing to restrict that access.” In another article following the successful annexation of Grizzly into the less protective town, Alta told the town council: “We didn’t seek out and buy this land because we wanted to do something with it” and “backcountry skiers still will be able to use the slope to access more remote areas beyond Alta.” Fast forward through 2018 and years of negotiations to permanently protect Grizzly. Alta’s new management sends a letter removing Grizzly Gulch from a protective
exchange. Where once Alta promised benevolent land management, no ski resort expansion and continued access, Alta has now done an about face, breaking these earlier promises. The resort’s new stance is that Grizzly Gulch “...was purchased as an area the ski area could expand into if the demand for developed skiing continued to increase” and that it’s necessary to pull protections for Grizzly because “Alta Ski Area has decided to preserve Grizzly Gulch as an area to accommodate additionally developed skiing.” Rather than preserve Grizzly Gulch for future generations as Save Our Canyons and our allies have been aiming, all along Alta has had another kind of preservation in mind: preserving to accommodate additional development. In breaking past promises or slyly undercutting current ones, Alta Ski Resorts has shown they can’t be trusted. It’s time to move on without Alta.
A Great Wasatch Defender: Dr. Howie Garber By Alex Schmidt, Campaigns Coordinator Recently, Howie and his partner Patti, left the Salt Lake Valley and relocated to their home at the foot of the Teton Mountains. Anyone who has picked up a Save Our Canyons newsletter, visited our website, or attended a Save Our Canyons event over the last few decades knows Howie for his unparalleled ability to capture the many moods of the Wasatch Mountains through his photography. Beyond lending his craft to help raise awareness and donating funds to support our work — Howie has spent countless hours pouring over maps, writing comments on resort expansion, and he literally wrote the book on the Wasatch Mountains titled, “ Utah’s Wasatch Range: Four Season Refuge”. Howie’s graciousness, insight, good nature, and staunch defense of the wild places and wild animals that rely on them has made a lasting impact on conservation of the Wasatch Range. We thank you Howie for all you have done to help Save Our Canyons protect the beauty and wildness of the Wasatch Mountains, canyons and foothills. Support those that are supporting the Wasatch. Check out Howie’s amazing photos at: http://www. howiegarberimages.com/!
www.saveourcanyons.org
Howie Garber enjoying the view of upper Broads Fork.
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Brighton Incorporation Update By Rob DeBirk, Policy Director
As you recall, there’s an effort afoot to incorporate the upper half of Big Cottonwood Canyon into a new town of Brighton. Save Our Canyons has been concerned about this proposal since it was first declared. Looking to incorporate as a town was a well-intentioned effort to find solutions to issues like overcrowding, trail maintenance, inadequate toilets, and growing transportation conflicts. But the feasibility study released earlier this summer made a few things clear: Incorporation will raise taxes — disproportionately impacting secondary homeowners, disenfranchise a majority of property owners who will no longer be able to vote on issues impacting their canyon property, and likely empower speculators and developers hoping to weaken the environmental and watershed protections responsible for keeping them at bay. The process has been riddled with a minefield of errors, missteps, and miscommunications. The feasibility study released earlier this summer was pulled after it was found to have significant inaccuracies and now another feasibility study is underway. Here are the concerns Save Our Canyons and our supporters in the canyon have raised about the incorporation effort: Land Use: Save Our Canyon’s most serious concern — giving land use authority to the new town of Brighton could open this area up for future development and changes to existing land use protections. Who’s to say that years from now a new company, say Vail or someone similarly hungry for increased development, won’t purchase Brighton and stack a future town council with cronies willing to give them whatever they want in terms of development and growth. It may sound far off now, but it’s not. Things change, councilmembers are replaced, new companies move in and new opportunities for making money eventually become desirable — just see the article about the history of Grizzly Gulch also in this newsletter if you don’t believe us.
