Maybe Jim Stiles wasn't all wrong, and not just about Utah's red rock country

These thoughts were provoked by this Substack piece about a Wilderness Study Area on the South Fork of the Crooked River. 

For the unknowing, here are two definitional points.

First, here's what a wilderness study area is:

Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) are lands that have outstanding features such as naturalness, opportunities for solitude and recreation, and other qualities that make them suitable for inclusion in the National Wilderness System. Other factors used to determine eligibility as a WSA were historic, scientific, geological, ecological, or scenic values.

There you go.

Second, there are several activities prohibited in actual wilderness lands. (Unfortunately, per the piece above, cow shit is not one of them. "Mr. Reclamation," per Marc Reisner in "Cadillac Desert," Colorado Western Slope Congresscritter Wayne Aspinall, insisted that shitting cows be allowed to remain inside wilderness areas before he'd let the eventual 1964 Wilderness Act see the light of day. 

One of them is "mechanical transport," which, per this federal law site, has always been understood to include bicycles. Mountain bikers hate this. Too bad. 

With that said, yes, a wilderness study area is not wilderness. But, it's preserved in wilderness-like status.

So, why the hell is the Oregon Desert Land Trust promoting mountain biking in the South Fork of the Crooked WSA? I quote:

Spanning both sides of the river, the South Fork Crooked River parcel helps ensure public access to fishing, hunting, hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding in the basin.

Yeesh.

And, I have emailed both their "info" general contact email and their executive director. I've heard nothing back. 

As in, I started writing this piece two weeks ago, before I went on vacation, and have heard nothing back.

Friend Lyle Lewis suspects they want their capitalist piece of the action, so that's surely why. 

So, that gets me to where I say the late, long-term Moabite curmudgeon Stiles was maybe more than half right. 

Or maybe still less than half right.

Directly relevant to the current environmental and land preservation situation, Stiles went apeshit, not over Trump shrinking Bears Ears, but Dear Leader wanting to preserve it better (sort of) a decade ago. 

And, on that part of the story, Stiles was dead wrong. As of 18 months ago, 65 percent of Utahns wanted to keep both it and GSE as is, as part of expressing support for all monuments "as is." That said, I'm not sure if that means size unchanged, or just keeping them rather than eliminating them. Of that, 51 percent were "definitely" in favor. And, 54 percent of Utah Republicans were in favor, with 30 percent definitely in favor.

The Substack that comes from fudged a bit. Yes, more than 71 percent approve of keeping Bears Ears, but that's without the "as is," which is for all national monuments. 

Speaking of? My comments on this Substack that "branding" by naming both GSE and Bears Ears National Park Service national monuments from the start might have helped is getting a lot of support. And, several commenters agree with my take on the modern Democratic party.

My thoughts on #BearsEars

For the new national monument, a great starting point is Jonathan Thompson's piece at High Country News. And, a great backgrounder piece, plus a showing of his chops as a writer, is Jonny Peace's article from this summer.

So, that's our starting point.

Here's some sidebar and backgrounder cold takes from me.

1. I'm not a total fan of BLM and Forest Service national monuments. Haven't been since the Slickster made Grand Staircase-Escalante the first one, or at least the first of any size, on the BLM side, and Giant Sequoia the first of any size on the USFS side. (Doesn't Fish and Wildlife get a National Wildlife Refuge upgraded at some point?)

That said, I've been through portions of Giant Sequoia once, at night driving. Not sure how much the additional protections there are, or the additional values added.

Grosvenor Arch at GSE Nat'l Monument.
Photo by Steve Snyder

I've been to GSE twice, or rather, somewhat through it, especially on the first trip, as well as nibbled around its edges a couple of other times. I've been to Carrizo Plain and Klamath-Siskyou (rumored to be on Obama's list for expansion).

And, as for our newest site, I've done some putz-around hiking on Cedar Mesa and at the start of Grand Gulch as well as other spots at the edges of the new monument. So, I'm not a total stranger to the area.

That said, let's dive in.

First, protection, even under the BLM and its different philosophy on Western lands, as well as the tradeoffs with these things, is better than the older, less adequate protections within the same agencies. And, elimination of new grazing leases is part of the enabling of the monument. Francis Biddle, FDR's attorney general, issued a 1938 opinion that a future president cannot kill a previous president's national monument created under the Antiquities Act. (That said, Woodrow Wilson DID cut TR's original Olympic National Monument in half in 1915.)

Second, as of my most recent visit to GSE just over a year ago, I noticed that the BLM has a new, pretty nice, pretty informative visitor center replacing the old one. And, the workers there seemed to be a couple of old-time desert rats from somewhere on the Plateau, whatever state's BLM office they started in.

They'll tell you some gossip about the creation of the marina towns on Lake Powell, some serious talk about dinosaur sites in the monument, and more. Nice bookstore there, and some nice dinosaur displays. There's still the Old Paria movie set, etc. Oh, the famous "Wave"? It's only a couple of acres.

In other words, the BLM has shown that it's not a horrible steward of such sites. And, per the staffers above, they might be more down-to-earth at times than Park Service rangers.

The Abajo Mountains, in background, from Canyonlands National Park.
Photo by Steve Snyder

2. Re compromises, per Jonny's main piece at the first link, and the BLM official map, now that boundaries have been set, I don't like all the compromises in the final package. Most notably, I think the Abajos should have been included, both for a higher general natural beauty protection, and given the American Indian background to the monument as a whole, their Ute history.

Incorporating the Abajos could also, in theory, have addressed another issue, by transferring the Manti-LaSal National Forest lands involved to the BLM.

Still a bit of Kumbaya in Obama, and it probably popped up there.

