I also visited temple square for the first time out of 6 trips to Salt Lake City. I felt like I should at least walk by and check it out. So i did, and i saw this happy married couple getting their picture taken in 95+ degree heat. The mormons show they have the quality to persevere:
But more importantly, i was in Utah to hang out at the Eco-working group (EWG) meetings and attend the America's Great Outdoor (AGO) Listening sessions. If you have no idea what im talking about, then check out postings from earlier this week and last week... then feel ashamed that you don't check my blog on a daily basis. I mean really, i do this for you.Anyway, the EWG meeting went great. The indexing tool is out in the public domain to get tested, and companies in the industry are going to start scoring their products to see how it is assessed from a sustainable perspective. Here's an article in the Huffington Post & the Wall Street Journal on the meeting and the tool. So, if you've heard of me talking about these meetings for the past two years, this is what i've worked toward... and i'm happy to finally see it launched!
In other news, i also attended the AGO sessions run by this guy:
Meet Ken Salazar, our current Secretary of the Interior. Here are some facts on cool things Ken has done:
- used funds from dollars spent on Colorado lotto tickets to fund outdoor recreation and conservation in the state. To date, over $690 million has been invested through GOCO.
- Created Youth in Nature programs which provided environmental education in public schools
- voted in 1995 to end protections for offshore drilling
So, here were some of the questions/comments from the audience during the listening session:
- I want to put roads into wilderness so i can take my grand kids into the woods and show them wilderness.
- We want better access to mining rights in South Eastern Utah.
- Why isn't there any presence from the Department of Education on the AGO listening panel?
- OHV users need more access, not less.
- Mountain Biking is a way to get kids active and outside. mtb use needs to be allowed in the park system and supported by the forest service.
- Wolves are killing elk herds in southern utah. We need to be able to extinguish them.
- More areas need to be put into wilderness
it was very interesting sitting in a room with 300 other people listening to comments that were in stark contrast to my own view points. However, the highlight of the event for me was when the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Bob Abbey, made the following pointed response:
OHV users will be able to continue to use the land if used responsibly. If not, the land will be taken away.
That's all he said, then sat back down. I enjoyed his honesty.
Some of the points that Ken Salazar & Nancy Sutly (House Council on Environmental Quality) made:
- Critical to protect & restore the land
- solutions are in the communities and the government needs to support those initiatives.
- the AGO is working to establish a legacy such as both Rosevelts set in their tenure as president.
- Implement the National Ocean Policy which establishes the need to improve and promote sustainable access to our oceans.
- Need to restore our waterways by additional additional rivers to the Scenic & Wild River system
- Connect the landscape between parks, wilderness and forests so they are beneficial to wildlife and migratory corridors.
ok, i know i'm boring you... so if you want to hear about what i thought, give me a call or shoot me an email. You know i can go on for hours with this kind of stuff.
Enjoy the sun!!
Steph
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