Grand Staircase-Escalante National‘ Monument Annual Manager’S Report—Fiscal Year 2016 Table of Contents
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Utah Grand Staircase-Escalante National‘ Monument Annual Manager’s Report—Fiscal Year 2016 Table of Contents Grand Staircase-Escalante Profile ..................................................................................... 2 Planning and NEPA ............................................................................................................. 6 2016 Projects and Accomplishments ................................................................................ 9 Science .............................................................................................................................. 35 Resources, Objects, Values, and Stressors ..................................................................... 57 Summary of Performance Measure ................................................................................. 84 Manager’s Letter ............................................................................................................... 88 1 1 Grand Staircase-Escalante Profile Designating Authority Designating Authority: Presidential Proclamation 6920 Date of Designation: September 18, 1996 Acreage Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) spans nearly 1.9 million acres of America’s public lands. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), GSENM is part of the National Conservation Lands. Reporting directly to the BLM Utah State Office, the Monument Manager oversees public lands which contain some of America’s most scientifically exciting and visually stunning landscapes. The Monument boundary encompasses approximately 1,880,461 total acres including 14,130 acres that are privately held. There is no state land found within GSENM. Total Acres in Unit 1,880,461 BLM Acres 1,866,331 Other Federal Acres 0 State Acres* 0 Private Acres* 14,130 *State and Private acres are not part of the total unit acres Contact Information Unit Manager Cynthia Staszak Phone 435-644-1240 E-mail [email protected] Mailing Address 669 South Highway 89A Kanab, Utah 84741 Field Office Name N/A District Office Name N/A State Office Name Utah 2 Utah Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument To Beaver To Circleville To Antimony To Grover 15 Capitol 12 Anasazi State Park Box-Death Museum Hollow Boulder Reef 22 Boulder Mail Trail 89 Wilderness Deer Creek Horse Canyon To Cedar Upper City Parowan Panguitch Falls Deer The Creek Gulch Wolverine National Petrified Forest Calf Creek State Park Escalante Little Summit Red Recreation Area Escalante Death Canyon Upper Valley Town Escalante River Hollow 22 Granary Wayside Escalante 143 Interagency Park 12 Head Brian Head Visitor Center of the Rocks E Bryce Canyon City Henderson 12 sc 12 Harris a To Cedar Bryce Canyon Canyon la Hatch n City Wash t National Park e The Blues Wayside Tropic Bryce Canyon Egypt 148 Cannonville Devils Garden 14 Bryce Visitor Center 25 Mile Ri Henrieville ve Glen Canyon Cannonville Wash r 89 Kodachrome Early Weed National Basin Park 63 State Park Canyon 14 Dry Fork Willis Grosvenor Red Bull Valley Creek Arch Alton Well 40 Mile Gorge P a Round Water National r Cottonwood Narrows i a Valley Tank Crack in the North Draw Wall Lick Hurricane Wash Cottonwood Narrows Wash Recreation Glendale R South Dance Hall i v Willow Gulch Contact Station Glendale e Rock r Orderville Area Old Pahreah Hole-In-The-Rock Town Site Lower Hackberry 9 Mount Carmel Paria Wayside/ The Paria Box To St George Old Spanish Trail Nephi Pasture Legend 89 Paria Contact BLM Field Office Highway Station Visitor Center Rural (Improved or Great The Campground Unimproved) Road** Western Big Water Buckskin Toadstools Big Kanab Trail Water Visitor Center Interpretive Site National Monument Kanab BLM White 89 Headquarters House Viewpoint Wire Paria Canyon- 89 National Park, Wilderness Office UTAH Pass Point of Interest Area, or National 89A ARIZONA Vermilion Cliffs Trailhead Recreation Area *Historic trails are in approximate locations and are not hiking trails No warranty is made by the BLM as Fredonia Wilderness OHV Staging Area North to the accuracy, reliability, or ** Check local information for completeness of these data for use 389 Page Historic Trail* current road conditions or for purposes not intended by BLM. To Kaibab/ 89A Vermilion Cliffs Miles M14-09-01:2015 St George To Jacob Lake National Monument 0 10 20 Budget Total Fiscal Year 2016 Budget $7,029,800 Subactivity 1711 $4,728,600 Other Subactivities’ Contributions $1,274,000 Other Funding $1,027,200 Managing Partners N/A Staffing Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the largest unit in BLM’s National Conservation Lands system, and the largest national monument in the contiguous United States. The Monument is comparable in program size, complexity and