Zion National Park Hosts Successful Wilderness Work Day

Date: February 23, 2010
Contact: David Eaker, 435-772-7811
Contact: Ray O'Neil, 435-772-7823

On Friday, February 19, over 40 volunteers and members of the Zion National Park staff participated in a Wilderness Work Day.  Superintendant Jock Whitworth stated, “It was exciting to have so many members of area communities show their support for Zion National Park by participating in the event.”

On March 30, 2009, President Barrack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 into law designating 124,406 acres of Wilderness in the Zion backcountry.  84% of Zion National Park lies within the newly created Zion Wilderness.  The bill also transferred management of a 640 acre parcel of land east of Springdale from the Bureau of Land Management to Zion National Park to be part of the Zion Wilderness.

Volunteers worked with park staff to complete the difficult work of carrying boundary signs and posts to mark the boundary of the new addition.  Over 100 volunteer hours were contributed to the park over the course of the day.  

According to the Wilderness Act of 1964, “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” At the end of the work project, a barbeque was held to celebrate the creation of the Zion Wilderness and to thank participants for their outstanding efforts.