Apr
4
8:00 PM20:00

WHY PEOPLE DIE WHEN THEY KNOW BETTER: Managing RIsk During Outdoor Adventures

While studying the snow science of avalanches, Dr. Ian McCammon began researching avalanche decision making processes used by backcountry skiers, paying special attention to resulting deaths. He expanded those studies into how people assess risks in an array of outdoor activities. Friday night he’ll share his observations with us.

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Feb
21
to Feb 22

COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS WEEKEND, with Torrey House Press and Zion Forever

COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS WEEKEND FEBRUARY 21st & 22nd:

Come celebrate our third annual event with Torrey House Press and Zion Forever for a remarkable literary and performance weekend of FREE events, “Creative Tensions: Wild Words and Wild Places,” and “Time Traveler’s Notebook,” both at 7:00 p.m. at the Canyon Community Center, 126 Lion Blvd. in Springdale.

“CREATIVE TENSIONS: WILD WORDS & WILD PLACES,”  Friday February 21st: with renowned authors Amy Irvine, Chris La Tray, and Shelley Read. Facilitator and Torrey House Press Co-Executive Director Will Neville-Rehbehn will guide us and this trio of renowned writers through an exploration of place, perspective, and the power of story. “Creative Tensions” is a unique format for collective conversation that encourages openness and inspires empathy as we explore topics that lie at the heart of what it means to be human. 

Amy Irvine is a sixth-generation Utahn and author of the award-winning memoir, Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land and Desert Cabal: A New Season in the Wilderness.

Chris La Tray is a Métis storyteller, an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and the Montana Poet Laureate for 2023–2025.  His third book, Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home was recently announced as a winner of the 2025 Pacific Northwest Book Award.

Shelley Read is an international bestselling novelist whose debut, Go As A River, is translated into thirty-four languages and appears on bestseller lists worldwide. 


“TIME TRAVELER’S NOTEBOOK,” Saturday February 22nd: Expanding on their earlier collaborations "Blood River" and "Chaos Theory," musical phenomena Greg Istock and writer par excellence Craig Childs report back on what they discovered during their unintentional quantum entanglement with time itself. 

Craig Childs is simply one of America’s finest writers. He has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books, including Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau, The Secret Knowledge of Water, Atlas of a Lost World, and Virga & Bone. He is a contributing editor at Adventure Journal Quarterly and his work has appeared in the Atlantic, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times.

Greg Istock, composer, producer, dramatist and multi-instrumentalist, fluent in virtually every genre, recently released a solo album “Mr. Jones,” where he plays everything.  His band 3Hattrio, voted “Best Band of 2018 in the annual AmericanaUK Readers’ Poll, just finished an album “Come Morning,” in part created while in residency here at Zion Canyon Mesa.

In fact, it was Greg’s freakishly perfect sense of time on an African talking drum, while Craig incanted from a stone tablet he unearthed along the Euphrates River, during this current, perfect alignment of planets, together with a desperate, planetary cry to peer unblinking into our future, that opened this time portal.

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Apr
5
7:00 PM19:00

How the Colorado River is Righting Itself. Colorado River Series - Part 2, FREE Lecture

The Returning Rapids Project with Mike Dehoff

The Returning Rapids Project is a group of river-loving folks based in Moab, Utah. Their project seeks to document the recovery of the Colorado River in Cataract Canyon, Upper Glen Canyon and the San Juan‒areas once inundated by a full, but now receding, Lake Powell reservoir. Check out their remarkble findings.

With Lake Powell receding, the Colorado River above Glen Canyon Dam is changing rapidly in dramatic and unexpected ways. Buried rapids are rising and channels are reappearing. The Colorado River is righting itself from this inundation.  But there are also emerging features that pose a potential threat to riparian ecosystems, archaeological sites, and reservoir management. The first group to observe and document these changes is the Returning Rapids Project, a group of river guides turned citizen scientists, who work in partnership with scientific researchers.

 Mike DeHoff leads The Returning Rapids Project. According to this month’s feature article in Rolling Stone Magazine, “Without DeHoff, this environmental miracle may have gone entirely unnoticed on the national stage.”    https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/lake-powell-cataract-canyon-rapids-returning-1234959159/

 DeHoff will present his team’s latest findings on how homeostasis is at play in this environment, and the challenges which lie ahead in managing what he terms as our diminishing water savings account, Lake Powell.

This lecture is produced together with Conserve Southwest Utah, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, the Glen Canyon Institute and the Returning Rapids Project.


