MONUMENT USES: What the stroke of a president's pen has meant for region's monuments

What would actually happen if a monument were created, most likely through presidential proclamation rather than an act of Congress, is difficult to project. Management of each monument is uniquely shaped by the resources deemed in need of stronger protection.

However, with the idea that history can provide insight into the present and future, below is a sampling of how management of neighboring monuments — Grand Canyon-Parashant, Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Staircase-Escalante — changed after they received the presidential proclamation.

COMMON FEATURES

Several changes affected all three monuments. Like most others, the monument proclamations barred new mineral leases, mining claims, prospecting or exploration activities as well as oil, gas and geothermal leases. That mattered much more at Grand Staircase-Escalante, where a large coal mining operation was in the works, than at Grand Canyon-Parashant, which had no impending mineral development.

Monument status also has brought higher visitation to the monuments. Vermilion Cliffs, for example, has seen visitor numbers climb from 40,000 in 2000 to nearly 190,000 last year, according to Rachel Carnahan, BLM public information officer. Studies have shown a general upward trend in the surrounding local economies as well. A 2014 study of 17 national monuments by Headwaters Economics showed two-thirds of the communities adjacent to the monuments grew at the same rate or faster than similar counties in the state.

Maggie Sacher a longtime resident and lodge owner in the Vermilion Cliffs area, has seen that economic impact up close.

“I think the economics of the area have been shored up because of the monument,” Sacher said. “The fishery inside the park is going downhill, but visitation has been going up at the monument.”

A monument designation also tends to attract more attention to subsequent management decisions made on the landscape, said Ethan Aumack, conservation director at the Grand Canyon Trust.

“Overall there is more attention given by the general public and monument managers to ensure actions that are taken and decisions that are made are consistent with the monument proclamation,” Aumack said.

ADDITIONAL FUNDING

Stretching across much of Arizona north of the Grand Canyon, Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Canyon-Parashant national monuments were both created by presidential proclamation in 2000.

The monument designation, and climbing visitor numbers that have come with it, have attracted additional funding for site protection and infrastructure like trails, signs and bathrooms in the areas, said Pam Foti, a professor in parks and recreation management at Northern Arizona University who has studied recreation impacts on public lands across the Four Corners states.

“I remember going up to the Arizona Strip and there weren't restrooms or trails on any of it. Now we have those amenities,” Foti said.

The rise in visitation also has necessitated shifts in management strategies. Rising popularity of a swirling sandstone feature called The Wave within Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, for example, has spurred the BLM to create a new business plan for the area. In a first draft released last summer, the agency proposed to replace the walk-in lottery with a 48-hour online lottery and nearly double the fees for overnight camping and day use permits.

Grazing, another main use within Vermilion Cliffs, hasn’t been significantly changed or affected, Aumack said. The Grand Canyon Trust holds grazing permits across much of the monument and is part of a multi-agency partnership to promote sustainable grazing across a broad area north of the Grand Canyon.

At Vermilion Cliffs, the monument designation has also allowed for some modest funding for science that has been used for things like bat research and surveys to understand how different species are using the area, said Aumack.

At Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, off-road motorized travel was expressly prohibited and sale of vegetative material, like timber, is permitted “only if part of an authorized science-based ecological restoration project.”

LITTLE SUBSTANTIAL IMPACT

For all the controversy that erupted after President Bill Clinton declared monument status for Grand Staircase-Escalante’s 1.9 million acres, Clinton’s proclamation has had little substantial impact on most of the uses allowed and prohibited on the land. While new mineral leases were prohibited, livestock grazing was grandfathered in and more than 96 percent of the monument is still open to cattle. Up to now, livestock grazing decisions have been based on 1980s-era land use plans that existed before the monument’s creation in 1996. Only now is the BLM embarking upon a process to create a new grazing plan that would better integrate livestock grazing with the management of other resources.

While recreation is generally allowed to continue, there are now limits on group sizes and the number of people allowed in backcountry areas in order to protect the monument’s "frontier atmosphere," said Cynthia Staszak, monument manager.

Monument designation also made a big difference in terms of staffing levels. In Grand Staircase-Escalante's initial years, employee numbers surged, Staszak said.

“It was pretty exciting in the early years,” she said. “There was an opportunity back then to do so much as far as identification of the resources and do research on all these key objects.”

One of the BLM’s big pushes was to inventory the geological, archaeological and paleontological resources that Clinton’s proclamation specifically named as needing protection.

Beyond adding people power, the influx of new staffers was a breath of fresh air, said Scott Groene, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

“The BLM is an agency often captured by local politics so having someone from the outside means they put greater emphasis on the national value of the place,” Groene said.

Two decades after the monument was created, however, resources and special focus dedicated to the area have declined. The total number of monument staff, including scientists to study the landscape’s resources, is now about one-third of what it was in the beginning, Staszak said.

The shift is apparent to those on the outside looking in, Groene said.

“It got a lot of attention and I think people felt like it had strong management, but 20 years later that emphasis is fading,” Groene said. “It feels like it’s not being given the sort of extra care that was present initially upon the designation.”