Learn about protecting an American icon: Utah's Red Rock Canyonlands
The River Prairie Group of the Sierra Club will co-host a program titled "Wild Utah: America's Red Rock Wilderness" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Glen Ellyn History Center, 800 N. Main St.
The speaker will be Clayton Daughenbaugh, conservation organizer with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and chairman of the Sierra Club's Wildlands and Wilderness Team.
The program includes a short film "Wild Utah."
This award-winning 15-minute journey through red rock splendor that motivates viewers to participate in the movement to protect these unique and threatened public lands.
America's red rock wilderness draws pilgrims from around the world. It is the largest network of undesignated wilderness lands remaining in the lower 48 states.
Federal agencies have proposed to eliminate large portions of Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, a policy that is threatening these wild lands and the climate.
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Sierra Club and their partners in the Utah Wilderness Coalition seek to gain local support for the "Citizens' Proposal" to protect wilderness areas in Utah's red rock canyonlands.
Comprehensive legislation is pending in Congress.
"These are spectacular public lands owned by all Americans. As citizens we have a great opportunity to act to protect these special places," Daughenbaugh said.
For information, contact Clayton Daughenbaugh at claytonhd@xmission.com or Jeff Gahris, chairman of the River Prairie Group, at jgahris@gmail.com.
Since 1892, the Sierra Club has been working to protect communities, wild places, and the planet itself. It is the oldest, largest, and most influential grass-roots environmental organization in the United States.
The River Prairie Group of the Sierra Club covers DuPage County and parts of neighboring suburban Chicago counties. They focus on local environmental issues, as well as offering outings (hikes, bicycling, canoeing, backpacking, etc.).
Visit www.sierraclub.org/illinois/river-prairie or www.facebook.com/sierraclubrpg/.