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Show a AUGUST In the Coral Pink Sand 1996 Dunes Utah’s Unique Tiger Beetle and a Plan to Save It By Kris Edwards here is a place in Utah where three great ecosystems — the Great Basin, the Colorado Plateau, and the Mojave Desert — come together to form a unique habitat found nowhere else This part of Southwestern Utah, in Kane County, is the only spot on earth where the Coral Pink Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle can be found. This land is home to small numbers — about 2,400 — of this sparkly insect, the last remnants of a species whose existence is imperiled. Another predator, albeit tiny, in danger of extinction. The dunes themselves are a geocreated by graphical phenomenon, unusually strong winds that funnel through a narrow opening between the and Moccasin Mogquith Mountains, depositing great quantities of red sand into the valley below. The seemingly endless expanse of dunes is regarded as an off-road-vehicle (ORV) County playground by Kane dune buggy riders, who have been driving the dunes for more than twenty years. ORVs, they say, are why the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park was developed in the first place. ORVs, they say, are part of their custom and culture. ORVs, they know, are the single biggest threat to the existence of the tiger beetle. Threats to the beetle are not limited to wholesale crushing under the smooth, fat tires of the off-road-vehi- FREE LOTS OF Lupine, Aspen, Poppy, Sod, Seeds Daisy, KNOWLEDGE, Spruce, Lilac, White Fir, Maple, Canadian Red Cherry, Honeysuckle, @ IDEAS, Juniper, Sedum, Shovels, Willow, Delphinium, Mulch, Columbine, Coneflower, Hollyhock, ; ~ Experience, Top Soil, Rakes, Dogs looks like miles of des- Rep. Jim Hansen’s friend to hold inean effort to come to terms on of the the proposed conservation agreement. Enter Rob Quist, state park superintendent for the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. Once in place, it will be his job to enforce the conservation agreement, so he wants it to be fair and realistic. Quist’s job is not just to protect the tiger beetle or mediate disputes between the motorheads and the eco-freaks. “The mission is not to champion one cause over another,” Quist explained. But rather “to listen, to make good decisions, and promote safety.” Quist says he wants to formulate and implement a plan that all parties can live with, whether they are a fiery, little predator, an endangered Welsh’s milkweed or a long-time resident seeking recreation or solace in the sandy, red tide of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes of Kane County, Utah. @ and Hatch feverishly pitch public lands More... to the highest (or, sadly, the lowest) bidder, SUWA has quietly been gaining national support for its twelve-year effort to preserve 5.7 million acres of Southern Utah wilderness. Good news for the tiger beetle. It just happens to live within a small corner of the 5.7 million acres that SUWA wants protected. SUWA has taken this Park City Nursery AZ 649-1363 Zs HWY 224, across from the Blue Roof Market PAGE a iccated, dry sand is a literal sponge of lifesustaining moisture. Sand is absorbent and hoards moisture beneath its seemingly dry surface. See hpy The beetles survive Photo by Ron Bolander. by burrowing half an State and federal agencies, and environmental groups inch into the moist have a plan to save the Coral Pink Sand Dunes Tiger sand. When ORVs churn across the sand, Beetle. ATV riders say they have been left out. this layer is disrupted, tiny predator under its wing and is the moisture evaporates and if a beetle championing its right to exist. starts burrowing into this disturbed Times may be changing in Utah. environment, it will dig itself to death. Rather than fighting, the feds, the state, This small corner of the world, the Kane County Commission, and where the Coral Pink Sand Dunes Tiger SUWA are working together on a conBeetle exists is, luckily for the beetle, on servation agreement to protect the beepublic land, part state-owned, part fedtle. The agreement would meet the eral. Here, a classic Utah public land requirements of the Endangered Species clash has been brewing: custom and Act, while setting aside about 600 acres culture meet environmentalism. People of the 3,000-acre park, as non-motorvs. bugs: noxious, jarring noisy dune ized. Beyond that, the agreement conbuggies against enviro-rads out to extinsiders the interests of all communities, guish tradition and wholesome family including other animals, plants, ORV fun; meddlesome bureaucrats interruptusers, hikers, backpackers and families ing peaceful and productive land use. out for a Saturday afternoon picnic. Time was, that public lands battles RV users, however, continue to in Utah were just that — warfare. complain that their concerns are Somebody won, somebody lost. The being left out. They have taken their controversy erupted, the greens showed case to Gov. Mike Leavitt and Orrin up in T shirts and Tevas, the locals hung Hatch, among others. someone in effigy and all parties moved SUWA could go out tomorrow and on to the next battle site. file a lawsuit, petitioning to place the But now, thanks to the efforts over Coral Pink Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle on the past year by the _ state’s the Endangered Species list. Actually, Congressional delegation to sell out 20 they’ve already done that. But to everymillion acres of our public lands to speone’s relief, they've put the lawsuit on cial interests — timber, coal, oil or what- moment — Utah’s land battles have become a national issue. As Hansen’s anachronistic schemes become more outlandish, as the proposed developments become more outrageous, as the stakes increase, so does the opposition. The opposition in this case is the Salt Lake City-based Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), long-time champion of public lands. As Hansen Lawn ent, destruction of habitat and death by suffocation. What to our eye be Geranium, Salvia, # SPRINKLER PARTS, Much danlast remaining survivors of this species are ever billionaire industrialists happens Furniture, Flax, Petunia, arrow, Snow-in-Summer, Soil Pep, Wild Flower Carpet, Crab Apple, And cles. Even more gerous to the 16 |