Canyonlands National Park and Orange Cliffs Unit of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Environmental Assessment for Backcountry Management Plan

Whether on foot. bicycle. horseback. or in vehicles, most visitors come to Canyonlands National Park (Canyonlands) to experience solitude or to get away from people. Yet visitation to Canyonlands has risen exponentially over the past five years (Figures I and 2). Visitation is expected to continue to rise. As a function of this increase in number of visitors, adverse impacts to Canyonlands\u27 resources have increased and the visitors\u27 ability to find solitude has decreased. Since the mandate of the National Park Service (NPS) is to balance visitor access to the parks with preservation and protection of natural and cultural resources, rising visitation to Canyonlands has necessitated a new Backcountry Management Plan (Plan). In 1992, 396,91 I visitors entered Canyonlands. Only 15,629 of these visitors. or 4 percent, spent one or more nights in the backcountry. It is visitors accessing the backcountry that will be most affected by this change in management policy. Since the goal of this Plan is to prevent significant damage to resources, provide for public use, and protect scenic values and a sense of solitude in backcountry areas, the ways visitors use Canyonlands will be affected. This draft Plan is presented as an Environmental Assessment (EA) in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Following NEPA regulations, this EA includes a brief discussion of the need for the Plan, a No Action section describing the present policies, proposed changes presented under Preferred and Other Alternalives, and a section describing the Environmental Consequences of the alternatives described. Management alternatives are presented below, no final decisions have been made at this point. Based on comments received from the public, this EA will be modified, and final management alternatives will be selected . The final Plan is expected 10 be ready by February 1994, and will be implemented as soon as the NEPA process is completed, pending funding. The Plan will provide management direction for the backcountry for the next five years. Current policy for backcountry use is presented as the No Action Alternative: proposed changes are presented as the Preferred and Other Alternatives section. Where a clear preferred alternative has not been selected, or if other policies are also being considered , other choices are presented. Finally, the section on Environmental Consequences describes how the various alternatives affect natural, cultural, and socioeconomic resources

Environmental Assessment : Middle Salt Creek Canyon Access Plan Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Salt Creek is the largest drainage in the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. The creek supports one of the most important riparian ecosystems in the park. It is also the heart of the Salt Creek National Register Archeological District, the area with the highest recorded density of archeological sites in the park. A tributary canyon contains the spectacular Angel Arch, a well-known geologic formation that for many years has been a destination point for park visitors. In 1998 the U.S. District Court for the State of Utah ruled, in a lawsuit filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, that the National Park Service violated the NPS Organic Act (16 U.S.C. 1 et seq.) by failing to close the upper 8.2 miles (above Peekaboo campsite) of the Salt Creek four-wheel drive road in the 1995 Canyonlands Backcountry Management Plan. The jeep road weaves in and out of the creek, sometimes remaining in the streambed for extended lengths. The court found that vehicles upstream of Peekaboo Spring caused permanent impairment of park resources, and enjoined the NPS from continuing to allow limited use of the area by motorized vehicles. Four-wheel-drive groups appealed the decision, and in 2000 the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case to the district court. The remand included instructions to re-examine the administrative record and consider the new NPS Management Policies in regard to the question of “impairment of park resources or values,” the central issue in the case. With the concurrence of the U.S. District Court of Utah, the NPS has prepared an environmental assessment (EA) to analyze the impacts of a range of alternatives for recreational access to the portion of Salt Creek Canyon from Peekaboo Camp to Angel Arch Canyon (“Middle Salt Creek Canyon”), and to apply the new NPS Management Policies on impairment to the alternatives. The management objective, toward which the EA alternatives are directed, is based on the NPS Organic Act, the act establishing Canyonlands National Park, and the issues on remand to the district court: To provide recreational access to Middle Salt Creek Canyon without major adverse impacts or impairment of the natural and cultural resources. The list of possible management alternatives includes limited year-around vehicle access under the permit system established in the 1995 Backcountry Management Plan (BMP), part-year vehicle access under the permit system, realignment of the existing four-wheel-drive road, year-round prohibitions on motorized vehicles, or a combination of these actions. The three vehicle-access alternatives, each of which would permit vehicle travel through substantial portions of the streambed and riparian area, have been found to cause impairment of park resources or values, which is prohibited by the National Park Service Organic Act. Consequently, an alternative prohibiting motorized vehicles year-round, but permitting access by hiking or pack stock, is identified as the preferred alternative