Despite more than 100 years of stewardship and protection from agencies like the National Park Service, America’s wild places are still vulnerable to commercial and residential land development. In the Grand Canyon, uranium mining and increasing rates of tourism not only threaten land and air quality, they also undermine a social balance that Native Americans and other local groups have worked hard to maintain.
Enter the sweepstakes here!Why is Arizona significant to you and why should it be significant to the rest of the world?
I was born and raised in Arizona, and I have a huge affection for the place: the Sonoran Desert with its creosote cloves, the “sky islands” around Tucson, the ponderosa pine forests outside of Prescott where I learned how to ride horses. And of course the Grand Canyon, which is a marvel of the world.
This week, Colorado College released the results from its 2016 Conservation in the West poll. Again, voters in the Grand Canyon state overwhelmingly support designating public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon as a national monument and thereby permanently banning new uranium mines on those lands.