A Summer Of Advocacy Photo Credit: Louis Arevalo Photography https://www.louisarevalophotography.com/index Citizens Committee to Save Our Canyons Dedicated to protecting the beauty and wildness of the Wasatch Mountains Director’s Message Invest in natural infrastructure and heal our dilapidated planet Written by Executive Director, Carl Fisher Infrastructure, our nation’s infrastructure, is a key com- ponent of President Biden’s drive to restore the soul of this nation. When we think about infrastructure it’s things like roads, bridges, things we’ve built and need to maintain. These things cost a lot of money to build, Summer 2021 Newsletter arguably even more to maintain and operate. Our hope is that we apply 21st century thinking and values to augment the 19th and 20th century infrastructure im- Director’s Message............P2-P4 provements. Less pavement and personal auto invest- ments, more transit and bike lanes connecting our com- munities together. We could solve a lot of problems in Protecting The Wasatch Through Pottery...... P5 the Wasatch by simply investing in getting people out of their cars, well before they ever get near a canyon. SOCKids Activity..........P6-P7 As we reconcile with our carbon footprints, we should also work to minimize our recreation footprint. Salt Lake City’s Foothills: On the Brink ...P8 One thing I’ve yet to see as part of the infrastructure plan is something we refer to as “natural infrastruc- Wilderness Stewardship and Education......P9 ture.” Traditional infrastructure generally converts our wild places that filter our air and water, into corridors Pillars for Transportation Solutions in the Central of pollution that alter hydrology, introduce weeds and Wasatch Mountains....P10-P11 erosion, thus sedimentation, stream temperatures and wreaks havoc on our natural systems. Natural infra- Central Wasatch National Conservation & Recre- structure is the original infrastructure, arguably the ation Area ....P12 most ignored, but critical infrastructure in our country. It is our forests, lakes, creeks, our alpine meadows, our Save Our Canyons Speaker Series...P13 riparian areas. Fear, Do Not Revere “Wasangeles”....P14 Natural infrastructure includes natural processes too, like fire which has been suppressed for generations Becoming A Member .............P15 leading to the overgrowth of our forests. Or the beaver that builds a dam shaping the river, creating wetlands that purify water and habitat for other creatures that contribute toward our ecosystem services that stew- ards our natural infrastructure. As we push species out 3690 E Fort Union Blvd STE 101 Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121 with ever intensifying activity, proposing to build trains https://saveourcanyons.org and gondolas converting habitat into roads connecting, 801.363.7283 ski runs, homes, condominiums and lodges, we frag- [email protected] ment habitat and disrupt the ecosystem services once provided for free native species that once inhabited our ALEXIS KELNER Editor Emeritus forests. 2 Save Our Canyons, Summer 2021 www.saveourcanyons.org Our natural infrastructure sustained life (for humans and wildlife populations) well before North America was colonized. Had we cared for our natural infrastructure, listened to native populations, we arguably wouldn’t be in the midst of a climate crisis, living through this mass extinction of species, not having to stay away from bodies of water in a desert due to toxic algal blooms, just to give a few examples. The potholes on the road may be annoying, but the ecological crisis created by constant mitigation and being consciously blind to the cumulative impacts of the perpetual hardening of nature is a much higher priority. Life literally depends on nature. Nature is resilient, but we must prioritize its health. We learned earlier this month that tribes in the Bears Ears region cultivated plants. We wonder what they might have done to the Wasatch to encourage more biodiversity and proliferation of life in Northern Utah. Our policies and budgets don’t reflect nature’s importance or role in our society. Just as we have seen with the removal of dams and how it revitalizes the health of streams, the passage of species previously blocked. The nation’s infrastructure plan must look at our infrastructure, built and natural, and just like a dam that is pre- venting nature from taking its course, not all infrastructure should be additive, rather we should seize this oppor- tunity to remove problematic roads “cherry-stemmed” into roadless and wilderness units. Natural infrastructure investments can help establish wildlife connections across the State of Utah and other western states.