National Park Service National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Department of the Interior Hovenweep National Monument Hovenweep National Monument Colorado • Utah Colorado • Utah Hovenweep NationalHovenweep Monument Environmental Assessment Environmental General Management Plan May GENERAL MANAGEMENT PLAN 2011 ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Cover photo: Hovenweep Castle General Management Plan / Environmental Assessment Hovenweep National Monument Montezuma County, Colorado, and San Juan County, Utah _______________________________________________________________________ Hovenweep National Monument was established by presidential proclamation on March 2, 1923 (Presidential Proclamation 1654 42 Stat. 2299). There is currently no approved general management plan for the monument. The purpose of the general management plan is to establish a comprehensive vision of the monument’s purpose, significance, and resource goals. The plan will also define the management strategies for protecting the monument’s resources, providing for public understanding and enjoyment, ensuring organizational effectiveness, and promoting partnership opportunities that will support and complement all aspects of park management. The plan will help monument staff guide programs and set priorities for resource stewardship, visitor use and experience, partnerships, facilities, and operations at Hovenweep National Monument. The National Park Service developed a draft general management plan and environmental assessment for Hovenweep in the mid-1980s and released a draft in 1988. The draft plan proposed a resource protection zone encompassing Bureau of Land Management lands with nationally significant cultural resources surrounding the Hovenweep units and a cooperative management strategy to protect these resources. The 1988 draft plan was never finalized. This document examines two alternatives for managing Hovenweep National Monument for the next 15 to 20 years. It also analyzes the impacts of implementing each of the alternatives. The “no- action” alternative, alternative A, consists of the existing national monument management strategy and trends and serves as a basis for comparison in evaluating the other alternative. The concept for management under alternative B would focus on preserving the resources and the remote and primitive character of the monument. Alternative B is the National Park Service preferred alternative. The key effects of implementing the no-action alternative (A) would be some minor adverse impacts on archeological resources, visitor experience, and visitor access. The key effects of implementing alternative B would be minor to moderate beneficial impacts on the visitor experience, minor to moderate beneficial impacts on visitor access, moderate beneficial impacts on natural and cultural resources, and moderate beneficial impacts on National Park Service operations. This General Management Plan / Environmental Assessment has been distributed to other agencies and interested organizations and individuals for their review and comment. The public comment period for this document will last for 30 days. Readers are encouraged to submit comments on this plan at http://parkplanning.nps.gov. You may also send written comments to Tom Thomas, National Park Service, Denver Service Center – PSD, PO Box 25287, Denver, CO 80225, or call Superintendent Coralee Hays at 435-692-1234. Please note that National Park Service practice is to make comments, including names and addresses of respondents, available for public review; see “How to Comment on this Plan” for further information. _______________________________________________________________________ U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service HOW TO COMMENT ON THIS PLAN Comments on this General Management Plan / Environmental Assessment are welcome and will be accepted during the 30-day public review and comment period. During the comment period, comments may be submitted using several methods as noted below. Online: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/hove We prefer that readers submit comments online through the park planning website identified above, so the comments become incorporated into the National Park Service Planning, Environment, and Public Comment system. An electronic public comment form is provided through this website. Mail: Hovenweep National Monument General Management Plan National Park Service Denver Service Center – PDS PO Box 25287 Denver, CO 80225 or Hovenweep National Monument McElmo Route Cortez, CO 81321 Hand delivery: at public meetings to be announced in the media following the release of this plan. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment—including your personal identifying information—may be made publicly available at any time. While you may ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. ii SUMMARY Hovenweep National Monument was This general management plan / established by presidential proclamation on environmental assessment presents two March 2, 1923 (Presidential Proclamation alternatives, including the National Park 1654 42 Stat. 2299). The monument consists of Service preferred alternative, for future six detached units in southeastern Utah and management of Hovenweep National southwestern Colorado that protect 13th Monument. The alternatives, which are based century pueblo standing towers and villages at on the national monument’s purpose, canyon head locations. One of these units, significance, and special mandates, present Goodman Point, was the first archeological different ways to manage resources and visitor site set aside by the federal government in use and improve facilities and infrastructure at 1899 and is one of the largest 13th century the national monument. Alternative A, the no- village sites in the San Juan River basin. action alternative, is the continuation of current management, and alternative B is the The National Park Service developed a draft preferred alternative. general management plan and environmental assessment for Hovenweep in the mid-1980s, Additional actions and alternatives were releasing a draft in 1988. The draft plan considered; however, they were dismissed proposed a resource protection zone, from further analysis. These dismissed actions encompassing Bureau of Land Management and alternatives are presented, along with the lands with nationally significant cultural rationale for dismissing them, in “Chapter 2: resources surrounding the Hovenweep units Alternatives, Including the Preferred and a cooperative management strategy to Alternative.” protect these resources. The 1988 draft plan was never finalized. ALTERNATIVE A: THE NO-ACTION Much has occurred since 1988 and the ALTERNATIVE (CONTINUE development of that plan. A new plan will CURRENT MANAGEMENT) meet the following needs: The no-action alternative consists of a Clearly define resource conditions and continuation of existing management and visitor experiences to be achieved in trends at Hovenweep National Monument Hovenweep National Monument. and provides a baseline for comparison in Provide a framework for National Park evaluating the changes and impacts of the Service managers to use when making other alternative. Under the no-action decisions about how to best protect alternative, the National Park Service would national monument resources, how to continue to manage the national monument as provide a diverse range of visitor it is currently being managed. Existing opportunities, how to manage visitor use, operations and visitor facilities would remain and what kinds of facilities, if any, to in place. No new construction would be develop in the national monument. authorized. Efforts would continue to protect and preserve significant cultural and natural Ensure that this foundation for decision resources. Natural ecological processes would making has been developed in consultation be allowed to occur, and restoration programs with interested stakeholders and adopted would be initiated where necessary. by National Park Service leadership after an adequate analysis of the benefits, impacts, The important effects of continuing existing and economic costs of alternative courses of management conditions and trends would action. include potential adverse impacts on the iii SUMMARY visitor experience, visitor access, and important role they can play in resource archeological resources. protection and preservation. Protection of important vistas from and ALTERNATIVE B – THE within the monument units would contribute PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE to preserving the monument’s remote and primitive character. Unobstructed natural Management under alternative B would focus views are critical because they contribute to on preserving the resources and the remote feelings of remoteness, solitude, and and primitive character of Hovenweep timelessness—fundamental qualities of the National Monument. Resource preservation Hovenweep experience. efforts would be enhanced by limited, conservation-oriented archeological research Regional patterns of development over the that would provide park staff and other past decade indicate that there is a probability National Park Service professionals with a that future land use will introduce modern better understanding of the monument’s elements into the scenery surrounding the resource base and would help guide future