ESCALANTE, Utah-
The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is marking the 10th anniversary of the controversial decision to include it in the national park system.
President Clinton locked up 1.9 million acres here with a stroke of a pen, preventing tons of coal from being mined. With no public hearings, he used authority under a 1906 law to create the monument in southern Utah near the Arizona border.
“Every time there has been a bold conservation decision, there has also been a lot of controversy,” Scott Groene, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, told The Salt Lake Tribune. “Then, with the passage of time, it becomes appreciated.”
The park’s Web site––describes the remote monument’s landscape as “vast and austere” with a “spectacular array of scientific and historic resources.”
There were 88,000 visitors last year at visitor centers in Big Water, Boulder, Cannonville, Escalante and Kanab. But the number of people who passed through the monument was 613,000, down from nearly 700,000 in 2002-03.
Some other national parks have also seen recent drop-offs in visitors, however, a trend that may be the result of higher gas prices.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
