Just say no to grazing in the Grand Staircase-Escalante

Decades ago, the Bureau of Land Management retired grazing in the Grand Staircase-Escalante River's canyons. Willing ranchers accepted payment from the Grand Canyon Trust to
retire grazing in 59,000 acres, covering roughly 3% of the National Monument. The retirement
was supported by the governor of Utah and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

The BLM primarily closed Grand Staircase to grazing to eliminate conflicts between recreational users and livestock. The river bottoms of the Escalante River and its tributaries receive high use from both day and overnight hikers, and at the same time are vital habitat for wildlife and vegetation and crucial arbiters of water quality. While recreation has increased substantially in Escalante, wildlife and vegetation in its canyons and river bottoms has notably increased all the same.

In the past decade, nearly one thousand volunteers and conservation workers have
been working to remove Russian Olive trees from these canyons -- an invasive species that chokes the rivers so much that paddlers can barely get around them, and which crowds out native species. The result has been a remarkable recovery of native Cottonwood trees, willows, grasses and forbs. With this recovery, the wildlife is rebounding. This ecological recovery would be undone in a season or two if the BLM follows through on their plan to open 96% of Grand Staircase-Escalane -- including 30 miles of river bottom habitat -- to grazing.

Please write and tell the BLM NOT to reintroduce grazing to this area!

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Please do NOT reintroduce grazing in Grand Staircase-Escalante

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Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the BLM plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that will make the Escalante River available to livestock grazing, I do not support that plan. Roughly 30 miles of river bottom in this monument that includes Creeks from Death Hollow, The Gulch and more join the river and are one of the most popular hiking and camping backcountry areas in the USA. BLM’s new recommendations to open one of the most important recreation areas to livestock grazing may cause negative economic impacts. The local economy has shifted from a agricultural economy to one based on serving the tourism, recreation, and the communities. Service jobs now represent roughly 84% of the workforce in the two counties that contain Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Agriculture, of which ranching is the smaller part, represents just 6% of total employment in the area. Protecting those lands that support the core economy is important and represents a small impact to the total grazing use of the monument. I want my voice heard on this plan to call for continued protection of the Escalante River by NOT allowing reintroduction of grazing to this amazing place!

Greg Shine/BLM (CC BY 2.0)