Stewardship

Supporting the cause

January 2024·Friends of Cedar Mesa·2 min read

People in an open landscape — Photo: Shutterstock

If reading this site has made you want to do something for the region, here are some directions that actually help.

The most useful kinds of support for public-lands conservation are usually not the loudest ones. They are slow, unfashionable, and often unrecognized. They are also what the work actually consists of.

Give your time, where it’s wanted

Several volunteer programs in and around the region accept hands. The Bureau of Land Management runs site stewardship and trail maintenance volunteer programs through its local field offices. Tribal cultural preservation offices sometimes welcome volunteers on specific projects; ask first, and accept whatever answer you receive. Local non-profits — research centers, friends-of organizations for specific units — accept volunteer applications throughout the year. Long-term commitments are valued more than short ones.

Give your attention

The political and legal status of monuments, parks, and tribal protections shifts. Stay informed by reading from sources closer to the ground than national headlines. Tribal newspapers, regional environmental journalism, and the agency websites themselves carry the kind of detail that lets a supporter act on actual information rather than the cable-news version.

Give to organizations doing the work

If you want to support the cause financially, the most reliable choices are organizations with a long track record of public-lands work and a demonstrated relationship with tribal partners. A non-exhaustive list of national and regional groups: the Grand Canyon Trust, the Conservation Lands Foundation, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the various tribal cultural-preservation organizations of the region. Each has its own focus and its own theory of change. Read before you give.

This site is not a 501(c)(3) and does not accept donations on its own behalf. We are a small editorial project whose only resource is the time of its writers.

Give your good behavior

The single largest individual contribution most people can make is simply to visit well. The full tips for visiting with respect are the practical version of this. Quiet, slow, careful, informed — that’s the support that the region itself most needs.

If you live near the region Local political engagement on land-management decisions — county commission meetings, state legislative committees, BLM scoping processes — is where the real arguments happen and where local voices carry. Showing up to a public comment meeting is worth more than a hundred social media reposts.

If you have a question about how to direct support that you don’t see covered here, the contact page goes to a reader.