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Photo provided by Jack Dykinga, 2013.
| When you think of natural stone arches in Utah, you probably think of Arches National Park. But, did you know that the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is home to 2,517 natural stone arches? That’s 517 more than Arches National Park! You can learn more about arches in the Monument, including how to report and name a new arch from archesoftheescalante.com. Community-led efforts such as the Arches of the Escalante project become more important every day because data and information formerly provided by the Federal government is not just being censored, but completely removed from our grasp. That first paragraph turned dark pretty quickly, but it’s accurate for what we are experiencing. Today, two legislators from Utah and Nevada made the first moves to openly sell off public lands. The Environmental Protection Agency terminated its entire Mountains and Plains Grants Hub, which was a program that helped communities prepare for environmental health and safety issues and reduce risks to human health. Last week, a leaked document revealed the Administration’s plans to reduce the size of several national monuments to open them up for energy extraction. You know that the list included Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. How do we keep our heads up during this time? We focus on the positive and what is under our control. Another one of our grants was unfrozen after a ruling by a judge who was appointed by President Trump. This means that we can proceed with a project to create a Paiute Native Plant Center that will produce seedlings to be used for restoration after natural disasters such as wildfires. We are down to “just” $180,000 in frozen funds, but we can make this work with some programmatic changes. We’ve also been successful at bringing in some new grants related to trails and stewardship, and we have our eyes on a new, pilot program from the state of Utah, “Adopt the Outdoors.” Finally, a spate of solid rainy weather has my hopes up because of its promise for a productive seed collecting season after an incredibly dry winter. As always, thank you for being part of our community, and for your continued support during these trying times. -Jackie |
