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Keep ORVs out of Wild Salt Creek Canyon
The National Park Service, after a long process and several stops in court, proposes to keep motor vehicles out of Salt Creek Canyon, one of Canyonlands National Park's most fragile riparian zones. Salt Creek Canyon also contains the highest density of archaeological resources in the park.
While conservationists applaud the decision, off-road vehicle groups and some local governments are pulling out all the stops to reverse it. Please help support the Park Service decision, by sending the letter below. You can edit a portion of it to express your own thoughts on the proposal.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: No ORVs in Salt Creek
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
Your decision to close Middle Salt Creek in Canyonlands National Park to motorized vehicles is welcome news and I appreciate the chance to comment on it. I enthusiastically support the proposal to protect Salt Creek from additional motor vehicle damage.
This decision, set out in the preferred alternative in the Middle Salt Creek Canyon Access Plan Environmental Assessment, is the only one that can meet the declared objective of that plan. Only if you close Salt Creek above the Peekaboo campsite will you end the destruction of streamside vegetation and habitat that the Park Service itself has so well documented along this route.
The preferred alternative also provides the best protection of what is perhaps the park's richest archaeological concentration, the Salt Creek Archaeological District.
To traverse the 8.2 mile route in Salt Creek, off-road vehicles routinely cross the stream an astonishing 60 times, damaging streambanks, soil and riparian habitat with each crossing-and often spilling motor fluids into the stream when their machines fail. That sort of damage is unconscionable anywhere on public lands but most especially in one of our great national parks. And even with the closure of Salt Creek, off-road enthusiasts will still have 200 miles of routes in Canyonlands available to them.
The Access Plan's preferred alternative carefully protects hiking, horseback and pack animal access to popular Angel Arch. Indeed, nothing in the preferred alternative will substantially restrict the public's opportunity to enjoy Canyonlands and it does much to ensure that the experience will be there, intact, for the generations that follow us.
Again, my thanks for your decision to protect the remarkable resources of Canyonlands National Park.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
October 01, 2003
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BACKGROUND:
Salt Creek rises in the Abajo Mountains of southeastern Utah and flows through a portion of Canyonlands National Park where it joins the Colorado River. Excepting only the Colorado and the Green Rivers, Salt Creek is the best source of perennial water in the desert environment of Canyonlands National Park.
Salt Creek creates and supports a major riparian ecosystem. Between 50 to 80 percent of bird species in the park (including the endangered Mexican spotted owl) rely on these thin, green ribbons that cover less than one percent of arid western land. Salt Creek also gives its name to an archaeological district, which has the densest concentration of sites in the park.
For years, the National Park Service allowed off-road vehicles to travel an 8.2-mile stretch of the canyon between Horse Canyon and Arch Canyon. To drive the route, vehicles had to cross the stream 60 times. The Park's 1998 Backcountry Management Plan proposed leaving the route open, even though the agency's own analyses documented the environmental damage from motor vehicle as they plowed through, into and out of Salt Creek.
SUWA SUES TO CLOSE SALT CREEK
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance sued to force the closure of Salt Creek to motor vehicles and a federal district court agreed. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision after an appeal by off-road vehicle groups and sent it back to the district court for more review.
As a result of the legal challenges, the Park Service wrote an environmental assessment in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. The environmental assessment resulted in the current NPS proposal to prohibit the use of motor vehicles in Salt Creek Canyon.
The NPS faces opposition to the proposal rule from San Juan County and the State of Utah. They claim a right-of-way for the route that predates creation of the park and claim that the county, not the NPS, has the right to control its use. In reaching its proposed decision, the Park Service rejected the claim, concluding that the county has produced no proof that any such road was constructed before the park was established. The so-called Salt Creek "road" is an unpaved, ungraded jeep trail that wanders in and out of the creek.
Closure of the route will end the damage in the delicate riparian zone and allow the corridor to repair itself; anything short of closure would allow the destruction to continue. Nearly 200 miles of motorized routes exist in Canyonlands National Park. Off-road enthusiasts can pursue their use in the park without continuing to damage the 8.2 miles of Salt Creek Canyon.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW!
The National Park Service faces enormous pressure over this decision. Please let the agency know how much you appreciate the Salt Creek closure and how strongly you support it.
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