Grand Staircase Escalante Partners
Honor the past and safeguard the future of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument through science, conservation, and education.
Grand Staircase-Escalante Symposium 2023:
Ways of Understanding and Protecting Land and Water Resources in the Grand Staircase-Escalante Region
In-person and on Zoom: March 16-17, 2023
Click here for more info
Film Presentation
Thursday night, at Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners (530 W Main St, Escalante, Utah) and on Zoom:
“Shattering The Pictures in Our Heads” is a documentary film steeped in the sights, sounds, and individual stories from Indigenous communities in the Intermountain West.
GSENM Resource Management Plan
On July 29, 2022, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Paria River District released a Notice of Intent to prepare a Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM), with the goal of completing the plan by March 2024. For further information about the RMP development process and timeline , click the link to the right.
What we Do
Our Focus
Grand Staircase Escalante Partners is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) founded in 2004 to protect and preserve Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
We are committed to:
- Promoting science, conservation, and education on the Monument.
- Increasing public awareness and understanding of the Monument.
- Providing resources to support the Monument’s scientific, interpretive and educational programs.
- Expanding our membership so we represent a diverse constituency that supports the Monument.
For Science
This natural area remains a frontier, a quality that greatly enhances Grand Staircase’s value for scientific study and presents unique opportunities for geologists, paleontologists, archaeologists, historians, and biologists.
For History
The Monument is home to countless Native American cultural sites, western pioneer history, and the greatest diversity of dinosaur fossils found anywhere on Earth. Since time immemorial, Native American people have inhabited, crossed, lived on, and been stewards of the lands that make up what we now know as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The following Tribes have deep connections to the Grand Staircase-Escalante region:
Science
Expanding knowledge and understanding of the natural wonders, biodiversity, and unique ecosystems with which this landscape is endowed by participating in scientific inquiry and historical investigation, as well as advocating for the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in land management decision-making.
Conservation
Ensuring Grand Staircase-Escalante’s culture, ecology, history, recreation, and science are recognized, sustained, and enhanced. Work on the ground with organizations, government agencies, and volunteers to repair and restore the Escalante River watershed, as well as prevent and mitigate damage at cultural and ecological sites.
Education
Providing in-person and virtual learning environments in which people can engage with Monument topics, and practice critical thinking, as well as exchange ideas, and learn from one another, thereby fostering the connection and understanding needed to support the Monument’s long term well-being and respect ancestral lands.
For All
Grand Staircase Escalante Partners is committed to fostering an equitable and inclusive environment in our workplace and across the Monument. We recognize the complex and difficult histories that have shaped American public lands, from dispossession of Native lands and forced removal of indigenous communities to create public lands and parks, to the ongoing exclusion of people of color from conservation and preservation movements.
We acknowledge that the area known as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and its surrounding areas are the ancestral land and historical territory of the Hopi, Zuni, Dine/Navajo, San Juan Southern Paiute, Kaibab Paiute, Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, Jemez Pueblo, and Acoma nations.
We are on a journey to transform our work–to foster diversity through equitable actions that create a just and inclusive environment, within and beyond our organization. Learn more about how we are integrating justice, equity, and inclusion into our work.
Volunteer Opportunities
Join us in the field or online.
Support
Discover ways to support Partners!
Donate
Latest News
Help document native pollinators in Utah
Bees and other native pollinators are found across all major ecozones in Utah, from arid desert to high alpine. They provide a myriad of benefits, such as facilitating reproduction and genetic diversity of plants, including agricultural crops, by pollinating them...
Utah cloud seeding program brings snow to high elevations
It’s no secret that a lack of precipitation has left the Southwest and its reservoirs high and dry. The natural “megadrought” we are experiencing is the worst in the last 1,200 years. Water levels are dropping, and everyone from residents to wildlife are feeling the...
Starkly Pristine Watershed
Lee Hayes was one of the corpsmembers assigned to Southwest Conservation Corps’ Rapid Monitoring Team in the summer of 2022, tasked with monitoring for regrowth of Russian olive and other vegetation after removal. The Escalante River Watershed was one of four...
Beyond Boundaries
When Davina Smith was asked to join the Board of Directors for Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, it was an easy decision to say “yes”. Starting at Bears Ears, Tribes have finally been an integral part of the conversation about how to save these sacred landscapes,...
A Part of the Greater Ecosystem
As a local landowner, business owner, and rancher, Brandie Hardman could never look at her land the same way again after taking a permaculture class. She was able to notice the benefits of beaver returning to the land, and has mimicked their return by creating wetland...
The Leading Edge
A visitor to southern Utah since his teenage years, Garett Rose keeps being drawn back to the area. Here—and in Grand Staircase-Escalante in particular—he is struck by the ever-present immediacy of geologic time. It is written into the physical landscape and provides...
