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NEWS RELEASEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 26, 2009 Happy Birthday Grand Canyon!Sierra Club Statement on the 90th Birthday of Grand Canyon National ParkOn this day in 1919, just three years after the creation of the National Park Service, President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill establishing the Grand Canyon as one of the nation’s first national parks. Today protected lands are more important than ever as our National Parks are some of the last best examples of intact ecosystems in North America. The Sierra Club has long been a champion of Grand Canyon and the Grand Canyon Chapter itself was formed to protect this amazing place and fight dams that were being proposed in the Grand Canyon itself. The Sierra Club, along with other conservation organizations, researchers, and private citizens have made great strides in emphasizing protection and safeguarding the beauty and tranquility of the Park. Today we are celebrating the 90th Birthday of Grand Canyon National Park as well as our successes in protecting it. The Sierra Club has consistently advocated for resource protection to be the park’s number one priority, as the law creating national parks makes clear. The Grand Canyon Chapter has been instrumental in protecting the North Rim of Grand Canyon from development and keeping it more as nature intended, and just outside the Park, have stopped old growth logging projects in the Kaibab National Forest. More recently, our efforts, along with those of the Center for Biological Diversity and Grand Canyon Trust, have helped to stop uranium mining activities at several places just outside the park and to win a temporary mineral withdrawal for the area. Despite special protections there are many threats to this national treasure. Significant development in and around the park still impairs park resources. Traffic congestion on the roads and on the river; air tours that disturb the natural quiet; and development on the rim and as far away as Flagstaff depletes water from the canyon’s seeps and springs. Although Park lands still face significant threats, the National Park status has provided an essential level of protection for the last 90 years. We can and must do more to protect this amazing national treasure, however. Today, we are asking the National Park Service to reaffirm its commitment to restoration and protection of our natural heritage. We ask them to act to protect the river ecosystem from overuse and from the impacts of Glen Canyon Dam; substantially restore natural quiet to the canyon for those seeking peace and revitalization in our wild places; address the potential impacts of climate change and work with adjacent land managers to develop conservation goals that protect park values and transcend agency boundaries; and continue to work to protect the canyon from uranium mining activities. Today we are celebrating the 90th Birthday of Grand Canyon and invite the public to celebrate with us at Shepherd of the Hills Church, 1601 N. San Francisco, to enjoy some birthday cake and to give the Grand Canyon a big present by taking action to protect this national treasure. Award-winning author and river guide Brad Dimock will also present, “If Boats Could Talk: The History of Boating the Colorado.” ### |
2009 News Release Archive |
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