When newspaper photographer Dan Miller covered a
protest against a highway project near Logan, Utah, he saw a
demonstrator brandishing a sign with the timeworn slogan “Think
Globally, Act Locally.” The sentiment hit home. “I realized I
needed to be thinking backyard, neighborhood, community,” he says.
That meant turning his attention toward the Bear River Watershed,
which envelops Logan and the Bear River Mountains in northern Utah.
Biologists say the Bear River Watershed is a
major wildlife corridor for species such as the threatened Canada
lynx, which rely on the passageway as a vital link between
undeveloped islands of habitat in the Northern and Southern
Rockies.
After two years of organizing by
Miller and others, the Bear River Watershed Council is swinging
into action to protect the watershed from encroaching development.
Executive Director Sharon Falvey says the council will unify
regional environmental efforts. “People were disjointed and not
organized as a group,” she says. “Local people need connections to
help distribute information about the watershed’s ecology and
biology.”
The fledgling council’s first
campaign will be to make sure that a forest plan for the
Wasatch-Cache National Forest provides adequate protection for
wildlife. To learn more about the group, visit www.brwcouncil.org
or call 435/753-8949.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Battling for the Bear River.
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