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Show we started the BMP, we had 287 people in Elephant Canyon in the Needles on a peak day. We had toilet paper problems, we had trampling problems, and you could see tent site marks for a long time afterwards. The BMP won't ever let that happen again. We have group size limits, and we have limits on the number of groups (and vehicles per group) that can be in one place at one time, so that visitor groups don't spread out and hammer the area. In Salt Creek, we had 120 vehicles that we know of on a peak vehicles day going up the creek. Now we have a limit on vehicles per day, and have to be less impactful than 120. We may have to tweak it based on our. per day but in Canyonlands I believe we've put something together that reasonably experience, protects the resource and reasonably protects the experience. What we probably haven't adequately addressed is day use. Overnight use I feel real good about, but the day use into some areas (not the Maze or the Island in the Sky except for the White Rim Road) is going to be a lot harder to get a handle on. Trying to limit day use represents a huge logistical operation; how can we be at every trailhead contacting every visitor saying, "You can go in now, or "You have to make a reservation." When someone pays their fee at the park entrance and then drives in, they can say, "I think well do a three-miler-," and go into the same area where someone else is I know could deal with day use which goes beyond the we don't how overnighting. popular group destinations, but someday we may have to. 7--15 CHRISTIE: I understand that you initially supported a proposal in the BMP to dose Salt Creek in the Needles District to vehicular traffic, but ultimately compromised on a plan to limit the number of vehicles per day instead. 4WD vehicles used to be allowed in Courthouse Wash at Arches, but it was dosed 25 years ago because of resource damage. What makes jeep traffic acceptable in Salt Creek and not in Courthouse Wash? DABNEY: Salt Creek is a really interesting dilemma. The first element of the dilemma is the 1978 Canyonlands General Management Plan (GMP), which says that Salt Creek shall be open to vehicular traffic; and says the NPS should be guiding tours up it. The GMP is the primary management plan for the Park; the River Plan or BMP are subservient to it and can't change it. Until you open the GMP back up and revise it through a public process, you are stuck with it legally. I felt we had a problem with Salt Creek because the level of vehicle use had become inappropriate and threatened the riparian resource. On the other hand, if you take this magazine article on Canyonlands, it shows Angel Arch on the cover. When Bates Wilson was selling the idea of creating Canyonlands National Park, he took loads of people up Salt Creek to Angel Arch as a destination. It is on brochures all over the world as a place in Canyonlands that is special, almost spiritual, that you need to go to. So, there is a lot of public interest in it as a destination. Our mandate says we must balance preservation of a resource against a reasonable expectation of being able to enjoy it. The absolute closure of the Salt Creek road at Cave Springs effectively eliminates visitation of Angel Arch. It is 13 miles by foot from the Cave Springs gate to Angel Arch. From Peekaboo, it would have been a round trip to Angel Arch. A number of people at public hearings said they agreed that leaving Salt Creek open to unlimited vehicle use did not make sense; they suggested limiting the number, and talking to people about the proper way to drive their vehicle and deal with archaeological sites to limit impact on the resources. This would prevent closing off all practical access to one of the principal and most historically publicized features of the Needles District at least until the GMP is reviewed. When the GMP is opened, all decisions and policies will be on the table, including having limited vehicle use in Salt Creek and what its effects have been. Salt Creek vehicle access was in there long before Canyonlands National Park was established, and we've closed part of the historical vehicular way. Most recently, we closed the upper section that went to Bates Wilson Camp and pulled that camp out of there. We pulled several camps out of there. We also addressed Lavender and limited vehicles there so that we don't just dump vehicular use from Salt Creek into Lavender. We closed Davis Canyon to vehicular use so people have a canyon to hike without vehicles. 19-mi- CHRISTIE: Obviously visitation to the parks is increasingly dramatically, and thus effort to protect resources and provide interpretation and law enforcement services increases. The Southeast Area Group has been selected as test sites for significantly increased user fees. How are the revenues generated from these fee increases being spent ? basis. As established, DABNEY: The program seems to be changing on a it returns 80 of the additional fees to the parks, which has to be used for infrastructure - maintenance and improvement projects - and not for permanent staff. It can be used for roads, trails, rehabilitation of buildings, visitor services, sewer ay (801)259-438- 4 d, site-planni- ng fast-movi- ng CHRISTIE: That brings us into the related question of the proportion between the staffing in the parks of people doing interpretation, law enforcement, and direct resource management, and administrative staff. Direct staffing has not kept pace with visitor increases. At the Fiery Furnace, almost all the paid walks are led by relatively inexperienced Student Conservation Aides. On the other kind, the headquarters staff has apparently outgrown its budding three times in the past 20 years. Do you believe the workforce is appropriately distributed between the field and headquarters administrative staffs? DABNEY: I think the field staff situation is improving in Canyonlands and Arches. I did not fill the Superintendency at Arches, but instead put that money into hiring continued on next page. "Mystery of list Arch" is centers and cool book stores. And OK 254 WALLIS UNIT D EUGENE, OR 97402 South, Suite 108 (541) 345-433- MOABITES! Weteonly 1193 miles away. Call your Oregon friends. Call the West Coast. 8 'That was dose, Kevin. (800)635-528- 0 You almost blew our cover." a translation Kevin. Lets! try some simple English. Hereto what we really do. We take afien technology removed from the Roswel crash, adapt it to human needs and.. Jiuh?xh,yeah. forgot. Actually, we write custom software programs to manage information previuosiy I Moab.UT 84532 Is Desiree? 8 We're a wholesale bakery featuring whole and our new spelt breads grain, multi-grai- n made from organically grown flours. If you're in Eugene or on the Oregon coast, look for us at any of the natural food stores and at some supermarkets. (Our breads ship well too.) Give us a call if you're interested in some of the best bread In the West. written on paper forms and then stored cabinets. Pretty simple, huh." 121 East 100 345-433- In file p. okcorralmicron.net z0S.jj6.70s Leave me alone, rm cartoon-shy- , "OK, Tm making technology work for you. Corral Production!, tell 'em Coyote sent Who WHAT WE DO: the little... the desert southwest look for it at national parks and monuments, visitor PRINTS We write custom software for the big people and the greatest outdoor adventure comic for families visiting le New User Fees day-to-d- systems and outhouses; to address the whole backlog of maintenance which the parks have built up. We have had virtually zero trail maintenance, except for volunteers, for the past 12 years. I really want to see a chunk of that money go into a locally-basetrail crew to go in yearly and make the trails defined and maybe youth-base-d, in good repair so people will stay on trails and not stomp the cryptos. At Arches, for example, we need a good visitor center. The existing one was built in 1958 when we had 35,000 folks coming here. It can't handle 900,000 and it certainly can't handle 13 million. We need to redesign that whole entrance into Arches, maybe even remove some buildings; fee money can pay for a project there which cleans the entrance up. Now we have people trying to turn in and out of Arches onto a highway, and we have people backing up from the single fee station all the way to, and sometimes out onto, US 191. We need to fix that. We need equipment for our staff to use on the river. This fee money can be used to address problems which appropriated dollars have not kept up with. This money may also help local government deal with sewage or trash which is coming out of the parks. The fee money is not going in to building a bunch of new infrastructure in the parks. Tell the Woddabout our bread! |