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Disenfranchisement and the Future of the Canyons: As part of unincorporated Salt Lake County all property owners, both primary and secondary, can vote on issues impacting the canyons and have recourse to elected officials representing them on canyon issues and canyon property taxes. Should Brighton incorporate this will change substantially. According to the study, only 20 percent of canyon property owners are registered to vote in the canyons, about 202 registered voters. 20 percent of the property owners, 202 primary residents who are registered to vote, will decide whether incorporation occurs. Should they vote to incorporate only these same residents will decide all future town issues such as taxes, services, and quite possibly — land use! Taxes: Proponents stated in August 2017 Petition Edition newsletter that it wouldn’t be necessary to raise taxes to support the town, “Neither the petition nor incorporation will raise or lower taxes, but becoming a town could offer greater control over how some taxes are spent.” Yet, the earlier version of the feasibility study found that taxes would be raised significantly for residents and nearly double for secondary homeowners. Services: Services provided to residents in Big Cottonwood Canyon such as fire and police protection are heavily subsidized by those of us outside the canyons. Additionally, the Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City have dedicated about $1 million dollars in the last year to improving toilets and trails in Big Cottonwood over the past year. This doesn’t include the $3.5 million the same entities spent protecting open space at the top of Big Cottonwood last summer with the purchase of Bonanza Flat. For more information, updates, and to view the new feasibility study about the Brighton Incorporation please make sure to check our website: https://saveourcanyons. org/2018/09/25/brighton-incorporation-update/.
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For the Community — by the Community By Grace Tyler, Communications Coordinator
Lake Blanche; Photo by Luke Golden
Do you ever stop to think about how amazing our community is? How lucky we all are to live in a place full of people working towards protecting the Wasatch Mountains? Because we do!
ensuring high quality year round recreation, and continuing stewardship of our watershed. We have also collected over 3,000 signatures for the CWNCRA — THANK YOU everyone!
In the spring we partnered with Corelife Eatery during their “Pay What You Want” fundraising event and the outcome was extraordinary! Between Corelife Eatery’s supporters’ and our Save Our Canyons supporters’ — this event raised $7,000 for Save Our Canyons!
And the community support just keeps on keeping on! Western Heating & Air Conditioning picked Save Our Canyons to be part of their Caring, Serving, Giving contest! Save Our Canyons took second place in this contest with 189 votes and won $300!
It’s incredible that Corelife Eatery selected Save Our Canyons for this event and the next time you are in CoreLife Eatery eating — make sure to tell them thank you for supporting Save Our Canyons and other community organizations!
Oh, we aren’t done yet — let’s talk about the Outdoor Project Block Party at Uinta Brewing. We not only raised $1,086.10 for Save Our Canyons, but we also collected over 80 new signatures supporting the Central Wasatch National Conservation & Recreation Area and received an overwhelming amount of new advocates donating their time to help Save Our Canyons.
It wasn’t just Corelife Eatery that showed support for Save Our Canyons this spring. Wasatch Touring, Fisher Brewery, and RoHa Brewing Project let us host different events to help with our Keep Baldy Bald campaign and the CWNCRA! Between all the events and the other advocates we had helping with the Keep Baldy Bald campaign we collected over 300 signatures in less than a week showing support for limiting development, www.saveourcanyons.org
We all have the option to pick from a variety of business to support. When looking for new outdoor gear, a nice place to eat, refreshing beverages, home repairs, and more; please remember to support those that support protecting and conserving the Wasatch!
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Fighting for White Pine By Rob DeBirk, Policy Director Save Our Canyons has sought Wilderness Designation to keep helicopters and ski area expansion out of Little Cottonwood Canyon’s White Pine for over 40 years. And while we haven’t been successful in designating this area as Wilderness, we have been able to give it strong protections throughout the various versions of the Central Wasatch Conservation and Recreation Area Act (CWNCRA).
and degrade this alpine area with a proliferation of trails. Legitimizing White Pine as mountain biking route will induce more use in fragile high alpine areas as bikers look to expand beyond White Pine by dropping into Snowbird or Maybird and vice versa. In addition to having a possible negative impact on high alpine areas, legitimizing White Pine as a mountain biking route also stands to endanger the hikers who brave this steep trail.
