Wild Utah

SUWA Legislative Director Jen Ujifusa and Legal Director Steve Bloch discuss how the 2020 election results will affect our work to protect Utah’s wild redrock country, and what we expect President Biden to do with respect to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.

Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.

Located just three miles from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community and one mile from Bears Ears National Monument, the White Mesa Uranium Mill was originally designed to run for 15 years before being closed and cleaned up. 40 years later, the mill is still in operation, and community members are concerned about the mill's continued impacts on public and environmental health, as well as the mill’s ongoing desecration of cultural and sacred sites. As the last remaining conventional uranium processing mill in the country, will the White Mesa Mill become the world's radioactive waste dump? We speak with Yolanda Badback from White Mesa Concerned Community and Talia Boyd, Cultural Landscapes Program Manager with the Grand Canyon Trust, about the nuclear fuel cycle, impacts to Indigenous communities, and what you can do to help stop ongoing harm by closing and cleaning up the mill.

Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.

SUWA Staff Attorney Landon Newell discusses a proposal by the Bureau of Land Management to allow a helium drilling project within the newly-established Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness along the Green River. This is the latest in a long series of outrageous actions on public lands by President Trump’s Bureau of Land Management, but there are ways for you to get involved in the effort to stop the drilling of this spectacular wilderness before it starts.

Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.

SUWA Staff Attorney Laura Peterson discusses the recent decision by the Utah Bureau of Land Management to more than double the number of off-road vehicle routes across the wild San Rafael Desert. We get her perspective on the decision, how it will affect future BLM travel planning across Utah, and what this means for SUWA’s efforts to protect wild Utah from motorized mayhem in our remaining wild places.

Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.

SUWA attorneys Landon Newell and Kya Marienfeld discuss the recent Trump Administration revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. NEPA and its implementing regulations have been described as our nation's “Magna Carta for the protection of the environment." Not surprisingly, the revised regulations severely undermine the dual NEPA requirement of ensuring public participation and scientific scrutiny.

Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.

Our guest is Leah Thomas, activist, eco-communicator and founder of Intersectional Environmentalist, a new and growing community of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color environmental writers and content creators. Intersectional Environmentalism advocates for the protection of both people and the planet by identifying ways in which injustices happening to marginalized communities and to the earth are interconnected. In this episode, Thomas shares her perspective as a Black environmentalist and discusses her experiences as a person of color on public lands.

Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.

How can mother nature cultivate confidence, healing, and embodiment for LGBTQ+ people? In this episode, SUWA Community Organizer Olivia Juarez and guests Eva Lopez of Orgullo Utah and Salvador Oregon-Torres, a Utah-based LGBTQ+ and undocumented community advocate, delve into queerness in the wild.

Wild Utah is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.

Michael Johnson, Senior Policy Advisor for Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), discusses the resolution Sen. Udall is sponsoring in the U.S. Senate to protect 30% of U.S. lands and waters by the year 2030, known as the “30 by 30” campaign. This urgent push represents America’s contribution to avert catastrophic collapse of the planet’s natural systems. Our conversation lays out some of the underlying science and need for such broad action, as well as current congressional efforts to lead the way. We’ll also turn to SUWA Organizer Terri Martin to explain the role that America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act plays in the broader national and international “30 by 30” campaign.

Wild Utah is produced by Jerry Schmidt and is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.

While physical distancing measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus have kept many people at home, gateway communities at the edge of wild public lands in Utah are hardly catching a break. Residents and healthcare practitioners in places like Moab and Boulder, Utah are doing everything they can to stop the transmission of Coronavirus in their small rural communities – communities particularly vulnerable to stress on healthcare, groceries and other vital resources during a pandemic.

In this episode of Wild Utah, we are joined by Dr. Dylan Cole, Chief Medical Officer at Moab Regional Hospital, and Blake Spalding, Chef/owner of Hell’s Backbone Grill in Boulder, Utah, to hear more about why staying at home this spring is imperative for their communities.

Wild Utah is produced by Jerry Schmidt and is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.

In this episode, we talk with SUWA Wildlands Attorney Kya Marienfeld and Legislative Director Jen Ujifusa about the status of, and funding for, large-scale eradication of piñon pine and juniper forests on BLM lands in Utah. As you may recall, back in October 2018 we talked about BLM plans to destroy native forests on over 135,000 acres inside Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Fifteen months later we’re happy to report that ALL of those plans have now been shelved. We’ll learn why, and we’ll take a deeper dive into the shadowy manner in which these projects are funded, and what we’re doing about it.  Wild Utah is produced by Jerry Schmidt and is made possible by the contributing members of SUWA. Our theme music, “What’s Worth?” was written and performed in Moab by Haley Noel Austin.