Amazing Earthfest

Drawing visitors from across the nation as well as locally and regionally, a free public festival celebrating National and State Parks, National Forests, Monuments and Public Lands of the American West marks its 20^th consecutive year in Kanab May 7-10, 2026. The nonprofit charitable organization Amazing Earthfest produces the festival each year with a small team of local organizers. Twenty-eight scheduled experiential learning activities distinguish the community festival this year.

Several luminaries hailing from Utah and Colorado, accomplished in their respective fields, are traveling to Kanab to deliver presentations. They are Nalini Nadkarni, Bruce Hucko, Brenden Rensink, and Heidi Steltzer. Visit www.AmazingEarthfest.org to register to attend their presentations.

Nalini Nadkarni’s pioneering ecological research career at the University of Utah on tropical and temperate rainforest canopies spans four decades, revealing how the plants, animals, and microorganisms that dwell 100 feet above the forest floor represent “the last biotic frontier.” Rather than being “auxiliary” to rainforests, canopy communities are critical participants in nutrient and water cycles, providing wildlife and birds with food and nesting materials. And they are the evolutionary home of many orchids, bromeliads, and ferns -- the ornamental plants we cherish. Nadkarni’s talk and documentary film are set to take place at Kanab City Library on Friday evening, May 8, at 6:30 pm.

Few attain the extraordinary skill and acclaim in portraying the exquisite landscapes of southern Utah better than the art educator and photographer Bruce Hucko. Sharing his personal artistic evolution, from images made to illustrate books and NPS interpretive media programs, to ones that employ the external landscape to express the internal landscape of self, Hucko will illustrate how he enters a landscape, decides on subject, and then resolves the image using Lightroom and Photoshop. Using color and b&w images from his 50+ year career, experienced as well as emerging photographers will learn how strong compositions that use the “language of art” can enhance your photographic experience no matter what camera you use. Hucko’s presentations begin at Kanab City Library on Thursday, May 7, at 4:00 pm.

Associate Director of the BYU Redd Center, Professor of History, and outdoor enthusiast Brenden Rensink will speak about his ongoing research on the histories of wilderness adventuring in the American West. Brenden’s research aims to provide context for considering the current state of outdoor spaces in the American West and whether they can still provide those historical experiences. Prof. Rensink will reserve time for discussion with the audience and will solicit participation in future surveys for community members to share their experiences. Those attending Rensink’s talk on Saturday, May 9, at 3:00 pm at Kanab City Library will learn why people have intentionally sought out the most rugged and remote Western mountain and desert landscapes for their adventuring activities and what kinds of experiences they were hoping to have.

Dr. Heidi Steltzer has been studying ecosystem health in high mountain and arctic regions for over 30 years, and served as a lead author on the 2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on the

Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. She has testified before the U. S. Congress on the climate crisis and offered briefings to the United Nations and the press on our scientific understanding of climate change and what can be done next for us and for our world. She has been interviewed by the New York Times and offered talks to diverse audiences at the Institute of Science and Policy at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Steltzer will deliver the keynote address at the kick-off event for the 20^th Amazing Earthfest called Invocation to Sustainability, a gathering to explore the world of spirit, ethics, ideas and personal resilience through the beauty of nature at the United Church of Kanab/Fredonia beginning at 1:00 pm on Thursday, May 7.

Events of Southern Utah’s 20^th annual Amazing Earthfest are free and all are welcome.