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Show THE ZEPHYR APRIL 1990 PAGE 2 agendas make enough genuine blunders of their own, But those land management without anyone Inventing new ones. already find reality frustrating enough without having to grapple with fantasies as well. Of course, by the time this goes to press, the Safari Scare will have faded Into history, and a new rumor will have taken Its place. The beat goes on. I page two I Jim Stiles Before I finally found a way to move here and make Moab my home, the memories of my latest trip to the Canyon Country had to sustain me. On those bleak, gray claustrophobic days In Kentucky, when I thought Id explode If I didnt see a Juniper tree or a hundred mile vista, I clung to the little vignettes that burned brightly In my minds eye. Sometimes, Id sit by the window In my downtown Louisville apartment, and think of a particular red sandstone fin In the Devil's Garden. I'd think about the 360 degree view that wrapped around me and engulfed me from the Book Cliffs to the Uncompahgre Plateau, from Dead Horse Point to the La Sals. Sometimes, I thought about Comb Ridge, where the old dirt highway emerged from plnlon-Junlpthe hung precariously to the edge of an 800 foot cliff, and crept cautiously to the meandering green stream below. I had another before the road to Dead Horse Point climbed crystalline memory out of Seven Mile Canyon, before It swltchbacked Its way to the the little A paved road crossed an old wooden bridge. canopy of cottonwoods lined the wash and clustered around the bridge. High sandstone walls provided a brilliant red contrast to the translucent green leaves that rustled In the breeze. I camped there one evening In the late summer of 1974. It was so quiet and so lovely that I never forgot the moment I can feel It right now. But It Is a feeling that can never be repeated. The old wooden bridge Is gone, so are the cottonwoods... all of them. Tom from their roots and dumped In the wash to bleed and die, the trees were In the wav. So was the bridge, and so were the ghosts of the memories of silent serene evenings beneath the filtered falling light It was time to Improve the road. The State of Utah, at a cost of a few million more dollars, felt the current roadway was unsafe. The alignment was too crooked, the gradient too steep. Travelers actually had to slow down on the switchbacks and even had to (Oh no!) shift Into a lower gear, to make the climb. The road constituted a mild annoyance to those In a hurry, and a little adventure to those looking for a little adventure. But In its single-mindquest to turn the state Into one broad macadam surface, Utah the Department of Transportation has once again shown what It does best Although the road is the gateway to Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park, UDOT has displayed as much concern for aesthetics here, as a gorilla might exhibit In my mother's china cabinet Their mode of operation seems to be cut a swath about a hundred on , and flatten yards wide, wide enough for one of those big earth movers to make In everything sight What? Theres an old gnarled Juniper tree Inside the ribbons? Too bad. It's In the wav. Its gotta go. UDOT has abandoned the old switchbacks and are building new ones, blasting at times through 75 feet of solid rock. To reduce the gradient to Improve the alignment to make It safe. When theyre finished they'll haul away the carcasses of the trees, they'll grade the shoulders, and throw out some Siberian Wheat Grass or some other hybrid. In a while, well forget what the old road even looked like. I suppose In the whole scheme of things, It's not very Important; Its Just another little piece of "yesterday thats been lost We Just paved over one more stolen moment from our past But the moments are becoming a precious few. When theyve all been swallowed and digested and forgotten, what a boring world this will be. er, I dont know If Is worse than any other city, large or small, but It the certainly holds Its own. Ive often thought of conducting an experiment .. I'd deliberately plant a Juicy tld-b- lt of gossip with someone on the north end of town, and then race like the devil to see If I could beat It to Spanish Valley. I doubt that I'd have much of a chance since telephones travel at the speed of light Alan West touched on all this last month, but It As much as I love Moab, sometimes this town really gets to me. Mill-Grape- Moab-Gosslp-Ru- deserves to be repeated after hearing this weeks latest batch of misinformation. The Rumor of the Week that captured my attention this time around was the Jeep Cancellation Safari Scare that spread like wildfire for several days. From several sources I heard variants of the same rumor. Either the BLM or "extreme environmentalists were to Safari down shut the going altogether, leaving 600 avid 4 wheelers stranded In line Jeep on Main Street with no place to go. One version claimed that a new BLM manager, "a powerful woman BLMer had a plan to shut down all the trails by designating them wilderness study areas. It was all part of a sinister plot to put the Jeep Safari out of business. Another twist to the tale suggested that Earth First!, the militant environmental group, had Intimidated the BLM Into canceling the 24th annual event None of this made a lot of sense to me. After all, the Jeep Safari newspaper, published months ago, contains a letter full of warmth and greetings from District Manager Gene Nodlne. In fact the BLM presented the Red Rock Four Wheelers with a Take Pride In America award for their efforts In minimizing damage to the traveled areas and for their ongoing respect to the desert environment That, at least was the BLM's perception. So It didn't make any sense that the Bureau was about to shoot Itself In the foot by Infuriating thousands of Jeepers and making a shambles of our fragile tourist economy. Taking Alan Wests advice from the March Issue, I went to the source, In tills case Mary Plumb, the Public Information Officer. According to Mary, here Is what happened: The Four Wheelers proposed four new routes for the 1990 Safari. One of those routes crossed what appeared to be a road ess area (on BLM maps). If that turned out to be true, an archeological clearance would be required before the trail could be approved. The other route came extremely close to newly discovered paleontological sites which also generated concern. After a meeting that discussed those concerns, one BLM employee made an remark, suggesting those two routes (and those two only! may not be (Uke approved. Captain Kirk said, "One little mistake). The dreaded statement was overheard by a JeeperBystander and the employee apologized and retracted the comment But It was too late; the damage had been done. By weeks end, the story had grown to monumental proportions. I almost expected to hear that the BLM had declared martial law. Armed BLM Rangers In Jackboots and equipped to the teeth with AK47s and riot gear, PR 24 combat batons, flame throwers, cruise missiles. You get the Idea. In any case the story was slightly exaggerated. Im no apologist for the Bureau of Land Management by any stretch of the Imagination (tills months public watchdog story should confirm that). In fact, I can get pretty cynical about the performance of the BLM and Its sister agencies the U. S. Forest Service and the National Park Service. I worked for the NPSforll years andl left disillusioned and disturbed by the direction that taken. has agency off-the-c- uff Island-ln-the-S- ky, ed rns fast-growi- ng CANYON COUNTRY ZEPHYR know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their I 100 discretion. Thomas Jefferson posters and T-shi- rts cotton shirts (M, L, XL) $14.00 e 11x17 signed poster $6.00 ea add $2.00 postage and handling Utah residents add 6 tax THE CANYON COUNTRY name ZEPHYR P.O.BOX 327 shirt (size). quantity. posters (quantity) MOAB, UTAH 84532 3 (801) JIM STILES, PUBLISHER 259-777- Trish West production manager SUBSCRIBE NOW contributing writers Lance Christie, Ken Davey, Jean Eardley, Diane Fouts, Raquel Shumway, John Se'nsenbrenner, Alan West the roving eyes Becky Knouff, Paul Swanstrom a The Canyon Country Zephyr is a monthly newspaper, published eleven times year venat Moab, Utah. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of its dors, advertisers, or even at times of its publishers. 1989 The Canyon Country Zephyr all rights reserved an annual subscription is only $12.00 THE CANYON COUNTRY name address ZEPHYR P.O. BOX 327 MOAB, UTAH 84532 |
