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Canyonlands 50th Stirs Debate on Preservation or Industrialization

discovermoab.com

On September 12, 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation creating Canyonlands National Park: “...in order to preserve an area...possessing superlative scenic, scientific, and archeologic features for the inspiration, benefit and use of the public…”

There will be events of celebration and reflection next week in Moab as part of a year-long recognition of the anniversary. . And a new film “Our Canyon Lands” looks at some issues going forward: “...one of the last vast wild places in the lower 48 sits teetering on a precipice of  industrial development.

Home to the most stunning desert landscapes in the world, the Greater Canyonlands Region has become the playground of adventurous souls who love and appreciate the wonder of wild places. It has also become the target of industrialists, who threaten to turn our treasured parks into islands, our canyons into roaring hydrocarbon highways and our rivers into endangered arteries among vast swaths of oil and gas development, uranium and potash mining and, potentially, tar sands development bordering Canyonlands National Park.”

We’ll ask you what you think about current threats or opportunities in southeastern Utah. Also, do you have a favorite Canyonlands memory to share? Our guests will include filmmaker Justin Clifton; Tim Peterson, Utah Wildlands Program Director with the Grand Canyon Trust; and former Canyonlands Superintendent, Walt Dabney. 

Tom Williams worked as a part-time UPR announcer for a few years and joined Utah Public Radio full-time in 1996. He is a proud graduate of Uintah High School in Vernal and Utah State University (B. A. in Liberal Arts and Master of Business Administration.) He grew up in a family that regularly discussed everything from opera to religion to politics. He is interested in just about everything and loves to engage people in conversation, so you could say he has found the perfect job as host “Access Utah.” He and his wife Becky, live in Logan.