ECOS members lobby U.S. legislators

Ten Utah State University students will attend the Sierra Student Coalition’s Public Lands Action Summit Saturday to Tuesday in Alexandria, Va.

The USU students and three high school students from Logan will attend the four-day summit designed to train students in lobbying for the environment. The participants will then meet with U.S. senators and representatives.

Approximately 150 people from around the nation will attend the conference, 25 of whom will be from Utah, said Sarah Lundstrum, president of the USU Ecological Coalition of Students and a regional coordinator in the coalition.

The summit will focus on three areas for congressional lobbying, Lundstrum said. Utah’s Redrock Canyon country, the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and commercial logging in national forests all will be addressed at the summit.

Speakers at the summit will include Sierra Club President Robbie Cox and members of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Participants have meetings scheduled with representatives and senators on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Sierra Student Coalition Web site, www.ssc.org.

The summit falls on the same week as the National Energy Security Act, proposed by Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, on Monday, which proposes opening the coastal plain of the ANWR to oil drilling.

The USU students attending the conference are members of ECOS, a campus club affiliated with the Sierra Student Coalition. The coalition is the student arm of the Sierra Club.