Yet, a recent kerfuffle arose when a small handful of mountain bike advocates realized that the legislation, which has included White Pine as a non-mechanized area since its first drafting in 2016, would limit mountain bikes on the trail. White Pine is an extraordinarily steep trail, one that currently receives little mountain bike use particularly compared to other areas along the Wasatch.
According to the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA), with the interest of safety in mind, mixed use trails (those enjoy simultaneously by both hikers and bikers) should not exceed a trail grade of 15 percent for the simple reason that controlling a bike and limiting speed becomes increasingly challenging the steeper the grade. IMBA counts any trail exceeding a 17 percent grade as a very difficult black diamond trail.
Limiting White Pine to access by hikers isn’t about being anti-biking or pro-biking. It isn’t about factions protecting their favorite uses in the Wasatch and favoring those over others. It’s about protecting the quality of this landscape for years to come, it’s about protecting this area from additional uses and pressures a hundred years from now and a hundred years beyond that. Save Our Canyons supports mountain biking and the hundreds of miles of bike trails currently found along the Wasatch. It’s because we support biking that we’re working to adjust some wilderness boundaries to allow for the completion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) and to protect the continued use Little Cottonwood’s Quarry Trail.
The White Pine trail features grades up to 26 percent and is incredibly popular with hikers, often to the point of being packed. Populating this well-loved trail with mountain bikers careening at breakneck speeds fighting to maintain control on a shared use trail with a grade significantly higher than is recommended is an accident waiting to happen. One that will undoubtedly result in decades worth of future headaches and conflict as these user groups collide — both metaphorically and likely on White Pine’s difficult steep and variable terrain, physically.
For a group that sees wilderness designations as the highest form of protection against development possible, our willingness to change wilderness boundaries is no small matter. We support these adjustments in the case of the BST because making these changes to complete the trail will add over 50 miles of biking trails and make the BST bike-able from the north to the south ends of the valley. However, the Little Cottonwood’s White Pine Area is a far different situation. White Pine is one of the Wasatch’s most glorious and relatively untouched alpine areas. Formalizing White Pine as a mountain biking trail stands to induce use at an already overcrowded trailhead, endanger hikers,
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White Pine; Central Wasatch Mountains
www.saveourcanyons.org
Leave it Better Than you Found it By Grace Tyler, Communications Coordinator
Wildflowers on Mt. Baldy; Photo by Save Our Canyons Supporter Tracy
For many of us experiencing a field of wildflowers is like nothing else. It’s breathtaking and enjoyable and something we want to share with friends and family — yet there’s a deep impulse we carry from childhood to adulthood to pick the wildflowers without thinking about the impact it can have on the environment. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “A critical chain of events is triggered for years to come once wildflowers are lost. We don’t often realize it, but wildflowers support entire ecosystems for pollinators, birds, and small animals on a micro scale” (USDA, para 1). There’s a simple solution to this problem and that is to leave the wildflowers, well, WILD! We know social media especially Instagram has made picked wildflower photos even more tempting and oddly desirable, but getting 100 likes isn’t worth it. If you didn’t know picking the wildflowers is punishable by law and considered poaching by the Forest Service. Next time you are in the Wasatch admiring the beauty of the wildflowers remember to leave them be. There is one more thing we need to do when enjoying the Wasatch Mountains, canyons, and foothills and that is — pack it in and pack it out!
item is that you have brought into the Wasatch it needs to return home with you. Please see the image below of what can happen when people stop packing it out. In August, Hailey Schiff (Instagram @schiffski), Lauren Bingham and Alyssa Bokovoy took it upon themselves to clean up an area of the Wasatch. We cannot thank you enough Hailey, Lauren, and Alyssa for helping to clean up the Wasatch on a Monday night. We love the Wasatch and we know you do as well, but we all need to do our part. The goal when using our amazing public land in the Wasatch (or any public land for that matter) is to leave it better than you found it.
