Hot, dry weather and baked vegetation have prompted tighter fire restrictions for visitors to Arches and Canyonlands national parks and other public lands in southeastern Utah.

“Half the park is after dark.” April 5 – 12 marks International Dark Sky Week 2021, a celebration of the vast, wondrous, starry sky above us. Perhaps you are even planning a visit to a National Park Service unit that's been designated an International Dark Sky Park. This special week also emphasizes how light pollution hampers our ability to see the stars and produces harmful consequences to all living things.

The southern half of Utah is canyon country, a land of aridity, sparse vegetation, and unique and scenically spectacular topography and geology. It is a land rich in sites of archaeological importance and parts of it are sacred to indigenous people. It is also mostly public land, owned by the American people, part of their national legacy, and for a century it has been contested terrain.