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Show rJM community Residents of Moab who may not have enjoyed much of the gray air pollution we suffered through all day Tuesday, followed (thankfully) by cleansing rains, they can take a little comfort in the knowledge that it could have been worse. The very idea that Delta, Utah situated in the middle of the vast Utah West Desert could have gotten 20 inches of snow the last week in May is unbelievable. But it happened. -sjt We had the pleasant experience this week of hosting a group of youth conservationists at our home for a hamburger fry, following their three-week stay at Anderson Bottom on the Green River, where they undertook an extensive cleanup and restoration project for the National Park Service. Sunburned, and some with blisters on their bands, they nevertheless were thrilled with the work experience, and delighted with the Canyon Country. Most of the kids were from the Eastern cities, and this was a totally new thing for them. These youth conservation groups have worked (with no pay) at Canyonlands for a number of years, and they really make a valuable contribution in trail building, cleanup work and other miscellaneous tasks the Park Service admits need doing badly, but just can't fit into the regular work schedule for one reason or another. It's unfortunate that after almost eleven years of existence, so little has been done in the way of development and interpretation in Canyonlands. One Moab couple complained this week that they became hopelessly lost after taking the Park Service trail (a real hairy one) down off the Maze Overlook into Horse Canyon, in an. attempt to get a glimpse of the famed harvest scene pictographs in the upper tributaries to Horse Canyon. Had it not been for the help of a couple of the young youth conservationists, who had hiked a long six miles from Anderson Bottom to see the pictographs, they would have had a very disallusioning experience, because there were no trail markers to indicate how to reach the publicized -- Indian writings. Budgets are a problem, of course. It seems there are never enough funds for the NPS to fully staff their "field" outposts. I'm sure, however, that a lot of it is a matter of priority. Maybe the priorities should be analyzed, -sjt- Last week, Grand County Commissioners wrote a letter to the Bureau of Land Management, stating that they had supported leaving BLM District Offices in Monticello, but if that couldn't be done, they would welcome the move of the office to Moab. At almost the same time, San Joan County Commissioners wrote to the BLM, stating that they would like to have the offices remain in Monticello, but if that couldn't happen, then they would fully support the move of the offices to Moab. That's great. And it's kind of a refreshing experience after so many years of suffering what Commissioner Cal Black calls the "Rural Utah Drowning Man Syndrome," where you step on your neighbor's head to keep your own head out of the water. Until rural Utah can learn to rejoice in the prosperity of its neighboring communities, it will never be able to accept the challenge of a move from the metropolitan to the rural, w hich seems to be nationwide the past few year. Let's hope the cooperative attitude between us in Grand County and our neighbors to the South continues. |