There’s nothing better than opening a refreshing beverage, unwrapping a treat, or biting into some fresh fruit at the amazing destination, but what happens once you are done? Do you just leave it there? Can fruit be thrown into the woods? The answer to all of those questions is pack it in and pack it out. No matter what the www.saveourcanyons.org
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Trails and Proposed Federal Designations
Conservation and Recreation is what Save Our Canyons has been about since our formation. Recreation, whether at a resort, trail, climbing crag, developed site like a campground or picnic area, or deep in the wilderness — it is how we connect to the wonders of the Wasatch and perhaps one another.
protections for these areas to protect the wild characteristics and staving off development pressures so that future generations might be able to enjoy a high quality landscape (not to mention high quality drinking water) in the future. Human use is the greatest threat and impact to the Wasatch.
Over the years there has been confusion about various designations and proposals, how they may or may not impact various uses in the Wasatch. Our goal is to balance use to ensure protection of different areas and strive to provide quality experiences for an ever diversifying recreation spectrum. Alpine mountaineering, backcountry skiing, bird watching, camping, climbing, cycling, dog walking, fishing, hiking, hunting, mountain biking, off-road driving, painting, picnicking, photography scenic drives, snowshoeing, stargazing, resort skiing and snowboarding, and watching wildlife are just a few of the opportunities that people enjoy in this area! Our goal is to enhance
White Pine Canyon
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Save Our Canyons has sought Wilderness Designation to keep helicopters and ski area expansion out of White Pine for over 40 years. The White Pine trailhead is the only high alpine trailhead in Little Cottonwood Canyon. While it is true, bikes cannot use the trails within designated Wilderness areas, we’ve felt and still feel today the pressures on this area,
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not to mention the geology, botany, wildlife, and opportunities for solitude make White Pine a prime candidate for Wilderness designation. A busy trailhead already, we feel that the need for protection outweighs the desire for mechanized recreation and the desires for more trail development and intensification of use in this wild area. Little Cottonwood Trail One of our challenges with trails throughout the Wasatch is that of user created trails. These trails are not located on any official map, nor have they gone through the appropriate processes to ensure they aren’t conflicting with other values (i.e. water quality, wildlife habitat, etc...) important to both the resources and our community. In Little Cottonwood Canyon you can find a prime example of this issue where mountain bikers have created a trail between White Pine Canyon and Lisa Falls. Save Our Canyons has worked with other organizations and the USFS over the years to sign and close the trail, but it continues to reappear. While we support the use of the actual trail, between the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon and Lisa Falls, we cannot support illegal construction of trails throughout the Wasatch. If everyone did whatever they wanted in these canyons, we’d be left with a ruinous landscape. That said, we have adjusted the boundary at the mouth of White Pine Canyon to allow an opportunity for this trail to go through a process to become legitimized. Bonneville Shoreline Trail Since the mid-1990’s a concept of building a trail on the shore of the ancient Lake Bonneville has gained traction. A number of hurdles from and ever urbanizing valley, private property rights, lack of open space dollars for land acquisition, construction costs have plagued the realization of this trail. Another significant issue is that the ever constrained alignment (a combination of private property and geography) has left the only alignments available to go through Wilderness. This of course would make it illegal for bikes to use those sections, and the trail that lay beyond those boundaries. As such, Save Our Canyons supports adjusting the Wilderness Boundaries to facilitate the use of bikes on this trail. We are currently working to find an alignment that protects as much of the existing Wilderness while making these adjustments to ensure we find that balance between Wilderness preservation and recreation — a delicate dance we collaboratively and actively work on throughout the region Wasatch Crest Trail In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s portions of the Wasatch Crest trail, particularly in upper Millcreek Canyon were included in versions of Wilderness Proposals that Save Our Canyons was working on. The goal was never to eliminate mountain biking as some have argued, rather it was to www.saveourcanyons.org
White Pine Canyon Roadless Area
Salt Lake Bonneville Shoreline Trail
Biking in Little Cottonwood Canyon
prohibit expansion of heli-skiing operations and protect the areas from ski area expansion and ski interconnect proposals. Remember SkiLink and One Wasatch? Since that time, we’ve worked with a number of organizations to make sure we’re not impacting one of the most amazing and significant trails in Utah. Not one of our proposals has threatened or proposed to close the Wasatch Crest or any trails that serve it.
