USU Researcher on Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument Advisory Committee

In a controversial stroke of the pen, former president Bill Clinton proclaimed a large swath of southern Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996. As with many federal lands in the American West, the nearly 1.9 million-acre monument is anxiously watched by vigilant stakeholders with diverse interests.


Home to striking geological features, imperiled wildlife species and critical paleontological sites, the massive monument, roughly the size of Delaware, also harbors rich mineral deposits and grazing allotments.

 

“Designation as a national monument restricts many human activities on the land, but it doesn’t forbid them completely,” says Steve Burr, associate professor in Utah State University’s Department of Environment and Society. “The challenge now is to balance stakeholder interests, while adhering to directives in the Monument’s proclamation.”

 

Burr, who heads USU’s Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, was appointed by Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne in 2006 to serve on GSENM’s Monument Advisory Committee or “MAC.” The 17-member committee held its first meeting last month in Kanab, Utah.

 

“The MAC is strictly an advisory committee to the monument manager,” Burr says.

 

Members include an educator and elected officials from state and tribal governments, and from Garfield and Kane counties, which encompass the monument. The committee also includes members representing the environmental community, professional outdoor outfitters and guides, livestock raisers, the motorized recreational vehicle community, proponents of non-motorized recreation and others.

 

“In addition, the committee includes eight members with scientific expertise,” Burr says. “There’s an archaeologist, a paleontologist, a geologist, a botanist, a wildlife biologist, a historian, a systems ecologist and a social scientist – that’s me.”

 

Burr notes that Grand Staircase-Escalante is the first national monument to be managed by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.

 

It’s a unique situation, he says.  “Most previously designated monuments function under the auspices of the National Park Service, with a few managed by the U.S. Forest Service.”

 

GSENM actually includes three distinct geographic regions. The Grand Staircase, which takes its name from a progression of pink, gray, white, vermilion and chocolate-hued cliffs, stretches from Bryce Canyon National Park in southwestern Utah to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

 

The monument’s triangular center section, known as the Kaiparowits Plateau, extends south and eastward from the town of Escalante to Lake Powell. The region is, reportedly, the largest roadless piece of real estate in the lower 48 states.

 

The third section, known as the Canyons of Escalante, borders Glen Canyon National Recreational Area and Capitol Reef National Park.

 

Burr says he’s encouraged by the BLM’s management to date. “The great thing about this monument is that its management has decided to keep most of the development in the periphery,” he says. “The BLM has built four, science-themed gateway visitors centers in Big Water, Kanab, Cannonville and Escalante but the interior is largely untouched.”

 

Critics of the monument’s designation argue that protection of the lands hampers economic development efforts, including mining, drilling and grazing, that could benefit the region’s rural, isolated and somewhat impoverished communities. But Burr, who completed an extensive study of the economic impact of tourism on the area in 2004, begs to differ.

 

Monument visitors spend millions of dollars in Kane and Garfield counties and support hundreds of full-time jobs for local residents, he says. Extractive industries offer high wages in the short-term but their impacts could cause irreparable damage.

 

“Just weeks ago, scientists published details about the fossil remains of a newly described duck-billed dinosaur found in 2002 in the southern part of Grand Staircase-Escalante,” Burr says. “In addition to its unique geological formations, the monument is home to numerous species of plants and animals that don’t occur anywhere else.” 

 

 

 

Contact: Steven W. Burr [steve.burr@usu.edu], 435-797-7094
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto [maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu], 435-797-1429