Luminaries at Kanab’s 20th annual Amazing Earthfest

Drawing visitors from across the nation, a free public festival celebrating national and state parks, for­ests, monuments and public lands marks its 20th consecutive year in Kanab, May 7-10, 2026. The nonprofit 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 are traveling to Kanab to deliver pre­sentations: Nalini Nad­karni, Bruce Hucko, Brenden Rensink and Heidi Steltzer. Visit 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.” Nadkarni’s talk and documentary film are set to take place at Kanab City Library on Friday evening, May 8, at 6:30 p.m.

Few attain the skill and acclaim in portray­ing the 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 National Park Service 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. His presen­tations begin at Kanab City Library on Thurs­day, May 7, at 4 p.m.

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. His re­search aims to provide context for consider­ing the current state of outdoor spaces and whether they can still provide those historical experiences. Rensink will reserve time for discussion with the au­dience and will solicit participation in future surveys for community members to share their experiences. Rensink’s talk takes place on Sat­urday, May 9, at 3 p.m., at Kanab City Library.

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 on our scientific understand­ing of climate change. She has been inter­viewed by the New York Times and offered talks 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 20th 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 p.m., on Thursday, May 7.

Amazing Earthfest events are free and open to all.