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 2 years before, in 1970, 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.
Salt Lake City is fantastically fortunate to have the Wasatch Range at its doorstep, with its jagged peaks, mountain lakes and beautiful forests located within a few miles of the city center. The mountains are primarily public land administered by the Forest Service, but have patented private mining claims scattered throughout. One can hike into a beautiful cirque filled with snow, trees, and blue sky, in an hour and a half from the city's edge. It is the contrast between city and nature that Save Our Canyons strives to retain. The Wasatch Range is the inland equivalent of a seacoast which deserves protection for the wildlife habitat harbored within, as well as for the millions of people who will visit but do not remain. The idea of protecting our "mountain-coast" makes sense for the long-term good of Salt Lake City whose residents and visitors depend on these mountains as an escape from the hectic city life. Five-hundred-thousand residents also utilize the water flowing out of Big and Little Cottonwood Creeks, which is praised as much for its high quality taste as the snow is for its quality skiing. The aim of our organization has, from its beginning, been the protection of this magnificent de-facto public park and all of the natural wonders contained within against excessive commercial and residential development. The threat never goes away, and the pace at which new developments and schemes on public and private land arise intensifies every year.
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. We hold an annual meeting in February. In recent years, a large part of our effort has gone into the federal NEPA process. All four major ski resorts have submitted Master Development Plans which are 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.
We have had important successes and some disappointments in our 35-year history. We worked hard and successfully for wilderness designation of the Lone Peak, Twin Peaks, and Mt. Olympus wilderness areas in the Wasatch. Save Our Canyons, along with other local environmental groups, was instrumental in getting Salt Lake County to formulate and adopt a Canyons Master Plan to guide the granting of building permits on both public and private land in the canyons. Using all available avenues for public input, we have been participants in a wide variety of controversies through the years: heli-skiing conflicts, the perpetual pressures from commercial ski resorts for more development, private land construction projects, trailhead access to public lands, location and size of sewer lines in the Wasatch canyons, avalanche control techniques and public transportation into the canyons. We have a board member who has served on the Citizens' Advisory Committee for the Public Utilities Department of Salt Lake City that has important powers in maintaining the watershed role of the Wasatch Range. We worked closely with the Salt Lake Olympic Bid and Organizing Committees to keep Olympic venues out of sensitive environments such as Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. We know and work with city, county, state and federal officials and citizen advisory committees as well as the people who plan and run the ski resorts in our mountains. We also have worked with the Sierra Club, the Wasatch Mountain Club, the Great Salt Lake Audubon Society, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Utah Wilderness Coalition, the High Uintas Preservation Council, Wild Utah Forest Campaign and many other environmental and mountain recreation organizations.
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a rapidly growing membership. There is a ten member board of trustees which oversees the coordination of all these activities, 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. In 1999, ninety six different volunteers performed some form of labor for Save Our Canyons. Some people helped out for a few hours, others contributed almost every day of the year. Anyone can become a member of Save Our Canyons by signing up and paying annual dues, which are used to finance our publications and contribute toward our many other efforts.