DENVER (September 18, 2006) -- Ten years after former President Clinton designated Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, the area has become one of the nation's iconic destination landscapes, attracting world class scientists from numerous fields, serving as an unmatched educational backdrop, drawing hundreds of thousands of tourists, and winning committed friends.
The monument has gained a world class reputation for biological, cultural and paleontological discovery. Scientific research in the monument ranges from dinosaur excavations to NASA investigations seeking insights into the surface of Mars. The monument's reputation as a hot spot of plant and animal diversity, and rare and endemic species, has attracted researchers from around the country to this unique ecosystem. "The Monument is a living laboratory where researchers have made the top discoveries of their careers, said Joel Janetski, an archaeologist from Brigham Young University who has done archaeological research in and around the monument since 2001. "It has also been an invaluable resource for me to take my students for real-world experience."
The presence of these scientists and the Monument's unique landscape has made Grand Staircase - Escalante one of the world's most engaging classrooms. Field trips give grade-schoolers the opportunity to engage in hands-on science with fossils and artifacts. The Monument also acts as a tremendous prop for all ages in learning the local history of native cultures, early explorers like John Wesley Powell, and Mormon settlers. Internship opportunities exist for local high school students, and brown bag lunch seminars connect researchers with local residents.
The number of visitors discovering Grand Staircase - Escalante has grown each year to an estimated 600,000, many of which are from around the world. These visitors feed the tourism industry of local communities such as Kanab, Escalante, and Boulder.
And some visitors and locals go well beyond passively enjoying the many benefits of this 10-year-old Monument. Hundreds of volunteers have cumulatively donated between six and ten thousand hours a year to projects. The monument even has its own robust friends group, Grand Staircase - Escalante Partners, with over 200 members, most from the local community. "Our organization is dedicated to building the relationship between the Monument and local communities," said Mike Satter of Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, "We have an active volunteer and internship program and are helping raise awareness about the discoveries and opportunities at the Monument."
As the BLM's first National Monument, Grand Staircase - Escalante would later serve as the cornerstone of BLM's new conservation system, the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS). The NLCS is the country's newest and most innovative system of public lands, and seeks to integrate communities, historic cultures and working landscapes into its ecological conservation goals. Such an approach has helped to usher Grand Staircase - Escalante from controversy to on the ground success stories.
Of course Grand Staircase - Escalante still faces enormous challenges. Lawsuits and agency decisions threaten to open the backcountry to rampant off-road vehicle use, disturbing wildlife, vegetation, cultural sights and peaceful solitude. Administrative challenges also abound, with decisions from a 2000 Monument Management Plan yet to be implemented. More subtle, but no less damaging threats are the budget cuts that have plagued the monument for the last five years. These cuts wreak havoc on the ground as staff are overworked, law enforcement is overwhelmed, and the science program is cut. Congress and the Administration must reverse this trend if the Monument's remarkable accomplishments are to continue.