land base to many BLM Districts, and considerably larger than most BLM Field Offices. In BLM-Utah’s organization, the Monument is equivalent to a District Office. In FY16, Monument staff consisted of 49 full-time employees, led by two line officers, the Monument Manager and Associate Monument Manager. Staff is organized into three major functional Divisions: Planning and Support Services, Resources, and Science and Visitor Services. Monument staff includes an administrative team, facilities management, backcountry rangers, visitor center staff, planners, a science program administrator and resource specialists. GSENM serves a nationally significant conservation role for the Bureau with programs managed by resource specialists, in paleontology, archaeology, biology, botany, ecology, history, wildlife, planning and environmental coordination, range management, realty, recreation, soil, air and water, wilderness, and visual resources. Two BLM law enforcement officers are assigned to GSENM; one full time in Escalante and one shared with the Kanab Field Office in Kanab. The Monument shares its Headquarters building; at 669 South Highway 89A, with the Kanab Field Office (a unit within BLM-Utah’s Color Country District) and the two offices share front desk and administrative staff duties. The Monument also receives administrative support, primarily in property management, but also including some contracting and engineering functions, from the Color Country District. The Monument works with the Kanab Field Office and Arizona Strip District to administer the Paria Canyon/Coyote Buttes Special Management Area (SMA) under 4 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the three offices. The Monument manages the Kanab Visitor Center, the major contact point for visitors to the Paria Canyon/Coyote Buttes SMA in Utah, and location of the world-famous “Wave Lottery”. Major trailheads to the Wave originate on the Monument, and Whitehouse Campground, the primary overnight camping facility for Wave permit holders, falls within the Monument boundary. The Escalante Interagency Center, located in Escalante, Utah, is one of four Monument Visitor Centers found in the communities surrounding the Monument. This BLM facility is the only federal building located in Escalante and provides workspace for Monument staff, the Dixie National Forest-Escalante Ranger District, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area staff. The Monument administers grazing permits for a number of allotments which fall fully or partially within the boundaries of three other units: the Kanab Field Office (Color Country District), the Arizona Strip Field Office (BLM Arizona, Arizona Strip District), and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (National Park Service). 5 2 Planning and NEPA Status of the Resource Management Plan Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is managed under a Monument Management Plan (MMP) adopted in 2000, and a series of four Management Framework Plans (MFP), adopted in the 1980s, which govern livestock grazing. The MMP replaced any previous decisions for resource management in the four MFPs, with the exception of livestock grazing. In 1999, the Escalante MFP was amended to reallocate 5,630 AUMs of forage to purposes other than livestock grazing. This amendment also created a forage reserve to be used during emergencies or for research purposes. The MMP has been amended twice; the 2011 Record of Decision (ROD) for the Tropic to Hatch 138 kV Transmission Line Project EIS in which a 300-foot wide by approximate 3-3/4-mile long swath of the Monument was changed from Primitive Zone to Passage Zone and from Visual Resource Management (VRM) Class II to Class III and the 2015 Record of Decision (ROD) for the Utah Greater Sage-Grouse Land Use Plan Amendment which provides management for the greater sage-grouse. This includes approximately 5,841 acres identified as a Priority Habitat Management Area and 23,662 acres identified as Opportunity Habitat within the Monument. In the latter part of FY13, GSENM launched a planning effort to prepare a Livestock Grazing Monument Management Plan Amendment with an associated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). BLM contracted Environmental Management and Planning Solutions Inc. (EMPSi) to write the EIS in September 2013. The Plan Amendment will make land use-level decisions associated with livestock grazing, including lands available or not available for livestock grazing, forage currently available on an area- wide basis for livestock grazing and available for anticipated future demands, and guidelines and criteria for managing the land to be as productive as feasible for livestock grazing through implementation of best management practices. The EIS will analyze the effects of all alternatives on the Monument’s resources. The Notice of Intent to initiate the planning