--> Lone Peak Cirque by Alexis Kelner www.saveourcanyons.org Save Our Canyons, Summer 2021 3 Our trails and trailheads are in a state of dis- repair, yet more money is allocated to building more, which then become dilapidated because there is no money for maintaining our resourc- es - just to put a name on a highway or bridge. A wise man once said, “Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value.” That man now occupies the Oval Office. If he values nature and natural infrastructure, it needs to be part of this bud- get. Ever since the Sage Brush Rebellion raged in the 1980s, natural resource management budgets have been going the opposite way of pressure and visitation. There’s no better time to change course than now. Foresters, water- shed managers, ecologists, biologists are our natural infrastructure’s front line workers. And speaking of budgets, we got a good chuck- le a few weeks ago that the Utah Delegation, the one that thinks public lands should be sold to the highest bidder who values asphalt and concrete and gondolas above all else, was upset that Utah didn’t get as much money as they felt entitled to from the Great American Outdoors Act funding from the Department of the Interior. We wonder where the Federal Government got the idea that Utah wasn’t in- terested in funding public lands. Maybe it was the millions of public dollars we spent on a law- suit challenging the very idea of public lands? Maybe decades of advocacy trying to defund public land managers budgets. Maybe celebrat- ing the removal of not one, but two legally designated National Monuments. Maybe it is that we have enough public money, $500M Wooo Eeee. Looking North from the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. to $1 billion, laying around to build gondolas The “Wild Urban Interface (WUI) and trains through a watershed canyon in the midst of a drought. Utah’s anti-public lands, anti-environment rhetoric may well be catching up with them. Which isn’t to say we don’t have needs, however, our priorities are all mixed up, and decades of shilling for schemes gondolas and trains, com- pounded by active advocacy for harming our natural infrastructure with little if any investment in the health of our wild places is a narrative and a legacy we must change. Investing in nature, in the health of our forests and water- sheds, in wildlife, in caring for our trails, must not be trumped by our destructive desires. It’s time to rebuild, but it is imperative that we give nature half. Meanwhile, gas is being poured into the tanks of dozers that will destroy everything in their paths. At resorts, up Little Cottonwood Canyon, even tearing across Salt Lake City’s once pristine foothills. Without monetary investment to protect and steward our declining natural in- frastructure, we can never leave it better than we found it - the monetary imbalance and inequity is too staggering. The President’s plan can single handedly fix this. It must. 4 Save Our Canyons, Summer 2021 www.saveourcanyons.org Protecting The Wasatch Through Pottery Written by Save Our Canyons Member James “Gus” McCloskey Hello, my name is Gus. I make ceramic art and pottery and live in Sandy near LCC. You might have seen me or my pottery at one of the annual Lone Peaks celebrations. While living in Japan I learned traditional flower arrangement (Ikebana) as well as culinary customs and tea which is most often served in amazing handmade pottery no matter where you go. Japanese culture essentially has at its core beauty, which is expressed uniquely in just about everything. These experiences led me to the possibility of working with clay. I learned my craft through several traditional apprenticeships with master potters in a secluded region of southern Japan known for its ceramic culture. I soon found myself expanding these experiences during the apprenticeships as I became more familiar with the lan- guage. My clay work is inspired by the folk pottery and arts of Japan. No matter what area you visit you will discover dozens of potteries within walking distance, each area with its own distinct regional flavor which inspires me to reflect on local life here. My works are earthy zen creations. Med- itations on nature. The Japanese concept Yo no bi, means the beauty of function. Use with beauty has become very meaningful in my art. These expressions contain gratitude for the gifts of nature and is my way of giving back since art and nature go so well together. I grew up here in the Wasatch, skiing, hiking and camping and since I care about it, I want to protect it. The Wasatch Mountains besides giving us the obvious benefits of pure air, water, recreation and grand scenery offer us silence, which is not merely the absence of sound. We find refuge, Clay by Gus; Handmade Pottery healing and celebration outside our schedules, routines and the daily noise of life in the valley. This is why I advocate for a free, untouched, untamed and undeveloped wild Wasatch. It’s owned by all of us, and it’s not for sale.