Giving Compass' Take:
- A long-standing effort to weaken federal authority over public land could undermine protections for countless threatened and endangered plant and animal wildlife.
- The concerns of wildlife, and what today we would call conservation biology, were not central to public lands policy when agencies like the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management were founded. How can donors and philanthropists drive support to policymakers to take action?
- Learn how conservation policy can prevent future pandemics.
What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
The La Sal Mountains rise like ungainly totems above the red rock desert outside Moab, Utah. From afar the forested slopes and barren, rock-strewn peaks have none of the splendor of nearby Arches or Canyonlands National Parks, which together attract millions of visitors every year. Nor are they particularly easy to get to. Until recently there wasn't even an official trail to the summit of Mount Tukuhnikivatz, whose Ute name is roughly translated as "where the sun sets last." Ed Abbey, who spent several summers as a ranger at Arches, once described Mt. Tuk as an "island in the desert," geographically distinct from the surrounding region; he said he felt compelled to climb it because no one else would bother.
Read the full article on the hidden battle threatening the future of America's wild places by Adam Federman at Pacific Standard.