Thousands of backpackers, dayhikers, car campers, mountain bicyclists, and rock climbers explore the terrain each year. Yet eight out of ten Utahns agree it's important to designate additional wilderness in their state. In 1956, the Sierra Club, led by David Brower, defeated a proposal to dam the Yampa River at Echo Park in Dinosaur National Monument. The Sierra Club had traded Glen Canyon, sight unseen, to save Dinosaur. The Club also helped secure a BLM recommendation for wilderness designation for 75,000 acres in western Colorado, and it successfully appealed a BLM decision to deforest woodland in Utah's Henry Mountains.
Air pollution obscures scenic vistas.
Dams reduce fish populations on the Colorado and other rivers. Roads for logging and tourism carve up ecosystems. Hazardous wastes, including radioactive tailings from uranium mines, contaminate water supplies. Vandals and pothunters plunder Anasazi ruins. Off-road vehicles rip up the terrain.