SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of people gathered at the State Capitol Saturday afternoon to rally in support of protecting public lands and wild places across Utah.
The rally comes after Utah’s lawsuit seeking control of 18.5 acres of federally managed land as well as people anticipating President-elect Trumps inauguration bringing on changes to public lands. Those changes including reductions to Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monument.
Public land and environmental advocates endured chilly conditions and snowfall on Saturday during the rally.
“Utahns love their federal and public lands. This is the fabric of the American West,” said Steve Bloch, a legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Bloch considers public lands the center of his family’s fondest memories.
“We’re so lucky here in Utah,” he said. “These are some of the most remarkable lands in the world and sometimes I think we take them for granted. And this rally was really a call to action.”
Attendee Diana Haro who moved from Mexico to Utah when she was a child said public lands are for everyone.
“Whether you were born in Mexico or grew up here, whether you grew up in other places — the earth is the earth, it needs our protection,” Haro said.
“Tell the governor that we care about what’s happening here and are not going to sit idly while he tries to do this, while he tries to sell them off,” Bloch said.
The rally was led by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness.
“If we take care of it, it will take care of us,” Haro said.
