 The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was created to protect its amazing geologic formations such as the Moenkopi Formation. We can recognize this formation by its many stripes, colors of rust reds and orange, and wicked clays that can quickly gum up an unsuspecting vehicle after a rain! Photo provided by Jackie Grant, 2025. |
| Time seems to get lost in the chaos these days, but I’ve finally had minute to gather my thoughts for this month’s GSEP newsletter. I’ve been lucky enough to travel to a few different parts of the Monument where cell service is a whisper at best. The last couple of months have brought a lot of change to the organization: we say goodby to our Conservation Program Manager, Kevin Berend, this month, as well as our seasonal seed crew, Heather Vielstich and Tucker Hastings. All three served the organization well, and are poised for some great adventures in the next year. The government shutdown continues unabated, but we have been in discussions with the BLM about how our new staff can start to help, which brings us to a big welcome for our new staff: Mary Peek, Mackenzie Morgan, and Katie Woodward. Mary and Mackenzie arrived last week, and will lead our Stewardship and Sustainable Visitation Program as Stewardship Project Coordinators based in Kanab (Mary) and Escalante (Mackenzie). Please be on the lookout for communications from Mary and Mackenzie, especially if you miss volunteering with us or would like to join our Volunteer or Trail Ambassador Programs. We are all really thankful for Trail Ambassadors like Andrew who have stuck with us during the transition! Katie will join us later this month as the Restoration Program Director. I will introduce all three new staff in more detail in the December newsletter after they have had a minute to settle in to their positions. We are on track to hire several more staff in the new year for jobs related to seed collecting, restoration work, and stewardship projects. Please check our webpage in December if you or someone you know might be interested in working for us! Some key donations and grant awards came in this month, and we are particularly grateful to the American Trails Foundation for their support of our Stewardship and Sustainable Visitation Program. Our Development Director, Jason, has been hard at work on our Year End Campaign (YEC), so you may have seen some information from him about our “Protect the Stones and Stories” initiative. We survived this year’s challenges, but need your support to meet the growing demand for wildfire seed collections, remediate the impacts of increased visitation, assist our Tribal partners, and take care of new threats from non-native plants in the Escalante River watershed. Thank you for sticking with us, and all of your support. It’s worth it! -Jackie |
