Posted on 11/28/2001 2:12:30 PM PST by Sandy
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A conservation group has purchased another large grazing allotment at a national monument in southern Utah in its campaign to reduce livestock grazing and preserve sensitive canyon land.
The Grand Canyon Trust purchased grazing rights Monday in the 256,000-acre swath, which represents about 15 percent of the 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The Flagstaff, Ariz.-based organization paid an undisclosed sum to a rancher, who will relinquish the rights.
"It's a way of preserving a big representative swath of the canyon country," Bill Hedden, who runs the Grand Canyon Trust's Moab office, said in The Salt Lake Tribune.
Hedden said he will ask the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the monument, to let the trust end most of the grazing in the allotment. By law, the land can't be held unused for long periods unless the BLM amends its management plan. About a half-dozen ranchers still hold grazing privileges for parcels larger than 80,000 acres.
"When (cattle) congregate around water sources, they damage native vegetation and pollute streams, they introduce and spread exotic species. If we can buy the ranchers out, those most sensitive places can recover and go back to a more natural productive condition," Hedden said.
Since 1996, the Grand Canyon Trust has paid ranchers to give up grazing rights on about 500,000 acres of the monument, Hedden said. The trust has spent more than $1 million purchasing grazing rights in southern Utah.
Monument designations give greater protection to land, such as bans or restrictions on vehicle use, mining and oil drilling.
The stupid part is that the envirowhackos, by removing livestock from the land, are actually destroying it. All this land was grazed by millions of buffalo, elk, etc for millions of years. Modern man merely replaced them with cattle.
When the idiot greenies get done, the land truely will be destroyed by junk foliage.
Bump for capitalism at work!
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument: Conservation and ...
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument: Conservation
and Controversy. Petrified Woody's ...
Description: "This million-plus acre area needs protection from uncontrolled development, but at what cost?...
-Four Years Later, Locals Still Decry Clinton Monument --
-Coalgate--that ugly Lippo-Klink-Redford connection to tyranny--
-Clinton's Utah deal not justified-WND story--
Energy and Mineral Resources, Grand Staircase - Escalante ...
Utah Geological Survey. ... A Preliminary Assessment of Energy and Mineral Resources
within the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument. ...
You don't suppose that the rules which I have to obey were bent slightly???
What usually happens, especially with large purchases like this, is the conservation groups turn around and sell the property, rights, or whatever, back to the Federal government at a huge profit...that would be you and me Teach.
Hardly my idea of Capitalism at Work.
Actually, this is federal land, and we're selling the grazing rights to a bunch of greenies who we know will destroy it. It's one of those so-called "public-private" partnerships (sometimes called fascism, a guaranteed flop).
Grand Staircase-Escalante, our NEW National Monument
Comments by Geoff Barnard, President of the Grand Canyon Trust... On September 18, 1996, President Clinton journeyed to the rim of the Grand Canyon to create the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In signing the presidential proclamation, Clinton's pen saved 1.7 million acres of some of the most: spectacular and sublime wildlands remaining in the lower forty-eight status -- the red rock country of southern Utah.
The land set aside as the country's newest national monument runs from the Arizona-Utah state line in the south, northward and eastward for 95 miles to join with Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Capitol Reef National Park, and Bryce Canyon National Park.
This high desert country encompasses the Kaiparowits Plateau, the canyons of the Escalante River, and the Grand Staircase -- the Pink Cliffs, Grey Cliffs, White Cliffs, Vermilion Cliffs, and Chocolate Cliffs -- together some 2,650 square miles of fantastic rock formations, desert creeks, springs, lava fields, slot canyons, natural bridges, arches, ancient Anasazi sites, and historical sites of early pioneers.
Clinton's action builds on a rich tradition of other U.S. presidents who set aside land for national monuments. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt set aside land in Arizona to be known as Grand Canyon National Monument. President Hoover established Arches National Monument in 1929; and President Franklin Roosevelt established Capitol Reef National Monument in 1938.
In particular, this land within the new national monument was threatened by coal mining -- a 25,000 acre mining lease on the Kaiparowits Plateau. Andalex Mining Company had proposed to haul coal by truck for 22 miles over land that is now in the national monument and then 200 miles on public highways through small Utah communities -- one coal truck every five minutes, all day long.
Local opposition to the truck impact of the mine has been building. The Trust has strongly opposed the mine, especially the impact of the coal trucks, questioned its economics and supported the enormous conservation value of the land.
As Clinton noted, "Mining jobs are good jobs, and mining is important to our national economy and to our national security. But, we can't have mines everywhere, and we shouldn't have mines that threaten our national treasures. "
Other existing uses of these public lands are not affected by the proclamation, including hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and livestock grazing.
The question is now how these unique lands can be managed in a way that respects legitimate local needs and also respects the larger society and the environment. Clinton set up a three year planning process to establish a management plan for the new national monument.
Joining President Clinton at the Grand Canyon announcement was Vice President Al Gore. The Grand Canyon Trust played a major role in the activities surrounding the visit. The Trust was asked by the White House to organize a program prior to Clinton's address. As the Trust's president, I was honored to be the master of ceremonies. Trustees Bill Smart and Vernon Masayesva were speakers. Trustee Norma Matheson introduced Vice president Gore. Various other guests, including actor Robert Redford and authors Terry Tempest Williams and Charles Wilkinson spoke eloquently about Clinton's action.
