In an attempt to preserve the wildness and solitude
of eastern Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, the National Park
Service wants to restrict camping, backpacking and mountain biking
in heavily used and ecologically important areas of the park. In a
66-page environmental assessment, the agency lays out five
alternatives for managing backcountry use of the 337,000-acre park
and the adjacent 75,000 acre Orange Cliffs unit of the Glen Canyon
National Recreation Area. The agency’s preferred alternative calls
for restricting the number of overnight permits granted each month,
limiting the number of “vehicle camps’ used by mountain bikers
along the popular White Rim trail, and restricting access to Jasper
Canyon and Virginia Park, two of the park’s 14 relict areas that
have never been grazed. At recent hearings in Denver and Moab,
Utah, off-road vehicle enthusiasts criticized the agency for
recommending the closure of 12 miles of road to motorized vehicles,
while environmentalists urged it to close more roads. The plan is
spurred by a dramatic increase in the number of park visitors.
Canyonlands attracted 50,000 visitors in 1980 and 397,000 last
year. For a copy of the Environmental Assessment for Backcountry
Management Plan, or to send comments due by Feb. 18, contact the
National Park Service, Canyonlands National Park, Southeast Utah
Group, 125 West 200 South, Moab, UT 84532-2995
(801/259-3911).
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Canyonlands backcountry plan.
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