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Save Our Canyons supports mountain biking and the non-commercialized and nonmotorized use of these trails. Continued Conversation and Collaboration We seek to work to protect the wildness and beauty of the Wasatch Mountains with a keen eye toward conservation. In a study we commissioned it was found that over 4.5 million people visit Big, Little, and Millcreek Canyons each year; 3.1 million of those occur solely on our trails and in the backcountry. We believe it is important to allow people to enjoy these amazing places, but perhaps it is most important to protect what makes these places special — our water, our wildlife, our sense of place, and our ability to find solitude (despite the droves of visitors). There’s no doubt in our minds that more people are coming, which means the pressure is on! We aren’t anti-bike (many of our members and staff enjoy biking) and we think our past engagement demonstrates that. We are very concerned about inducing recreational demand,
Wasatch Crest to Mt. Timpanogos. Photo by Howie Garber
the amenities that requires, and the impact it has on our beloved Wasatch! We hope you’ll join us and be part of the discussion as we hedge toward solutions for this amazing place.
Don’t Check Twitter, Check This By Grace Tyler, Communications Coordinator As an organization committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our members and community to steward the Wasatch, we dedicate a lot of our time to creating, organizing, and attending events that are not only enjoyable to be at, but also provide an educational experience. During these different events it provides an opportunity for people to get involved within Save Our Canyons. If you want to attend an event or volunteer at an event make sure to check our online calendar regularly as we will be scheduling more events throughout these next months.
Utah Beer Festival; Thank you to all our amazing volunteers that weekend.
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www.saveourcanyons.org
Planned Giving and Stock Donation to benefit Save Our Canyons
Welcome Luke Golden!!!
As a small, grassroots organization, Save Our Canyons depends on generous support from our members to achieve substantial victories in our fight to protect the beauty of the Wasatch Mountains, canyons and foothills.
SOC; Education and Stewardship Coordinator
Luke Golden, a native of New Hampshire, moved to Utah to attend Westminster College in 2014. He graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies in May of this year. In 2015 he started volunteering with Save Our Canyons Kids and then became the Community Outreach Intern in 2017. He is pleased now to be the Education and Stewardship Coordinator at Save Our Canyons. Growing up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Luke became an avid outdoor enthusiast. He hiked the 48 four thousand footers, and skied as much as possible, both alpine and back-country. He developed an appreciation of mountains, wilderness, and its importance — which ultimately brought with him to Utah and now to Save Our Canyons! When he is not in the office or leading SOC Kids hikes, Luke is skiing, camping, hiking and fly fishing all around Utah.