That said, I'm not sure, but is this maybe the first of the new national monuments that has both BLM and Forest Service land inside the same monument? I know the two agencies already do bits of work coordination on adjacent lands, but, how well will this work out?

The pristine night skies of the new Bears' Ears National Monument are clear
in this picture of the Big Dipper. / Photo by Steve Snyder

3. That said, in light of No. 1 and 2, I can defend, or even praise, Obama doing this, while still noting that in many ways, including violations of our civil liberties, foreign bombing campaigns, no national health care and, re the National Park Service, a weak, neoliberalized centennial celebration, he's not the bees' knees as president. (On the Great Blue Satan, in a closed group, not all are of the same mind, as far as praising this while remaining critical in general. Vis-a-vis those folks, while I agree that, versus Preznit Kumbaya, you don't compromise away the compromise in advance — along with his other issues — there is a right time to compromise in some way.)

In short, this isn't a zero-sum game.

As for the blathering of San Juan County, Utah, residents? The land most productive for farming and ranching was either homesteaded by Mormon pioneers before the old General Land Office took federal control — in actuality, not just theory — or else sold off by the GLO. There's plenty of other places to do ORV driving, anyway. As for mineral rights and leases? Well, BLM is often too lenient. Besides, especially if it's coal, it needs to be kept in the ground anyway. And, of course, existing grazing as well as mineral leases remain operative, per a BLM FAQ. The land size is little different than the likes of Randy Bishop proposed, too. The Indian tribal consultation that's part of the monument surely is a difference, though (Those tribes involved are the Hopi Nation, the Navajo Nation, the Zuni Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah Ouray.)

And, many people, like Friends of Cedar Mesa, got tired of Bishop's sandbagging, and that of others, and called on Obama to do exactly what he did.

Finally in this vein, I wonder if tribal management consulting will get tied to enforcement of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, for theft of potsherds, etc. And, will such consulting allow law enforcement of the various tribes to wield their badges inside the monument? (Update: Jonny says the Archaelogical Resource Protection Act, or ARPA, is what to look to, and that it's unlikely tribal police will patrol inside the monument.)

It may not be a lot, but anything in this regard would be better, for those who know the history of the largely Mormon pothunters in the county.

Speaking of that, per Obama's proclamation, the area is potential as much a fossil trove as GSE, and needs more protection for that reason too.

4. Some broader thoughts on the Park Service, vis-a-vis comments on another High Country News story to another commenter, are next.

No, we do not need mega-sized national parks in all 50 states. (This person was behind an earlier version of what is now the Maine Woods National Monument. He wanted 3.5 million acres, far, far bigger than its actual size. If you're wondering, that's one-seventh the entire state of Maine, or the same size as Death Valley National Monument.)

Second, we do NOT need more NPS units until we address not only the well-documented maintenance backlogs, but also continue work on purchase of private inholdings at current NPS units.

Third, in that situation, and if private entities can't come together for an actual plan, not a Randy Bishop-type head fake like his over Bears' Ears, then a BLM or BLM/Forest Service, national monument is better than nothing indeed.

5. Speaking of BLM, more photos, and information, about both Bears' Ears and Gold Butte on its Tumblr.

Death by GPS

More and more tourists are blindly trusting GPS systems in places like Death Valley and getting led down roads that, if not technically closed, may be too advanced for their rental vehicles.

Increasingly, park rangers say tourists are being led into danger by technology, especially satellite-based GPS units designed to guide them to unfamiliar destinations along a network of roads in a navigation database.

In Death Valley, many roads shown on some GPS systems are no longer passable. Some have been officially closed. Others are simply too rough for most vehicles and pose serious danger.

"People are so reliant on their GPS that they fail to look out the windshield and make wise decisions based on what they're seeing," said Alley.

One case happened last summer, when visitors arriving from the west on Highway 190 told their GPS to take them to Scotty's Castle, a popular tourist destination at the north end of the park, which is easily accessible by paved road.

Instead, the unit directed them over an unpaved, winding, washboard road toward Saline Valley, where they turned right onto an even rougher four-wheel-drive road and became stuck near a remote abandoned mine site called Lippincott.

"People don't realize that if they tell the unit to find the shortest route to somewhere, it's not necessarily finding the shortest, safe, paved route," Callagan said.
"One of the healthier ones walked out, 20 to 25 miles, and made contact with one of our rangers," he added. "Everybody survived, but they weren't in great shape."

And, in some cases, it's killing people.

If you're new to a national park or monument that has lots of backcountry, stop at a visitor center first. Besides DV, that would include places like Joshua Tree, Mohave National Preserve, Canyonlands and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

And, admit when you've gone beyond your backcountry nature and/or driving skills level:

"A lot of people don't realize you should just turn around and go back the way you came," (Death Valley ranger Amber Natress) said. "We see that a lot here."

And, if you're too stubborn for that, consider not visiting one of the aforementioned parks. Many such people think that, if they do get stuck or lost, all they need to do is whip out their cell phones. Well, in larger, remote parks and monuments, you may not get cell service. Inside a deep canyon, since electromagnetic waves don't bend, you CAN'T get cell service unless you're on a satellite phone.

Alaska to sue over polar bear listing

The state of Alaska, boo-hooing that listing polar bears as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, says it will sue the U.S. Department of Interior.

You know, Alaska reminds me of Utah, and Alaskan politicians of Utah counterparts, specifically over their fights over Grand Staircase-Escalante, etc.

They make massive amounts of money off tourism, probably more in Alaska and definitely more in Utah, in the short term than off extractive industries, and definitely much more in the long term.

But both states lust after carbon, whether in the form of oil or of coal, like a cheap junkie looking for a fix. And, their eyes can’t see beyond that next fix.