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Mar
27
7:00 PM19:00

Wooden Boats on the Colorado River. Colorado River Series - Part 1, FREE Lecture

  • Sprindale Canyon Community Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

150 Years of Questionable Endeavors with Brad Dimock

 Navigating the rapids of Grand Canyon began in the 1860s. Although most boaters turned to the more practical inflatable rubber boat after they became available in the late 1940s, there is a surviving faction that quixotically prefers to run wooden boats. Brad Dimock, a Grand Canyon boatman for a half century, researched the evolution of wooden boat designs, built replicas of each iconic style, then actually rowed them through Grand Canyon. In this humorous, informative, and mildly horrifying talk, he will take you through that story, illustrated with historic and modern footage of the boats in action.

 Brad began running Grand Canyon in 1971 and never had the sense to move on to something more respectable. For a decade he spent his winters running international rivers in South America, Central America, and Africa. He later penned biographies of three iconic boaters, each a winner of the National Outdoor Book Award. About twenty years ago he began building boats—historic replicas and new variations of modern dories. He now teaches boatbuilding around the country and operates Fretwater Boatworks in Flagstaff—the most prolific producer of whitewater dories in the country.With Lake Powell receding, the Colorado River above Glen Canyon Dam is changing rapidly in dramatic and unexpected ways. Buried rapids are rising and channels are reappearing. The Colorado River is righting itself from this inundation.  But there are also emerging features that pose a potential threat to riparian ecosystems, archaeological sites, and reservoir management. The first group to observe and document these changes is the Returning Rapids Project, a group of river guides turned citizen scientists, who work in partnership with scientific researchers.

 

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Boat Building Class with Fretwater Boatworks - Recreating  Woodies Last Boat
Mar
24
to Mar 29

Boat Building Class with Fretwater Boatworks - Recreating Woodies Last Boat

Woodie Hindman is generally credited with perfecting the McKenzie River Drift Boat in the late 1940s. For this class, we will be building one or two replicas of Woodie’s Last Boat (depending on number of participants). We will start with the measurements we refined with Roger Fletcher, then draw and perfect the lines full size on a lofting table. From there we will build all the parts–transom, frames, bowpost, and side panels. Then we will assemble the boat(s), affix the bottom, roll it (them) up, install gunwales and seats and voila! If we can find a suitable piece of river nearby, we may even get to float them. At the end of the course, whoever is interested in owning a boat will throw their name in a hat and the winner(s) will take them home for the cost of materials.

Registration opens at 8AM MST, January 6. The first ten emails dated after 8AM (not before) to braddimock@fretwater.com will get in–after that there will be a waiting list. At that point we’ll direct you to the payment portal: 50% down, the remainder due February 28. Cancellations 30 days prior to the course will get a 75% refund. After that, the deposit is forfeited, due to the difficulty of refilling the spot on short notice. For scholarships and more information: Fretwater Boatworks

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COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS
Feb
16
to Feb 17

COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS

COMMunity Conversations Weekend: February 16-17

Friday: Humans, the Humanities and the Written WOrd

Saturday: CHAos theory

Friday night, 7:00 p.m. Canyon Community Center 126 Lion Blvd Springdale

Join Laura Pritchett and Laura Tohe as they Dig into the mysteries of the written word

LAURA PRITCHETT

FICTION

LAURA PRITCHETT's sixth novel, Playing with Wildfire, will be released in February by Torrey House Press. She’s also the author of six other novels, two nonfiction books, and editor of three environmental anthologies, and her work has been the recipient of the PEN USA Award, the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, the WILLA, the High Plains Book Award, several Colorado Book Awards, and others. Her best-known novel, Stars Go Blue, has been optioned for TV rights. She’s published over 300 essays and short stories in national venues, most recently in The Sun, Terrain, Camas, Orion, Creative Nonfiction, and others. She directs the MFA in Nature Writing at Western Colorado University and holds a PhD from Purdue University. When not writing or teaching, she can be found sauntering around the West, especially her home state of Colorado.

LAURA TOHE

POETRY

LAURA TOHE is Diné, Sleepy-Rock People clan and born for the Bitter Water People clan. She is the current Navajo Nation Poet Laureate. Her books include No Parole Today, Making Friends with Water, Sister Nations, Tséyi, Deep in the Rock, Code Talker Stories, and poetry that have appeared in the U.S., Canada, Chile, and Europe. Her commissioned librettos are Enemy Slayer, A Navajo Oratorio and Nahasdzáán in the Glittering World made its world premiere in France. Among her awards are the 2020 Academy of American Poetry Fellowship; 2019 American Indian Festival of Writers Award; Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers; the Joy Harjo & Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund Award; Arizona Book Association's Glyph Award for Best Poetry and Best Book; and was twice nominated for the Pushcart Award. Many of her poems have been translated into music for piano, guitar, and trumpet. She is Professor Emerita with Distinction from Arizona State University.CRAIG CHILDS

