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Show National parks’ cultural and naturallegacy under siege Protecting ancientsites is a balance of access upy Fanys THE NEEDLES DISTRICT Chris Goetze scrambled up some slickrock in Canyonlands National Park the other fa: d discovered spot where an jent people must have g out thou: turies, exposed forall to see. There is evena dirt Jeep track nearby. Yet, the ruin was unrecognized, even bythe Park Service's own maps andfiles. While the Park Service would like thefunding neededtofind andcatalog all the ruins withinits boundaries, the agency has no intentionof publicizing all it finds. To do so might undermine the very purpose of national parks: pre- orn smooth from use, lay nearby i 1 rowof seven white dots had been pa ited onto the wall behind the humar ubble The scene drenched that day in bril een, for cen liant desert sunlig “The challenge for us as managers is to allow the experience ofdiscovery at the sametimeweare protecting [the sites] frombeing loved to death,” says Goetze. “Wehave to managethe peo‘The Park Service faces a delicate balancing act in providing access to and protecting resources fromthe public. Afterall, it’s the American tax: serving the nation’s naturalandcul payer who finances thescientific and tural aSUreS. Publicly exposed sites might beloot interpretive work that is done in the parks, Goetze understands the importance of sustaining the public’s hunger to see ed, vandalizedortrampledby overly enthusiastic visitors. So, absent the wherewithalto protect each and every site, leaving cultural sites to remain in. visible may actually bethewiseststrat: egy for protecting them. rock art and ruins andto enjoy theoc- Ju m Fanys/The Sublake Tribune casional experience of discovery. “People want a connection with the past,” Chris Goetze, a National Park Service archaeologist, standsin front of “Thirteen shesays, “evenif it's not their past.” Faces,” a pictographic panel in Canyonlands National Park. Utah’s national parks CANYONLANDS ARCHES ZION BRYCE CANYON Yearestablished: 1964 Acres: 337,598 Main attraction: Expansive redrock canyonsthat were cut by the Colorado and Green rivers Visitors in 2002: Twint NeLson/The Salt Lake Tribune 366,861 Budgetin 2003: $5 million cool of Weeping Rock in Zion Park. Budgetin 1993: $2.8 million As, Hanratany/‘The Salt Lake Tribune A visitor's view from Sunrise Pointin Yearestablished: 1909 as a national monument, then in 1919 as a national park Bryce CanyonNational Park. Acres: 148,016 Year established: 1923 as a national monument, then in 1924 as a national park Main attraction: Zion Canyon, carvedby the Virgin River through a gorge of colorful, monolithic formations Year established: 1929 as a national monument, then in 1971 as a national park Visitors in 2002: 2.6 million Nain attraction: Delicate Arch, the rock formation that has becometheicon for Utah's natural beauty Acres: 35,835 Main attraction: A giant amphitheater of brightly colored, eroded rock formations Visitors in 2002:1.4 million ‘Taunt Nuxs0n/The Salt Lake Tribune Visitors are silhouetted under Double Archin Arches National Park. Did you know? Located at the convergence of the Great Budgetin 1993: $1.7 million Basin, the Mojave Desert Did you know? Canyonlands National Parkis at the heart of an original schemeto set aside 20 miilion acres ofland in eastern Utah asa federal reserve. Acres: 76,519 Budgetin 2003: $5.9 million Budgetin 1993: $3 million Budgetin 2003: $2.7 million Did you know? The PinkCliffs of Bryce Canyon's rim form the top step of the Grand Staircase, a sweeping geologic feature of four cliff formations that begin with the Vermillion Cliffs near the Utah-Arizona border The view from the Green River Overlook. Ai. Hance aws/‘The Salt Lake Tribune A hiker takes in the view from the Visitors in 2002: 769,672 Budgetin 2003:$1.1 million Budgetin 1993: $696,000 and the Colorado Plateau, Zionhasthe state's highest concentrationof plant di versity. Its 900 species represent 70 percent of known plant species in Utah. Did you know? Edward Abbey's DesertSolitaire, published in 1968, spoke of 200 rock arches known to exist in Arches, then a national monument. Today, the count totals about 2,000. CAPITOL REEF Year established: 1936 as a