“We’re 15 years old,” says Executive Director Steve Evers. Evers has headed up the Friends since the summer of ‘22, when Joette Langianese left to be Moab’s mayor full time.

He brought with him his decade of experience as a veteran of Outward Bound, as well as a passion for carrying on the values enunciated by the legendary Bates Wilson, who championed Moab’s National Parks and brought Canyonlands into the fold some sixty years ago.

It was Bates’ son “Tug” who identified a need for a group that would have the same ardent commitment to the parks that his father had. Laboring as an “unpaid employee,” he couldn’t help but notice that the parks were underfunded and decided that a philanthropic partnership seeking funding from and connection with the Moab community made sense.

Talk about your timing: the “Friends” joined the burgeoning stable of Moab nonprofits just as National Park visitation began to skyrocket and help was needed more than ever.

In 2022 Steve Evers hit the ground running, delving seamlessly into the Friends’ twin missions of support and advocacy: they had already established a track record of supporting the Parks by funding vital areas like Search and Rescue - purchasing vehicles designed to streamline rescue operations; buying housing for seasonal workers in the form of a nine bedroom 100 year old refurbished hotel from the nearby ghost town of Cisco; and conserving water by purchasing water rights which could then be donated to the parks.

The Friends had also championed common-sense policies like timed entry to Arches National Park and supported the Moab area’s efforts to preserve its starlit “dark skies.”

But perhaps unsurprisingly, what Evers is most passionate about is “taking kids and adults on impactful programs” to Arches and Canyonlands. He points to the walls of the nonprofit’s smallish office at Moab’s Community Resource Center. Sandwiched between two other nonprofits – the High School Student Career and Success Center and Science Moab – the Friends is in a good spot to partner with these and others like the Canyonlands Field Institute (see February Nonprofit Happenings) to host multi-day camping trips for students, notably an Arches trip last year that focused on exploring possible careers in the Park Service for high-schoolers.

“The first one was small, under ten,” Evers says. But another is planned for this coming spring that reaches out to as many as 35 students. Some of the high school students on the first camping trip, Evers says, had, surprisingly, never been inside the park.

This is a four-part story, really - the Friends of Arches and Canyonlands embrace advocacy, support, and education – but then there is the philanthropic part of the story that was foreseen by Tug, and, yes, there are plans afoot, so be sure and mark your calendar.

Coming up on the 9th of March and unabashedly a fund-raiser: “Pints for Parks”, an evening of music and refreshments, together with a short Park Service presentation. The festivities start at 4 p.m. at Proper Brewing, a popular Moab restaurant/hangout that, as the name implies, offers up its own beers. The Cactus Cats, a band from Denver will be playing, there are free drinks, swag (a stainless-steel pint glass), and a drawing. $35 gets you in.

September 27th, 7 p.m., the Friends will host a Wild and Scenic Film Festival at Moab’s Star Hall downtown.

Monthly hikes with the Park Service are planned for April, May, and June, open to all and donation based. And there will be “Trails and Tales” also open to the public next fall – September, October and November.

Help at this pivotal moment is once again needed, perhaps more than ever. For updates, contact info and great historical context, check out the website: foacp.org.

And be sure to mention you read about it in Moab Happenings.