CHAOS THEORY with Craig Childs and Greg Istock

Saturday February 17th at the Bumbleberry Theater, 897 Zion Park Blvd

CRAIG CHILDS is known for following ancient migration routes on foot throughout the Southwest. He has published more than a dozen books of adventure, wilderness, and science, including the award-winning Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau and Virga and Bone: Essays from Dry Places. He has won the Orion Book Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, the Galen Rowell Art of Adventure Award, and the Spirit of the West Award for his body of work. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men's Journal, High Country News, and Outside. The New York Times says "Childs's feats of asceticism are nothing if not awe inspiring: he's a modern-day desert father." He has a BA in Journalism from CU Boulder with a minor in Women's Studies, and an MA in Desert Studies from Prescott College and has taught writing at University of Alaska in Anchorage and the Mountainview MFA at Southern New Hampshire University. He lives outside of Norwood, CO.

GREG ISTOCK, Musician: After decades of working with bands in almost every genre, Istock is finally on his own with his guitar. When he plays live, it’s his guitar and a bass drum. When he is recording, he adds, keyboard, piano, and organ, which he all plays himself. All of the songs on Mr. Jones are original, most are new. “They Wine” predates Istock’s Reggae era. “Virgin Jam” was written in 2011 and is named for the place he has called home for almost 20 years: the desert of Southern Utah, located where the Colorado Plateau begins, where the sun was born……


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Oct
16
7:00 PM19:00

David and Betsy Quammen: The Battle for our Story-Toxic Myths versus “Reality”

Two of America’s finest writers have also proved prescient. David began writing about crossover diseases beginning with Ebola, then HIV, and now COVID. Betsy embedded with Cliven and Ammon Bundy’s group before their Malheur occupation (listen to her podcast here “American Zion.” Each offer troubling insights into what has proven to be two critical strands of our current imbalance, the physical and our beliefs. Together on Monday night they’ll discuss a further, disturbing emerging trend: What has gone so very wrong that we believe increasingly bizarre, and indeed damaging stories?

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Feb
11
7:00 PM19:00

Community Conversations: Blood River‒Music & Musings

Check out a brief video of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRtXrUvhslc

BLOOD RIVER‒Music & Musings with Craig Childs & Greg Istock was a brilliant evening of improvisations between noted naturalist author Craig Childs and musician Greg Istock, riffing on ideas of flow and change.

Craig Childs has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books, including “Tracing Time,” “Stone Desert,” “Virga & Bone,” and more. He will speak about the rock art of the Colorado Plateau and the wonders of a winter in Canyonlands in his newest books.

Greg Istock provided a hypnotic musical interpretation that spoke to the places and experiences in Craig's writing. Greg’s recent work, composing and performing with 3hattrio, focused on interpreting America’s Southwest deserts: http://www.3hattrio.com/

This event was presented as part of a Canyon Community Conversations series and sponsored by the Zion Canyon Mesa,  Zion National Park Forever Project, and Torrey House Press.

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Feb
10
7:00 PM19:00

Creative Tensions: Wild Words & Wild Places

Please join Zon Canyon Mesa, Zion Forever and Torrey House Press for “Creative Tensions: Wild Words & Wild Places,” an interactive community conversation with Kase Johnstun, Laura Tohe, and Kirsten Johanna Allen. Using a format known as “creative tensions,” host Kase Johnstun will lead participants Laura Tohe and Kirsten Johanna Allen, as well as the audience, through this unique approach to group dialogue. Creative Tensions encourages openness and inspires empathy as we explore topics that lie at the heart of what it means to be human.

Laura Tohe is the Navajo Nation Poet Laureate and an award-winning poet. Her books include “No Parole Today,” “Making Friends with Water,” “Sister Nations,” “Tséyi/Deep in the Rock,” and “Code Talker Stories.”

Kase Johnstun is a novelist and essayist who lives and writes in Ogden, Utah. His novels “Let the Wild Grasses Grow” (October 2021) and “Cast Away” (coming in 2024) are published by Torrey House Press. He teaches at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation, the Graduate School in Creative Writing for Southern New Hampshire University, Barton Community College, and Weber State University.