national monument, 1971 as a national park Acres: 241,904 Main attraction: A monocline called the Waterpocket Fold, a colorful, 100-mile long wrinkle in the Earth’s crust reve Gal FIn/ TheSal La Tie Petroglyphs offer historical interest at Capitol Reef. Visitors in 2002: 606,146 Budgetin 2003: $1.9 million Budgetin 1993: $1 million Did you know? Beforeit became a national park, Utah lawmaker Joseph Hickman tried to turn the area into a state park andcall it "Wayne Wonderland." Capito! Reefis located in Wayne County. Inventory nificant threats,” such as air pollution, of park treasures often not done ment are known,” the GAO concludes, @ Continuedfrom Al possible impact on affected resources. In some cases, the Park Service is politically powerless to stop the ecolog! vandalismand nearby land develop. “However, even when thethreats Park Service has limitedscientific knowledgeabout their severity and says, “is this crumbling foundation,” Park managers can only guess whetherthatis true. “If you don't know what you have, how canyou protect id tell your visitors about it?” says Bryce Canyon Superintendent Craig Axtell. “There's a lot moreto this park than scenery.” cal threats, For example, the Bushad. At Capitol Reef, TomClark,the nat ural resource manager, believes the park’s wildlife species whichinclude ministration and Congress have chukars, mule deer, mountainlions providefor the enjoyment of the same thwartedtheagency's attempts to ban and bighornsheep But heand hisstaff really don't know the enjoyment of future generations. Thefact that the parks have ne- snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park. Park Service managers also are watching nervously as the president [to ensure they are left} unimpairedfor glectedtheir stewardship role in the past has not been lost on park watch dogs, suchas the National Parks Con. servation Association (NPCA) and the vice had just one archaeologistto find and tend all of the hidden settlements tempts to privatize Park Service func tions investigative arm of Congress. Ina January performance audit of chacology that are at the heart of the agency's mission. theInterior Department, the GAO ze Last month, the NPCA gave the Bush administration an “F" grade for its national parks policies, The Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group cited Bush “for failing to meet its its care, Frequently, baseline information wbout natura and cultural resourcesis incomplete or nonexistent, making it difficult for park managers to clearly such asinterpretation and ar often repeatedpledge to ‘restore and re new’ the national parks. Mark Peterson, director of the NP. ascertain thecondition of resources CA's“State of the Parks” program, says and whether resources are deteriorat the Bush administration should be ing, improving or staying the spendingabout ‘M percent more to meet same, says the GAO, The audit foundthe parksfice “sig Until two years ago, the Park Ser seeks to make it easier for states to gain control of roads on federal lands and at General Accounting Office (GAO),the roed in on how little the Park Service knows about the natural resources in aredoingwell. “Wedon't have the money to ana: lyzeit,” hesays, its obligations toward the resources. Beneath the veneer of beauty,” he andart panels left behind byancient peoplein 422,599 acres of parks and monuments in southeastern Utah. The mazeof sandstone canyons in Canyon: lands alone is 23 times greater than the size of New York's Manhattan Island About 3 percentof Canyonlands’ 437,570 acres has been surveyed for cul tural sites, and about 1,200 sites have been documented,says Chris Goetze, who headsa five-person teamof scien. tists and exhibit speciabiats. There's more work to do there than I couldever accomplish in a lifetime evenif [had all the money tn the Seo MEXT PAGE Traore Nice Tihe Salt Lalor Tridene Scrambling up the stickrock in Arches National Park Is notjust for tourists ~ animals get Into the act, too. Desert bighorn sheep, mountain goats and even mountain lions live in the park. At Bryce Canyon, Superintendent Craig Axtell is concerned about one of the smaller residents ~ the threatened Utah prairie dog. “We (the Park Service) need to be the leader in protecting these species,” he says. POOR C |