www.saveourcanyons.org
If you’re interested in leaving a legacy of support for the continued preservation of this amazing range and the communities it supports please contact SOC Office Administrator Sarah Sleater at 801-363-7283 or Sarah@saveourcanyons.org
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Wilderness Stewardship Project By Luke Golden, Education and Stewardship Coordinator
Lake Blanche Stewardship Hike
Save Our Canyons is concerned about the degradation of the Wasatch Wilderness. That is why this summer we have created the Wilderness Stewardship Project with the intention of restoring parts of the wilderness that have been diminished through use. This year we are targeting the Twin Peaks Wilderness Area with the intention of focusing on another wilderness area next year. The Forest Service has a set of Wilderness Stewardship Goals that they would like to meet each year and we share these same goals. There are two parts to these goals which are as follows: First, we are coordinating volunteer events in the Twin Peaks Wilderness to work on wilderness restoration projects that the Forest Service has identified. These events are hikes with a focus on trail maintenance, rehabilitating, restoring sensitive areas, packing out garbage, and dispersing illegal camps and firepits. We have had three events so far this summer and thanks to volunteer efforts — they have been successful in achieving our goals! Our first two hikes focused on clearing gravel from water features and lopping overhanging brush on the Broads Fork Trail. Our third hike focused on removing illegal campfires locations that were at the top of the Lake Blanche Trail. We believe this is important so that future hikers can experience a pristine area and use it properly, and we are happy to have been successful in our efforts. Our thanks go out to volunteers who made this happen. The second part to this project is the creation of a
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Wilderness Education Plan. The Forest Service is in need of an education plan that will consist of an educational pamphlet, website, displays, informational meetings, talking points, and presentations. Currently, we are in the early stages of this process. We are aligning with other organizations and businesses to help educate the public about wilderness areas, with information on how to respect and maintain them. It is our hope that we can align ourselves with organizations that have different backgrounds and focuses, such as hiking, climbing, skiing, hunting, fishing, etc. The point of the project is to improve the knowledge of wilderness areas in as many people as possible. By having other organizations participate in this project, we believe there will be more success in this goal. The educational plan is important because we know that many people in Utah use wilderness areas to find peace and solitude, but do not have a functional understanding of the importance of the area and its rules. As use of wilderness areas increases, efforts to restore and maintain its pristine quality are even more important, and education is a big part of this. Everyone will have access to this educational plan to improve their knowledge of wilderness areas. If you are interested in volunteering for one of our stewardship hikes, or would like more information, please email our Education and Stewardship Coordinator Luke Golden at luke@saveourcanyons.org.
Broads Fork Stewardship Hike www.saveourcanyons.org
West of Eden: Nordic Valley Goes Big By Alex Schmidt, Campaigns Coordinator Currently, Nordic Valley operates as a small, niche ski area on 140 acres. Recently, however, the resort’s new owners, Mountain Capital Partners, announced that they will be seeking a massive expansion including a 4.3 mile gondola, 10 new lifts, and a large scale condo development. All told, the expansion would spill over onto nearly 3,200 skiable acres of forest service managed public land. The majority of this land is managed under the Forest Service’s protected Roadless Area. Remember, according to the current Forest Service Plan, Roadless Areas are to be “… protected and maintained to conserve and preserve important values and benefits.. by prohibiting activities that have a likelihood of degrading desirable characteristics of inventoried roadless areas (WasatchCache National Forest Plan, p. 4-14).” A quick search online and you’ll find a long history of proposals looking to bring the small ski hill in Eden, Utah onto the national ski industry stage. Plans for lifts and snow making expansion, night skiing operation, access roads, and mountain lodges have come and gone many times. The latest push comes from Mountain Capitol Partners, a Colorado based firm that manages half a dozen resorts in the Southwest is by far the most ambitious and impactful to the health and connectivity of the roadless inventoried forest. These forests like many of the Wasatch Range are habitat for a diversity of the wildlife that deserve careful consideration as human populations grow. Various grasses, oak brush give way to maple and aspen groves before reaching the highest elevation playing host to fir trees in the alpine. Prime habitat exists not only for the Big Game species that are so iconic in the west, but also the revered Bald Eagle has been found to use the North Wasatch-Ogden Valley Management Area as prime roost habitat.
The map of Nordic Valley’s massive resort expansion proposal
In a recent interview in the Standard Examiner, James Coleman, owner of Mountain Capitol Partners, stated “… more mountain biking, alpine slides, mountain coasters, ziplines…trying to improve summer experience and have more summer activities (Larsen, Standard-Examiner, 2018).” Save Our Canyons has long fought what our organization has seen as uses that distract from the natural beauty and solitude of the Wasatch. While the user experience may seem subjective to some, zip lines, mountain coasters and the like introduce new challenges to wildlife, impact habitat for plant species and potential water quality concerns. The Wasatch is a unique range set in contrast to the bustling urban life below. Just minutes from major population centers the area sees some of the highest visitation of any National Forest in the country. Further urbanization, man-made conveyances and resort expansions are being weighed up and down the Wasatch. We encourage you to consider the range not as a fragmented landscape of north, central and south but as a connected ecosystem requiring restraint and even space to exist without our interruptions.
