After months of planning and research, we at the Wilderness Society have recently taken a look at some key public lands in America and how they are being cared for.

Eastern Utah’s famed Desolation Canyon is well known as many things: rafter’s playground, archeological treasure trove, icon of the Old West. Now this emphatically rugged stretch of the Green River adds conservation history to its lore.

On July 30, after years of negotiation, conservation groups, led by our partner the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, resolved a long-running struggle over natural gas drilling around Desolation Canyon, one of the wildest stretches of river land in the U.S. West.