Off-trail use prohibited in Lowland Zone of Red Cliffs reserve

By LOREN WEBB, The Spectrum

lwebb@thespectrum.com
from http://www.thespectrum.com/rest.php?section=localnews&storyid=2277

ST. GEORGE, Utah July 4, 2001 — Off-trail use within the Lowland Zone of the 61,000-acre Red Cliffs Desert Reserve is now officially prohibited by the June 29 decision record by the St. George Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management.

Field Manager Jim Crisp issued the decision record which implements the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve Public Use Plan completed by Washington County. The plan also received input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Snow Canyon State Park, local government representatives, BLM and citizens.

The Public Use Plan is designed to protect the threatened desert tortoise, along with other plant and wildlife species, and provide for recreation within the reserve.

Although the Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan, approved in 1996, provided general guidelines for recreation within the reserve, it did not provide specific trail designations, access points, or land use prescriptions.

The Public Use Plan provides that specific data. Crisp’s decision is contingent on meeting terms and conditions imposed by the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Biological Opinion, issued June 25 by Field Supervisor Henry Maddux.

The Biological Opinion requires continued monitoring of the reserve to assess the habitat’s condition. Monitoring is to be done in two phases. The first phase, during 2001-2002, would focus on compiling baseline data, particularly on the sensitive areas of City Creek and Paradise Canyon.

The second phase would begin two to three years later, and focus on a scientifically based sampling program to provide data on current and changing levels of human impacts to vegetation and wildlife within the reserve.

During the public review period, a number of persons objected to proposed closures and restrictions within the reserve. However, BLM officials determined the closures and restrictions were necessary to meet objectives of the County Habitat Conservation Plan and those protests were dismissed.

As part of the decision record, The Lowland Zone, comprising approximately 50 percent of the reserve, allows non-motorized travel on designated trails only. Camping and campfires in the Lowland Zone are also limited to the 35-unit campground at Snow Canyon State Park.

The Upland Zone, comprising the northern portion of the reserve, allows for responsible off-trail use.

BLM Biologist Tim Duck said the decision is more restrictive than in the past, but not as restrictive as it could have been.

“We are still taking chances by allowing this much activity in the Lowlands,” Duck said. “People can still impose impacts on desert tortoises.”

Duck said the BLM has imposed a minimum of restrictions that are necessary to achieve the goals of the Habitat Conservation Plan.

BLM St. George Field Office Manager Dawna Ferris-Rowley said the decision record is based on the best available science.

“It is a living document and changes can be made through adaptive management as a result of better science,” Ferris-Rowley said.

The BLM officials said the result would be a world class open space wildlife reserve.

County Habitat Conservation Plan biologist Lori Rose said large chunks of the reserve are owned by BLM, but the county jointly manages the area with the BLM to achieve the objectives of the HCP.

The county appointed a team and developed the St. George Resource Management Plan in March 1999.

“We got in our opinion, a very effective collaborative management partnership where the county is working closely with the BLM and other reserve partners in trying to be true to the obligations of the HCP,” Rose said.

Rose said the BLM decision record doesn’t change any of the restrictions that were defined back in 1996, it makes them perhaps more manageable on the ground. It incorporates recommendations of the planning team and the public comments received during the public comment period, which reflects those concerns and opportunities.

“The county hopes to see this area of open space become a tremendous community asset. It provides a permanently open space area where the people of the county and adjoining communities can enjoy tremendous recreational opportunities,” Rose said.

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