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Analysis: No happy medium yet on Grand Staircase-Escalante By
Reuben Wadsworth
The Escalante River that runs through it was the last unknown river in the United States. The town of Boulder near its northeastern border was still receiving mail by pack mule as late as the 1930s. It was one of the last places in United States to be settled and mapped. In short -- the place is remote. While many national parks and monuments were designated throughout the 20th century, the land making up Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument remained in the public domain, but well out of the national spotlight. Prospectors, cattlemen, hunters and other recreationists were able to use the land as they pleased, and oil companies and coal-mining operations filed a number of leases. Conservationists tried to designate the land a national park, monument or recreation area, but their attempts were in vain as ranchers and others who did not welcome the restrictions such status would entail blocked any such attempt. That is, until 1996 when President Bill Clinton set aside Grand Staircase-Escalante as a national monument, and by so doing created a land management question that is still being sorted out. Clinton used the powers of the nearly century-old Antiquities Act to create the monument. The act states that a president may "declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments." Creation of the monument bypassed Congress and put it under the reins of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) instead of the National Park Service. The BLM has historically focused more on mining and livestock grazing than parks and preservation. The directive of Grand Staircase-Escalante under the BLM focuses on multiple use rather than just preservation, as all national parks aim for, said Barbara Sharrow, assistant monument manager for Visitor Services. Grand Staircase-Escalante is not as "civilized" as other Utah national parks and monuments. Only two state highways run through the monument - the rest are unimproved gravel or dirt roads. Visitor centers for patrons are not even located in the monument itself. They are in the towns of Kanab, Escalante and Cannonville on the monument's periphery. The management plan developed over the last three years calls for motels, restaurants, outfitters and other concessionaires to be located outside of the monument boundaries in order to preserve its wilderness conditions. Another stipulation of the new management plan is the prohibition of construction of any more roads. Mark Brunson, an associate professor in the Utah State University Department of Forest Resources who has done extensive research in the monument, said the management plan sets forth the best set of land use practices under the circumstances the BLM found itself up against. One such circumstance is that both nearby residents and visitors want to maintain current levels of access in the monument, yet many locals don't like the restrictions on vehicle access. There are enough roads currently in the monument for anyone to enjoy, Brunson said. So far no happy medium in the monument's management process has been found. Some, such as environmental groups like Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, want the monument to be run like a national park, while others, such as some residents in towns surrounding the monument, want it left how it was before its designation. So far Clinton's proclamation creating Grand Staircase-Escalante has allowed all but one existing use -- a proposed coal mine -- to continue unabated. Why keep the monument a monument if the only use it has stopped is a coal mine? Brunson said in the long run, the monument should turn out to be beneficial. The threat to potential damage from off-highway vehicles has been reduced and grazing management within the monument has increased the national visibility given to the BLM. The monument protects hunting and grazing and offers great backcountry recreation, he explained. Brunson believes Grand Staircase-Escalante should not become a national park in the future, which has been the history of nearly every national park in Utah. The United States doesn't need any more national parks, he said. National monuments under BLM jurisdiction gives recreationists with different interests and needs -- such as those with pets -- the chance to enjoy the outdoors without the restrictions a national park would dictate, he said. U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, has proposed a system in which national monuments designated under the Clinton administration can be revised, The Salt Lake Tribune reported this month. Such revisions may include boundary changes. Proposed boundary changes for Grand Staircase-Escalante could exclude such things as a vast deposit of coal beneath the Kaiparowits Plateau and an oil field near the town of Escalante. On a national scale, the proposed monument revisions are not worth the political capitol to make them happen, said Brunson. According to him, minor changes may happen, but the only way a significant change could occur would be from the result of a lawsuit saying that Clinton violated the Antiquities Act in the monument's designation. This is highly unlikely, Brunson said, because anyone would be hard-pressed to convince the courts that monuments are too big by biological standards.
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