Kirsten Johanna Allen is the Publisher and Co-Executive Director of Torrey House Press. Since co-founding THP in 2010, Kirsten has published more than 70 fiction and nonfiction titles and continues to oversee acquisitions, editing, production, and marketing.rite something here

Here’s a link to a creative tensions event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MttYjJil68

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Feb
10
to Feb 11

Voices for the West: Writing Workshop

Invigorate your writing at Voices for the West: Writing Workshops and Community Conversations February 10-11, 2023, in Springdale, Utah. Study nonfiction with Craig Childs, poetry with Laura Tohe, or fiction with Kase Johnstun at the doorstep of Zion National Park during this two-day workshop, and enjoy evening readings by instructors. Brought to you by Torrey House Press and Zion Canyon Mesa, Voices for the West will renew your creativity and delight your senses. Apply today!

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Oct
16
7:00 PM19:00

The Real World is Virtual: How Digital Landscapes Save Actual Landscapes: A Conversation with Simmons Buntin

*NOTE: Covid precautions and pre-conditions to follow soon. We intend to err on the side of caution. The event may be outdoors depending on the weather, and masking is likely if the event is indoors.

Can something that is inherently placeless help us save our most important places?
The answer, believes Buntin, is yes. In this lecture, the journal’s founder and primary editor will discuss how Terrain.org–the world’s longest publishing online environmental literary journal–came to be, how it has evolved to be more responsive in our rapidly changing physical and political environment, and the imperatives and opportunities for Terrain.org and other digital media to help preserve our most important landscapes.

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lZuCkwhbTqyY-13ZSTyaCQ

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Simmons Buntin is the editor of the first online literary journal Terrain.org featuring multi-genre pieces about the environment.

Simmons Buntin is a project manager, editor, writer, publisher, marketer, communications manager, team leader, facilitator, thinker, creator, dog walker, and all-around good guy.

He is the editor-in-chief of Terrain.org, which he founded in 1997. He is also executive director and president of the board of Terrain Publishing, the small parent nonprofit organization that provides the business structure for Terrain.org and related educational, scientific, and literary activities.

Simmons is the co-editor of the anthology Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy and the author of a book of community case studies — Unsprawl: Remixing Spaces as Places — as well as two books of poetry published by Ireland’s Salmon Poetry: Bloom and Riverfall. He has also published literary and technical writing, as well as a few photographs in such venues as OrionISLEKyoto ReviewNorth American Review, and Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society. He also teaches the occasional course at the University of Arizona Poetry Center and lectures on web project management, community design and sustainability, editing, and writing.

Currently, Simmons is the director of marketing and communications for the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona. In that capacity, he is responsible for marketing, branding, communications, media relations, and storytelling for the college and its programs. For more than a decade, he was also president of Ocotillo Design, though that side business is now static.

Simmons is certified by the Project Management Institute as a Professional Project Manager (PMP), the highest certification for the project management profession. He received his undergraduate degree in political science from Auburn University, his Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver (where he was chosen as the program’s outstanding 1997 graduate and his thesis on redeveloping suburban downtowns using principles of sustainability won an American Planning Association – Colorado award), and his MFA in creative writing (nonfiction) from the University of Arizona. He also holds a certificate in energy management from North Carolina State University.


https://www.terrain.org/
https://www.simmonsbuntin.com/

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Oct
8
7:00 PM19:00

Disturbance and Recovery in Ecologic and Human Systems: A Conversation with Dr. Nalini Nadkarni

*NOTE: This event will be indoors and masks will be required of all attendees. We will update this page if Covid precautions change. We intend to err on the side of caution.

To watch this conversation via Zoom, please click here.

Or copy/paste this into your browser: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nYg9uVqbRUKL3HLxToQ6Iw

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Join us for a conversation with Dr. Nadkarni about disturbance and recovery in ecological and human systems.

A lifelong interest and concern for trees led Dr. Nalini Nadkarni to an academic career to study and understand trees, and to innovate activities and programs that raise awareness of the importance of trees and nature to others.

Dr. Nadkarni is a rainforest ecologist, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a science communicator. She was a faculty member at The Evergreen State College for 20 years, and in 2011, joined the University of Utah as a Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education. She received her B.S. degree from Brown University and her Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship, the 2011 NSF Public Service Award, and the 2012 AAAS Award for Public Engagement, and the 2013 Carr Medal for Conservation. Her research concerns the ecological roles of canopy-dwelling biota in forest ecosystems. She has published over 100 scientific articles and four scholarly books.

She is deeply interested in public engagement of science, and has given two TED talks, and has been highlighted in magazines such as National Geographic, Glamour, and Playboy Magazine. She created the “Research Ambassador Program” to train scientists to engage the public in non-traditional venues, such as churches, pre-schools, tattoo parlors, and sports stadiums. In 2005, she co-founded the Sustainability in Prisons Project, which brings science, scientists, and nature to incarcerated men and women, and which is now being expanded to a national level.

https://nalininadkarni.com/

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