Utah Issues
What Can You Do?
Volunteer with the Grand Canyon Trust and help us extend our reach and positive influence on the ground.
We need your help with gathering browse data; documenting grazing impacts; and conducting beaver habitat surveys and biological inventories.
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Cottonwood and willow, key anchors of riparian areas, provide critical support for an extraordinarily high number of native animal and plant species. Similarly, aspen communities are second only to riparian areas as biodiversity centers in the West.
Infusing conservation into southern Utah forest management
Infusing conservation into southern Utah forest management
The Trust is exceptionally effective in its conservation and restoration efforts. We are currently engaged in several major projects in the Dixie, Fishlake, and Manti-La Sal National Forests.
The Grazing World is Changing
No consumptive use on the three forests covers more acreage than livestock grazing, has more diverse impacts, and less public input. We are helping change that.
Three new forest plans for grazing. This year (2013) offers an extraordinary opportunity for change: the three forests in southern Utah will amend (update) their forest plans for grazing for the first time in 27 years. We are encouraging and engaging in that process. Learn more…
Livestock collaborations. Since 2007, the Utah Forests Program has been involved in several multi-stakeholder collaborations to reverse adverse impacts of livestock grazing and/or excessive elk use on the three forests. Learn more...
Aspen, cottonwood, and willow project. The willow family (aspen, cottonwood, and willow) provides greater biological diversity per acre and greater riparian structure and stability than any other vegetation in the West. They are being excessively browsed — and we’re working to change that. Learn more…
What Our Three Forests Could Be
We’re finding the least-grazed, least-impacted lands within the forests, and introducing them to the Forest Service and public as what our forests could be with improved management.
Photography project. A two-year (2012-2013) photography project is producing ten photo-essays highlighting sites on the three forests that are least impacted by over-use. These sites display the diversity, functioning, and beauty of what our forests deserve to be. Learn more…
Reference areas project. Setting aside large areas that are free of livestock grazing or are grazed significantly more lightly than most of the forest is essential to understand what our forests could be. The forests are beginning to agree. Learn more…
Three Forests Coalition. We initiated this coalition in November 2003 as a means of bringing comprehensive alternatives to the Forest Service table. Learn more…
Beaver Restoration
We focus on re-establishing thriving beaver populations and restoring historic habitat for these animals on the three forests and adjacent private lands. Beavers are the keystone “engineer” for restoring healthy streams and wetlands as well as for enhancing the resilience of forests in the face of climate change. Learn more...
Your donations and membership dues make our research, monitoring, and restoration work in Utah possible.