With the last few winters in the Wasatch Range leaving many of us feeling the summer drought and lack of pow days fresh on our minds, we wonder what the aspirations for summer development at Nordic Valley could bring? www.saveourcanyons.org
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Good, Bad and Ugly Ugly; A Black Eye on Alta In a recent, devastatingly honest letter to the editor at the SL Tribune titled “Alta is dead to me after its greedy actions on Grizzly Gulch” written by Dan Barrell, long time Alta patron who, like many Save Our Canyons members we’ve heard from, feel he’s losing a family member as Alta moves to eat up Grizzly Gulch. While Alta may be dead to some, their lofty development aspirations continue to threaten the highest reaches of the Wasatch’s Little Cottonwood Canyon. To Alta’s new management, your decision to pull back from years of collaborative planning efforts through the Mountain Accord, and now Central Wasatch Commission isn’t going unnoticed. We applaud, with a shared sadness, the gall of you out there who are taking your dollars elsewhere as a demonstration against resort expansion in our watershed.
Ugly; Blazing Wildfire Season The wildfire season in the West is well underway, with more acres under fire than average through the months of July and August (NASA.gov). Satellite images showed smoke blanketing nearly every western state. “In the United States, nearly 4 million acres across Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon have burned so far this year, about 10 percent more than the annual average at this time of year” (U.S. National Interagency Fire Center). Despite the majority of these fires being caused by humans, it’s opened pandora’s box to Utah Politicians seeing roadless areas as a threat to wildfires.
Bad; State of Utah Petitions to Change Roadless Rule There’s movement afoot to alter state management of roadless areas to “prevent” forest fires. But wait, could this open protected land to new threats to timber harvests or even development of ski areas? Welcome to the wild wild west where a human caused wild fire somehow end up being wilderness and roadless areas at fault.
Good; Community of All Stars This summer was full of community all stars — ranging from cleaning up parts of the Wasatch caked with trash left behind from users and abusers, to graffiti removal groups. Keep up the good work all stars because we need the help.
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Three volunteers removed this pile of trash near Guardsmans Pass.
Ugly; This Survey Decides the Future of the Wasatch? We have found out through personal experiences and social media that this new Canyon General Plan Survey is set up poorly and we agree this survey is awful! HOWEVER, it is still important that the county gets your input on the future of the Wasatch. This survey will take about 40 minutes — so grab your computer, a beverage of some kind, and kill some time giving input about the future of the Wasatch Mountains, canyons, and foothills. Survey can be found on our website, email blasts, and social media
Good; New Face — Same Organization Save Our Canyons is getting a facelift and by that we mean we’re getting a new website! Sometime soon you will notice a new updated website — don’t panic, we are still the same organization working on protecting the Wasatch Mountains, canyons, and foothills. This new website will make finding information about issues easier, trust us, you’re going to like it. .
www.saveourcanyons.org
Good; You Hiked Mount Timpanogos How any times? How many times have you done, Mount Timpanogos? We bet it’s less than Ben Woosely. A week before Ben’s 77th birthday he hiked Mount Timpanogos 1,000 times! With a smile on his face, Woolsey reached the top of Timp with the same attitude as every other time. “I don’t come up here wondering if I can make it, I come up here knowing I’m going to make it,” Woolsey said. See the full story and interview with Ben on Fox 13 Salt Lake City.
Photo by Howie Garber; Timpanogos Cirque
Ugly; Things That Bear Our Respect… Recently, there were reports of a Black Bear sighting near the congested S Turn area of Big Cottonwood Canyon. While most are aware that the Wasatch Mountains are home to an impressive diversity of plant and animal species, it bears reminding that we are visitors to the complex and delicate habitat these creatures call home. The excitement and fascination we feel when spotting the dipped wing of a Golden Eagle soaring about a cliff band or the pleasure of walking a trail amongst showy Columbine and Monk’s
Hood are experiences we all relish. Yet, in order to maintain a balance between these wild species and our desire to convene with nature, we must take a step back and acknowledge we are in their home. Blasting your music on the way to the crag, littering in the canyons, and making your own trails is all taking place in the living room of the rare Bear or more common Moose. Just as you wouldn’t like to be approached while sitting at your dinner table or forced to listen to blasting techno during nap time — be respectful and leave the Wasatch better than you found it.
