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

Cultural Resource Inventory and Testing in the Salt Creek Pocket and Devils Lane Areas, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

This document is the final technical report on the first phase of a multiyear archeological program conducted in Canyonlands National Park. Some of the purposes of this project are to gather information for upgrading the park\u27s interpretive program, increase the scientific understanding of Canyonlands\u27 prehistory, and prepare a research design to guide future investigations. Archeological inventory of 4500 acres in the Needles District revealed a previously undocumented Archaic occupation and showed that Formative peoples using the area were primarily the Mesa Verde Anasazi, not the Fremont and Anasazi as previously thought. The data also indicate that prehistoric peoples used the survey area on an intermittent basis, primarily to hunt, harvest wild plants, and procure local lithic resources. There is little evidence of horticultural activities. Finally, an uncorrected radiocarbon date of 3340 +- 100 years: 1390 B.C. was obtained from a site with Barrier Canyon Style rock art; the association is suggestive but more research is needed before the date is unquestioningly applied to the Barrier Canyon rock art

Archeological Investigations at Two Sites in Dinosaur National Monument: 42UN1724 and 5MF2645

Archeological excavations in Dinosaur National Monument (DINO) were conducted at 5MF2645 (the Pool Creek Site) in 1988 and 42UN1724 (Juniper Ledge Shelter) in 1989. The information from these two sites, along with additional archeological data obtained between 1988 and 1992, have expanded our knowledge of the past 3700 years of human occupation in the DINO area. Juniper Ledge Shelter (42UN1724) is a south-southeast facing rockshelter in the Jones Hole Ely Creek area of the monument. Excavation of a two meter square unit produced evidence of three occupational components and a Fremont burial of an adult female with associated artifacts. The upper two components at the site produced information on the Fremont/Numic transition, while the lowest component contained evidence of early corn horticulture. The Pool Creek Site (5MF2645) is a Fremont open habitation site situated on a ridge north-east of Pool Creek, within the steep canyon system of the Green and Yampa Rivers. Excavations uncovered a Fremont pithouse with associated features and artifacts and a Fremont burial with the remains of an adult female and an infant. Data from 42UN1724 and 5MF2645 provide macro-floral, pollen, faunal, and radiocarbon data on Fremont settlement and subsistence patterns, mortuary practices, and the Fremont/Numic transition

Final Environmental Impact Statement Nez Perce National Historical Park and Big Hole National Battlefield

This Final Environmental Impact Statement for Nez Perce National Historical Park and Big Hole National Battlefield is an abbreviated document. It is important to understand that this Final Environmental Impact Statement must be read in conjunction with the previously published Draft General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement

Water Resources Management Plan Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park

This Water Resources Management Plan describes the water resources of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and the issues affecting them. This plan provides detailed descriptions of the hydrologic environment in both parks, discussion of management issues developed in two scoping sessions, and management directives in the form of project statements. Typically, a Water Resources Management Plan is preceded by a scoping meeting held at the park. In this case, the Southeast Utah Group of parks (Southeast Utah Group), which includes Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Natural Bridges National Monument, held two scoping meetings. The first scoping session, held in May 1996, resulted in the Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, and Natural Bridges National Monument Water Resources Scoping Report (Berghoff and Vana-Miller, 1997), and the second scoping meeting, held in September 1997, involved federal, state, and local agencies which helped to refine further the issues developed in the scoping report

Timpanogos Cave National Monument Environmental Impact Statement, General Management Plan, Development Concept Plan

This plan was initiated to fulfill the legal requirements as mandated by section 604 of Public Law 95-625 and is in compliance with NPS management policies, applicable legislation, and executive requirements. The purpose of this Environmental Impact Statement/General Management Plan/Development Concept Plan is to identify and assess the various management alternatives and associated potential environmental impacts relative to monument operations, visitor use and access, natural and cultural resource management, and general development at Timpanogos Cave National Monument. In developing these alternatives, special attention was focused on the management objectives of the monument and current issues as presented in the Purpose and Need for the Plan section of this document

