Grand Staircase Escalante Partners
Honor the past and safeguard the future of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and its connected landscapes and watersheds through science, conservation, and education.
A Living Landscape: the future of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
This film seeks to tell a more complete story of the ecological and cultural importance of Grand Staircase-Escalante — that the entire landscape is an object worthy of protection, as set aside in the original 1996 Presidential Proclamation and affirmed in the 2021 Proclamation. “A Living Landscape” strives to give voice to the land itself, through the people engaged in working on its behalf: tribal members, scientists, guides, educators, business owners, local citizens, and volunteers, each with a unique perspective that comprises a richness rivaled only by the ecology and cultural significance of the Monument itself. Click here to watch.
GSEP Resource Management Plan Statement
Grand Staircase Escalante Partners is pleased to share that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) signed the Record of Decision for the final Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) on January 6, 2025.
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.
To learn about the Tribes that have deep connections to the Grand Staircase-Escalante region, click here
Stewardship
We aim to restore, reclaim, preserve, and conserve Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and adjacent landscapes. GSEP works with the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Park Service to implement, manage, and evaluate the program through volunteer stewardship projects and hands-on visitor education through our volunteer Trail Ambassadors.
Conservation
We work with researchers, nonprofit Native American partner organizations, State and Federal government agencies, and volunteers to control invasive species, mitigate erosion, monitor climate and ecological change, and protect threatened species.
Native Plants
Contributing to national-scale restoration and research efforts, our Native Plants Program engages seed crews, Tribal partners, and volunteers in the collection and cleaning of seeds from native plants on and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
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.
Latest News
The Only Constant is Change
Walking through a still and silent canyon, bounded by towering cliffs bordered by ancient rockfall, nothing moves, and everything within your gaze seems timeless and unchanging. Of course, this is all an illusion. More accurately, your eyes are only capturing a few...
Will the tug-of-war over Utah’s canyon country ever end?
The canyon country along the Colorado River and its tributaries shelters an incredible array of beloved national parks and monuments, wild rivers and protected wilderness areas. These public lands are also the stage for chronic conflict, a drama in which...
GSEP Letter to Secretary Deb Haaland
November 9, 2023 Dear Secretary Deb Haaland and the U.S. Department of the Interior Staff: On October 8, 2021, the new Proclamation for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument restored its boundaries to nearly 1.9 million acres. It established that the entire...
GSEP Announces its New Executive Director
A Letter from Board President, Scott Berry On behalf of the Grand Staircase Escalante Partners (GSEP) Board of Directors, I am thrilled to announce that Jacqualine Grant has accepted our offer to become GSEP's next Executive Director. As GSEP prepares to enter its...
The future of pinyon-juniper woodlands
Pinyon-juniper woodlands are an iconic landscape of the American west. They can be found at arid mid-elevations, especially on rocky soils or jointed bedrock, and are characterized by an open forest dominated by low, bushy, evergreen junipers and pinyon pines (exact...
Important Grand Staircase Management Plan and Legal Update
This has been an extraordinary week for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, with reasons to celebrate and even more reasons to stay vigilant in our commitment to protect this vital landscape. Here is a breakdown of the week’s events: August 10th: The Bureau...
