About Us

We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is dedicated to protecting the beauty and wildness of the Wasatch canyons, mountains, and foothills. There is a ten member board of trustees which oversees the coordination of all activities,including the enlistment and training of volunteers, writing and producing our publications, and attending meetings with resort managers, the Forest Service, etc. Save Our Canyons has a three person staff to help meet the growing need and demand for protection, but is still primarily reliant upon our wide spectrum of talented volunteers. Some people help out for a few hours here and there and others contribute almost every day of the year. Anyone can become a volunteer by signing up and attending a volunteer training session. We also have a rapidly growing membership that contributes the majority of our funding. You can become a member by signing up and paying annual dues, which are used to finance our publications and contribute toward our many other efforts.

Save Our Canyons strives to educate the public and further the goals of protecting the natural environments around Salt Lake City. We achieve this through active involvement in planning processes at city, county, state, and federal levels. We raise awareness on issues of concern through various outlets. We publish a quarterly newsletter edited by Alexis Kelner.  The Save Our Canyons radio show airs on KRCL (90.9 FM) Sunday at 2:00pm. Additionally, we inform the media of events affecting the Wasatch Mountains as they arise.  In past years, a large part of our effort went into the federal NEPA process. All four major ski resorts submitted Master Development Plans which were required to go through Environmental Analysis, including a "scoping" document, a "Draft Environmental Impact Statement" and "Final Environmental Impact Statement". This process can take one or more years to complete. We also spend substantial time and energy working with local government entities, and their staff and elected officials, as approximately 20% of the land mass in the Wasatch Mountains is privately owned and, therefore, under the jurisdiction of these local government bodies. Another of our major activities is the effort to get citizens actively involved in public land issues. We accomplish this through our extensive volunteering program.

Presently, in cooperation with Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities, Salt Lake County and many other stake holders, we are pursuing significant expansions of existing congressionally mandated Wilderness Areas in the central Wasatch.  Save Our Canyons played crucial roles in the enactment of the existing Lone Peak, Twin Peaks and Mount Olympus Wilderness Areas and believes that the proposed expansions are essential to the continued protection of Salt Lake City's watershed.

History

The Citizens' Committee to Save Our Canyons was founded in 1972 in response to the threat of urbanization of the Wasatch Mountains just outside of Salt Lake City. The opening of Snowbird Ski Resort along with its plans for tramways accessing satellite villages throughout the Wasatch, catalyzed the movement to protect the remainder of this beautiful area in its natural state. Save Our Canyons went public in January, 1973, after Mayor Jake Garn volunteered Salt Lake City as the proud host of the 1976 Olympic Games which had just been rejected by the citizens of Denver, Colorado. The day after this announcement, Save Our Canyons held its first press conference announcing their mission along with their opposition to Salt Lake hosting the Games. The first SAVE OUR CANYONS bumper stickers were distributed along with stickers reading, "Utah Yes, Olympics No". The International Olympics Committee later selected Innsbruck, Austria as the alternative games site.

Just 3 years before, in 1969, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was passed by Congress. NEPA defined a framework for public commentary under which all citizens could for the first time make their voices heard, allowing Americans to directly influence the outcome of critical decisions and the re-formulation of policies that concern public lands. In the years since then, Save Our Canyons has made full use of NEPA provisions to represent the convictions of citizens who are concerned for the future of the Wasatch and its treasures--primarily working with the US Department of Agriculture's US Forest Service, which manages Wilderness and National Forest jurisdictions in the Wasatch range.

How to donate

https://saveourcanyons.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1

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