Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument: Grazed & Ungrazed Regions

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, UT
Managed by Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

An Introduction to Grazed and Ungrazed Regions

September 2001

Photo essay by Mike Hudak, author of
Western Turf Wars: The Politics of Public Lands Ranching

Most people visit Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to enjoy the outstanding and unique scenery—the hoodoos of Devils Garden, the multicolored cliffs of the Grand Staircase, or the serpentine, redrock canyons. But for many decades before the region became a tourist attraction ranchers had exploited the area as livestock pasture.

The 1996 proclamation that established the monument clearly stated that livestock grazing would continue: “Nothing in this proclamation shall bedeemed to affect existing permits or leases for, or levels of, livestock grazing on Federal lands within the monument; existing grazing uses shall continue to be governed by applicable laws and regulations other than this proclamation.”

Yet, this is a landscape that is particularly unsuited to the presence of cattle. They trample biological soil crusts (living soil crusts dominated by bacteria, lichens, mosses, and algae), facilitate erosion, rub off prehistoric rock art, knock over ancient ruins, break down streambanks, increase the spread of noxious and toxic plants, foul springs and creeks, and compete directly with wildlife for scant food.

During my visit in mid-September 2001 I photographed some of these impacts. My photographs tell a story you won’t find in the monument’s visitor guide.

For more information about cattle management at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, please see my YouTube interview with Utah activist Patrick Diehl: The Future of Public Lands Ranching.

Erosion in Alvey Wash, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photo by Mike Hudak.

South of the town of Escalante, Alvey Wash, in the Alvey Wash Allotment, typifies the consequences of long-term cattle grazing along Western streams.

Close view of Alvey Wash, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photo by Mike Hudak.

With banks trampled and stabilizing vegetation weakened by intense cattle grazing, flood waters over decades have washed away soil and down cut Alvey Wash. The original ground level was at least 15 feet above the woman’s head.

Harris Wash, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photo by Mike Hudak.

Southeast of Escalante, Alvey Wash becomes Harris Wash, but the cattle damage remains much the same. This cottonwood once stood on the wash’s bank, but with streamside vegetation weakened or destroyed by decades of cattle grazing, the original bank has “blown out” leaving the tree in the middle of the streambed. Whether this wash was ever a perennial stream I cannot say, but such cattle damage elsewhere in the West has lowered water tables and turned perennial streams into gullies that flow only during heavy rain.

As of year 2001, forty-six of seventy-six grazing allotments in the monument, including this one (Upper Cattle Allotment) were grazed during the growing season. Vegetation of the Intermountain West, which did not co-evolve with large ungulates is especially vulnerable to damage at that time.

Calf Creek, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photo by Mike Hudak.

Calf Creek, in the northeast portion of the monument, exemplifies a creek in excellent condition. The creek is relatively deep for its width and it flows year long. There have been no cattle here since the early 1980s.

Sedges along Calf Creek, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photo by Mike Hudak.

Perennial grasses and sedges lining the banks of Calf Creek help to prevent the erosion seen on Alvey and Harris Washes.

Upper Cattle Allotment, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photo by Mike Hudak.

When cattle consume much of a region’s palatable vegetation competition is lessened for noxious plants that cattle avoid. Such is the case with this “beautiful” landscape at Seep Flat (Upper Cattle Allotment) southeast of Escalante, UT. The plants with the small yellow flowers are an infestation of broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae), a noxious and aggressive plant covering several million acres throughout the West. Although known to induce abortions in cattle, snakeweed can be safely consumed by wild ungulates. Yet, even they avoid it whenever possible. In addition to its unpleasant taste, Snakeweed rates poorly in energy and protein value.

Cheatgrass at Seep Flat, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photo by Mike Hudak.

Although this portion of Seep Flat hasn’t been overrun by broom snakeweed, intense cattle grazing has provided much bare, disturbed ground, conditions which have facilitated a cheatgrass invasion.

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) was inadvertently brought to America in the late 19th century with grass seed imported from Eurasia. Unlike native grasses, cheatgrass is an annual. It usually germinates in fall, grows during winter, matures its seeds in spring and dies by mid-summer. Because cheatgrass quickly develops a large root system in the spring, by the time native grass seedlings begin to grow in April or May, cheatgrass has taken most water out of the top foot of soil. Native grasses cannot get their roots deep enough into soil to access water before drought sets in, and thus die of thirst. Over time, native grasses decline and cheatgrass becomes increasingly common until it dominates. Although cattle will consume cheatgrass through the spring, its barbed seed heads make it unpalatable, and potentially injurious, after the growing season. Highly flammable, dead cheatgrass has provided fuel for hotter and more frequent fires throughout the West which have destroyed vast areas of sage habitat on which many wildlife species depend.

Cattle-free: Escalante River, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photo by Mike Hudak.

After 1973 livestock grazing along the Escalante River was allowed only during the dormant season to lessen its impact on vegetation. All livestock grazing was terminated in 1998. The river’s western region, which I visited, was perhaps less intensely grazed than other portions due to its narrowness and attendant lack of forage.

On the right we see a mature cottonwood (Populus angustifolia), a native, riparian species notable for hosting a diverse insect fauna that attracts an abundance of insectivorous birds.

Near the cottonwood are salt cedar. Purposely introduced in the late 19th century, this riparian tree was promoted throughout the western U.S. as ornamentals, as windbreaks, or as a means to stop streambank erosion. Less palatable to cattle than cottonwood saplings, salt cedar has proliferated in heavily grazed regions. It now infests roughly 1.5 million acres of the West. Salt cedar is especially damaging because it transpires enormous quantities of water thereby drying up areas and lowering water tables. The tree is also less suitable habitat for birds than are cottonwoods. A study in the Lower Colorado Valley showed that for the entire year, salt cedar had only 59% of the mean density of birds as the cottonwood-willow, screwbean and western honey mesquite communities.

Cattle-free: young riparian forest, Escalante River, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Photo by Mike Hudak.

With the removal of cattle from the Escalante River its riparian community continues to heal, as demonstrated here by the young willows growing along its banks.

Epilogue

Environmental conditions stemming from livestock grazing on the monument in 2003 are quite poor as detailed in Chapter 3 of Multiple Use Grazing Management in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument by James Catlin, Joro Walker, Allison Jones, John Carter and Joe Feller (September 2003).

Some encouraging news, though, is that the extent of livestock grazing at the monument is beginning to decrease. Between 1996 and 2001 the Grand Canyon Trust brokered financial settlements with ranchers who have subsequently relinquished their grazing permits on approximately 9% of the monument’s 1.9 million acres. In November 2001 the trust announced a tentative agreement with ranchers that would retire grazing permits on an additional 256,000 acres.

Perhaps eventually all cattle will be removed from the monument. Native wildlife and the American people deserve nothing less.

These are your public lands. How well do you think those responsible for managing livestock grazing in the monument are doing at protecting the region for wildlife? Please convey your thoughts to officials at

Bureau of Lands Management
Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument
669 South Highway 89A
Kanab, UT 84741

Phone: (435) 644-1200
Fax: (435) 644-1305
Email: escalante_interagency@blm.gov

Letters to newspapers are also an effective way to express your views to resource managers:

Public Forum, The Salt Lake Tribune
90 S. 400 West, Suite 700
Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Details of letter submission:
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/submitaletter/
Fax: (801) 257-8950
Email your letter: letters@sltrib.com

Deseret News
P.O. Box 1257
Salt Lake City, UT 84110

Comment online: http://www.deseretnews.com/site/feedback
Email your letter: letters@deseretnews.com