A Prototype for Quality: Bryce Canyon National Park Interpretive Prospectus, 1987

To ensure maximum coordination of message delivery, personal service efforts should be orchestrated as a result of annual (winter season) planning sessions involving TW Services, Bryce/Zion Trail Rides, and park personnel. Such planning should coordinate general summer season schedules, brainstorm new program ideas and service proposals, and establish procedures for monitoring and evaluation. This is also an opportunity to identify high priority messages regarding resources, events, new services, and park management pertinent in the coming season; in this manner, emphases for seasonal training are established

Proposed Allagash National Recreation Area

In 1970 the Allagash Wilderness Waterway became America’s first federally protected-state managed Wild river. In 1961 United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall had commissioned this proposal. This proposal and actions in the Maine Legislature aided in compelling the citizens of Maine to vote in 1966 to protect the river by authorizing a $1.5 million bond.https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/1323/thumbnail.jp

Long Range Interpretive Plan: Grand Portage National Monument, 2005

Washington: Department of the Interior.This report summarizes the Park mission and goals and primary interpretive themes. It provides detail on visitor experiences, visitor experience goals, and existing conditions assessment, information about the Park website, and on-site visitor services and information. It lists interpretive programs, informal programs, facilities and wayside exhibits. A number of private and public partnerships are listed, as well as community events, curatorial and library services, and disability information. There are numerous recommendations to make the Park more amenable to visitors as a tourist destination. The report does not generally focus on water resources except for the introductory and background information at the beginning of the report. Key passages are extracted and reproduced below. Summary: "The Grand Portage or Gitchi Onigaming (Great Carrying Place) is an 8.4-mile trail on the northwestern periphery of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River drainage in the middle of North America. It connected the lakeshore with Pigeon River, an embarkation point for Native peoples, explorers, and voyageurs heading west and a gathering point for furs going east. The portage was the most direct route from the Great Lakes into the Canadian interior. Several falls and cataracts blocked human travelers’ use of the Pigeon River so that a portage was needed, hence the name “Grand Portage.” French and later British traders entered the Great Lakes-Northwest trade by traveling west from Montreal. Having learned to use birch bark canoes, they moved into the mid-continent along an established inland network of Indian canoe routes. Building on entrenched Indian exchange practices and catering to Indian preferences, traders bartered imported European goods and commodities for Indian furs, provisions, and services. This ultimately led to an intercultural exchange of languages, ideas, technologies, diseases, and genes. It also promoted commercial, political, and marital alliances. PLAN “When the North West Company and the XY Company moved their operations north to Kaministikwia (later Fort William, Ontario) at the beginning of the 19th century, Grand Portage became remote to the main channels of trade and communication and less important to the outside world. The boundary between Canada and the United States between Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods was not firmly established until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Under the terms of that treaty, the Grand Portage clearly became United States property; however, the use of the trail was to remain free and open to citizens of both the United States and Great Britain. The historic portage represents the essential resources of Grand Portage National Monument, which is bordered on the north and south by the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, on the east by Lake Superior, and on the west by the Pigeon River and Canada. It lies within both the Grand Portage Indian Reservation and the unincorporated community of Grand Portage. The community is the homeplace and tribal government center of the Grand Portage Band of Minnesota Chippewa (Ojibwe).

Zion Canyon Headquarters, Zion National Park, Utah, Draft Development Concept Plan, Environmental Assessment

The study area, referred to as the headquarters area, incorporates the area from the south entrance station north to the Zion Canyon bridge. This includes the visitor center, the Watchman and South campgrounds, the amphitheaters, the nature center, the Oak Creek, Watchman, and Pine Creek residential areas, and the Oak Creek maintenance area. The study area encompasses approximately 325 acres. It includes a development zone (107 acres) and a natural zone (218 acres), and is surrounded by a proposed wilderness subzone