“I live here, don’t trash my home!” www.saveourcanyons.org
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Thanks for Helping Save Our Canyons
Amy Cox; Save Our Canyons Volunteer
Hunter Heathfield; Policy Intern
Amy fell in love with the Wasatch Range the very first time visiting Salt Lake City four years ago. The range’s beauty and accessibility to the people in the city was a huge inspiration for her to move here for school, where she came to study Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, along with Modern Dance, at the University of Utah. A professor in her Parks, Recreation, and Tourism department connected her to Save Our Canyons.
My name is Hunter Tuesday-Heathfield, and I’ll be interning with Save Our Canyons this fall! I grew up here in Salt Lake, with the wonderful experience of having the Wasatch as my playground. My childhood, as well as my life now, has been filled with time spent in the mountains. Skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, hiking, climbing, camping, and basking in the beauty of nature have been my passions for as long as I can remember. These experiences have made me into the person that I am today.
Save Our Canyons has given her a deeper understanding about conservation and how important it is for us to protect our lands. After initially getting involved for a school project she is looking forward build on her relationship with Save Our Canyons as well as assisting in future projects where she can help protect the beautiful spaces that are an integral part of her life here in Salt Lake City. During the time she spends in the Wasatch she is typically hiking, skiing, climbing, rappelling, and camping. Amy feels that one of the best ways she can give back to this place that has given her so much is by helping protect and conserve all if the special places the Wasatch has.
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The Wasatch, and most natural areas, provide unparalleled opportunities for personal development. Salt Lake’s mountains have taught me perseverance, introspection, and to appreciate the complex relationships and environmental benefits that the Wasatch provides. These experiences led me to my current academic career, majoring in Environmental Sustainably Studies and minoring in Business Administration.
www.saveourcanyons.org
Protecting Our Mountains Isn’t Magic. It’s Hard Work... By Save Our Canyons Board of Trustee, Betsy Haws The first time I went backcountry skiing, I turned left on the skin track at Twin Lakes Pass, and the snow sparkled in the air against the rocky backdrop. I felt happy in a way that reminded me of my childhood. This weekend, I was hiking down the ridgeline from Park City to Big Cottonwood Canyon with that same happy, awe-filled smile. You know it. You’ve seen it on your friends’ faces. You’ve felt it yourself. There’s magic in our mountains. The Wasatch brings a sense of wonder and a feeling of home. Protecting our mountains isn’t magic. It’s hard work. The staff at Save Our Canyons works tirelessly to build coalitions, organize events, write articles, file lawsuits, attend planning meetings, and endless other activities, all on a shoestring budget. They are the stewards of our magical home. Do your part by becoming a member of Save Our Canyons. In doing so, you’ll providing bedrock support for an organization that fights for wilderness, wildlife, and watershed — ultimately, for you. Membership is your small $35 or $50 contribution to help preserve the Wasatch mountains now and in the future. Save Our Canyons needs you – your volunteerism, your awareness, and your advocacy. Please help us this year by becoming a member, because we all need the Wasatch.
How many turns have you put down? Now it’s your turn to become a member! Photos by Howie Garber www.saveourcanyons.org
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Citizens’ Committee to Save Our Canyons 824 So. 400 West St. Suite B-115 Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH PERMIT NO. 7271 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
Photo by: Howie Garber
On behalf of Save Our Canyons, we thank you for taking time to learn about our work to protect the beauty and wildness of this amazing range. As a community driven organization, our members guide and direct our work. Join us! Annual memberships are $35 and allow us to continue to advocate loudly for our water, land, recreational access and quality of life that result from a connected and protected Wasatch Mountains, canyons and foothills. It's easy, we've included a donation envelope in this newsletter or donate via our website.