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Nature Conservancy Launches Public Education Effort

TV Spot is Designed to Raise Utahns’ Awareness of Conservation Issues

Salt Lake City, UT—24 September 2004—Today, Utahns may begin to notice a new TV ad about the importance of protecting our state’s natural heritage.  The Nature Conservancy launched a public education effort aimed at reaching a broader audience with an important message: it’s critical to preserve Utah’s special places, water, and wildlife habitat for future generations.   

 “The lack of public awareness in Utah about the need to protect our natural treasures is a serious problem,” said Dave Livermore, the Conservancy’s Utah State Director. “This ad program is an effort to remind more people that without action and planning, we risk losing many of Utah’s native species and last great places.”

Based on available funding, the Conservancy plans to run the ad periodically this year and next year on several statewide stations. Viewers are encouraged to visit the Conservancy’s web site, at www.nature.org/utah, to find out how more about how they can help support conservation in Utah. 

“We hope people will see these ads and want to help,” said Livermore. “We would be thrilled if they chose to become involved with the Conservancy or one of many other local conservation groups, but we also hope they just take a moment to think about what Utah’s natural beauty and abundant wildlife mean to them—and whether they want their children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy those same treasures.”

The Conservancy has worked for more than 20 years to protect some of Utah’s most at-risk landscapes—a few key projects include the 255,000-acre Dugout Ranch in San Juan County, numerous tracts of land protected along the Colorado River Corridor near Moab, and the dedication, last spring, of the 4,000-acre Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve and Visitor Center.

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The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have protected more than 12 million acres in the United States and helped protect more than 80 million acres in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. The Nature Conservancy in Utah has completed over 150 conservation projects protecting nearly 900,000 acres of public and private land statewide.