Volunteers needed to mark boundaries of new Zion Wilderness

SPRINGDALE — The newly created Zion Wilderness Area is seeking volunteers to help mark its on Friday, Feb. 19.

On March 30, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 into law, designating 124,406 acres of protected wilderness in the Zion backcountry. About 80 percent of the acreage of Zion National Park lies within the newly created Zion Wilderness Area.

An additional 9,000 acres of the park in Kane County qualify for wilderness designation but were not included in the bill.

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."

The park requests the assistance of volunteers to work with park staff and mark the boundary of the new wilderness area on the rugged hillsides to the east of Springdale. Volunteers will meet at the Zion National Park Nature Center at noon on Feb. 19.

To sign up for the work day, or if you would like additional information, please contact Ray O'Neil at 435-772-7823.