When newspaper photographer Dan Miller covered a protest against a highway project near Logan, Utah, he saw a demonstrator brandishing a sign with the timeworn slogan "Think Globally, Act Locally." The sentiment hit home. "I realized I needed to be thinking backyard, neighborhood, community," he says. That meant turning his attention toward the Bear River Watershed, which envelops Logan and the Bear River Mountains in northern Utah.


Biologists say the Bear River Watershed is a major wildlife corridor for species such as the threatened Canada lynx, which rely on the passageway as a vital link between undeveloped islands of habitat in the Northern and Southern Rockies.


After two years of organizing by Miller and others, the Bear River Watershed Council is swinging into action to protect the watershed from encroaching development. Executive Director Sharon Falvey says the council will unify regional environmental efforts. "People were disjointed and not organized as a group," she says. "Local people need connections to help distribute information about the watershed's ecology and biology."


The fledgling council's first campaign will be to make sure that a forest plan for the Wasatch-Cache National Forest provides adequate protection for wildlife. To learn more about the group, visit www.brwcouncil.org or call 435/753-8949.