Cottonwood Canyon Road is pictured in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. (Photo by Diana Robinson/Getty Images)
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has a new management plan, and Utah’s congressional delegation doesn’t like it.
Earlier this week, the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, approved a resource management plan for southern Utah’s 1.87 million acre monument, issuing a final record of decision that makes the plan effective immediately.
In a statement Thursday, Utah’s congressional delegation — Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis, and Reps. Blake Moore, Burgess Owens, Celeste Maloy and Mike Kennedy, all Republicans — accused the Biden administration of ramming through a plan “in its midnight hours.”
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The plan marks the end of a two-year process that included input from the region’s tribal nations, state and local governments, stakeholders and the public, the BLM said on Monday. It divides the monument into four regions — front country, passage, outback and primitive — each with different rules and recreation infrastructure.
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The front country area is about 36,000 acres near the monument’s boundary, with a mix of roads and trails to accommodate different uses. It has developed campgrounds, trailheads, visitor centers and educational sites, with a focus on day-use. It’s also the only area where recreational shooting is prohibited (in addition to areas close to archaeological sites, campgrounds and other facilities throughout the monument). Think of it as the least remote part of a very remote monument.
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The passage area is about 53,000 acres, less developed than the front country and gives visitors access to much of the monument. It will have additional trailheads and educational sites, some day-use picnic areas, small campgrounds and a mix of roads and trails. The BLM calls it a “secondary area for visitation.”
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The outback area is about 558,700 acres in some of the monument’s more remote yet popular areas. Facilities will be rare, the BLM notes, only provided when “essential for resource protection.” There will be a mix of routes and trails to accommodate different types of recreation. Camping is limited to dispersed sites. The outback area provides a “self-directed visitor experience,” the BLM notes in documents.
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The primitive area is most of the monument, with about 1,227,100 acres of undeveloped terrain. This includes Wilderness Study Areas, protected land and research areas. Facilities here are “nearly nonexistent,” the BLM said, and the only way to access it is on foot or horse — unlike the other three zones, there is no motorized travel permitted.
Livestock grazing is also allowed in the vast majority of the monument — just 7% of Grand Staircase-Escalante’s 1.87 million acres is off limits, most of it riparian areas.
Overnight campers will now be required to obtain a free and “readily accessible” permit. And climbers who want to establish new sport routes, which require bolts or anchors, need to get approval from the BLM.
In their statement, Utah’s congressional delegation said the plan “ignores Utah voices, limits access to grazing and recreation and disregards the economic impacts that this decision will have on local communities.”
“The administration has also failed to provide a complete inventory of the objects it wishes to protect, a requirement of the Antiquities Act. When the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was created in 1996, it was promised to be friendly to local use and management. We will continue to fight to return our land to local control and against future federal overreach,” the joint statement reads.
The “fight” is currently making its way through federal appeals court, after Utah sued the Biden administration in 2022 over the president’s decision to reinstate the monument to its original size.
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Grand Staircase-Escalante was established by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, using his power under the Antiquities Act, a law passed by Congress in 1906 that gives the president authority to declare national monuments to protect areas of cultural, historical and scientific significance.
In 2017, the monument was reduced to 229,000 acres by President Donald Trump, who also reduced nearby Bears Ears National Monument.
Then, in 2021, President Joe Biden restored both monuments to their original size, again using the Antiquities Act. Utah promptly sued.
“Sadly, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and other public land opponents continue their attacks on Grand Staircase-Escalante, which is managed for the benefit of all Americans,” said Kya Marienfeld, a wildlands attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, an environmental nonprofit.
In a statement earlier this week, Marienfeld said the BLM’s new plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante “takes meaningful and important steps to protect one of the most treasured public landscapes in America. Once again, the Monument will be managed to protect what makes it like nowhere else — remarkable paleontological discoveries and cultural connections, jaw-dropping scenery, and outstanding intact and diverse natural ecosystems.”
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