This moment marks both a powerful conclusion to a long-standing conflict, and the opportunity for a new beginning. The strength of character, integrity, good science, and understanding that we bring to the process for determining the management of the Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument will test, in the words of Wallace Stegner, whether we truly can "create a society to match the scenery" of this beautiful land. I am confident that we can.
--Geoff Barnard, President
Comments by President Clinton..."... As all of you know, today we are keeping faith with the future. I'm about to sign a proclamation that will establish the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Since [the Antiquities Act of 1906], several presidents of both parties, Republicans and Democrats, have worked to preserve places that we now take for granted as part of out own unchanging heritage: Bryce Canyon, Zion, Glacier Bay, Olympic, Grand Teton. Today, we add a new name to that list: the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Seventy miles to the north of here in Utah lies some of the most remarkable land in the world. We will set aside 1.7 million acres of it.
On this site, on this remarkable site, God's handiwork is everywhere in the natural beauty of the Escalante Canyons and in the Kaiparowits Plateau, in the rock formations that show layer by layer billions of years of geology, in the fossil record of dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, in the remains of ancient American civilizations like the Anasazi Indians.
[This] uniquely American landscape is now one of the most isolated places in the lower 48 states. In protecting it, we live up to our obligation to preserve our natural heritage. We are saying very simply, our parents and grandparents saved the Grand Canyon on for us; today, we will save the Grand Escalante Canyons and the Kaiparowits Plateau of Utah for our children.
[N]inety three years ago a great Republican present, Theodore Roosevelt, said we should make the Grand Canyon a national monument. In 1903 Teddy Roosevelt came to this place and said a few words from the rim of the Canyon I'd like to share with you as we close today: 'Leave the Grand Canyon as it is. You cannot improve upon in. What you can do is keep it for your children, your children's children, all who come after you. We have gotten past the stage when we are pardoned if we treat any part of our country as something to be skinned for. The use of the present generation, whether it is the forest, the water, the scenery -- whatever it is, handle it so that your children's children will get the benefit of it.'
It was President Roosevelt's wisdom and vision that launched the Progressive Era and prepared our nation for the 20th century. Today we must do the same for the 21st century. I have talked a lot about building a bridge of possibility to that 21st century, by meeting our challenges and protecting our values. Today the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument becomes a great pillar in our bridge to tomorrow.
Thank you and God bless you all."
-- President Bill Clinton
I doubt that the buffalo and elk were on this land in the densities that the cattle are at present. If they were, this would have been a happy hunting ground the Indians would still be raving about. I know this from having had to step over many a cow pie along Deer Creek and shoo the cattle out of my way.
When the idiot greenies get done, the land truely will be destroyed by junk foliage.
I doubt it. The land is pretty dry and doesn't support much foliage. Much of it is bare rock. The canyons where cattle have been excluded, like Coyote Gulch, aren't overrun by foliage. There are deer down in Coyote Gulch to take care of any excess.
This is not to say that I like idiot greenies. I don't. I have been battling their junk science for years in scientific journals. However, getting cattle out of the canyons and stream beds is a great idea. Cattle seem to be the number one complaint on BLM trail registers.
Setting aside Grand Staircase-Escalante is the only thing Clintoon ever did that I approved of. There are world-class hikes in this area.
I can't tell you how upset I am that hikers have to step over cow poop on their once a year excursion into the great outdoors. I'm sure that the ranchers with grazing permits who will now be forced out of business are also very sympathetic. Some of these ranchers, by the way, are 5th-generation families who have been stewards of these lands for many years.
And you approve of this?? With of single stroke of King William's pen families are out of business, local towns will be negatively affected and they had absolutely no input, no say at all in how this would affect their livelihoods. Please spare me the argument that local communities will benefit from increased tourism...that is a myth perpetrated by the greenies.
I am glad rustbucket that you can now recreate in peace and don't have to "shoo" those nasty cows out of your way, that must have been very tough on you.
Before you write a response I would ask you to just imagine if your livelyhood, the way you make a living, were eliminated by decree by one person, without going through NEPA, without consultation with the people affected, just how would you feel??
I hike more than once a year and backpack in Grand Staircase-Escalante and other places. And yes I say keep the cows off the hiking trails. You probably have cow pies in your front yard and aren't offended by them. My sympathies.
Some group was willing to pay more than the ranchers for the grazing rights. That's free enterprise. Are you against free enterprise? Raising cows on the public land doesn't seem to be the most economic use of the land according to what people are willing to pay.
It's hardly free enterprise, or capitalism at work when land swaps are made in this manner. What happens is the federal authorities begin cutting allotments, dictating unreasonable grazing plans and generally making it tough on ranchers to operate; then one of the so-called land conservation groups steps in and buys the ranch with grazing rights, then turns around and sells it to the feds at a huge profit. This happens all the time. It was a big issue in Idaho's Stanley Basin where conservation groups held title to the land they bought for less than a month before turning the property to the feds. The feds, being you and me.
That may seem like free enterprise at work to you, but it doesn't fit my definition.
Just for my interest, how much do you pay in user fees when you backpack? How much trail improvement are you Required to do to use the land?? How much paperwork, and records are you required to keep before you go hiking?
Why should recreation users get a free ride on public lands...I happen to think recreation users do not pay their fair share.
Oh yes, I did have cow pies in my pasture next to my house...not right in my yard though.
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