The
National Park Service
(NPS) is amending its regulations for
Canyonlands National Park by
prohibiting motor vehicles in Salt Creek Canyon above Peekaboo
campsite, in the Needles district. This action implements the selected
alternative of the Middle Salt Creek Canyon Access Plan Environmental
Assessment (EA).
Salt Creek is the most extensive perennial water source and riparian
ecosystem in Canyonlands National Park, other than the Green and
Colorado Rivers. The Salt Creek road is an unpaved and ungraded jeep
trail that runs in and out of Salt Creek and, at various locations, the
trail's path is in the creek bed. It requires a four wheel drive
vehicle to drive, and previous vehicle use of the trail periodically
resulted in vehicles breaking down or becoming stuck and requiring NPS
assistance for removal. Salt Creek is also the heart of the Salt Creek
Archeological District, the area with the highest recorded density of
archeological sites in the Park. A tributary canyon to Salt Creek
contains the spectacular Angel Arch. Until 1998, street-legal motor
vehicles were permitted to travel in Middle Salt Creek Canyon along and
in the Salt Creek streambed for approximately 7.2 miles above the
Peekaboo campsite, and an additional one mile up the Angel Arch
tributary canyon. The Salt Creek trail does not provide a route for
motorized transit through the Park or to any inholdings within the Park.
The previous management plan affecting Salt Creek, the Canyonlands
National Park Backcountry Management Plan, was completed in January
1995. This plan, among other things, established a permit system and a
daily limit on the number of motorized vehicles authorized to use the
Salt Creek trail above Peekaboo Springs. The Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance (SUWA) challenged the Backcountry Management Plan in Federal
district court. Among other things, SUWA alleged that continued
vehicular use of Salt Creek would cause impairment of unique park
resources and thus would violate the 1916 National Park Service Organic
Act and Canyonlands National Park enabling act.
In its June 1998 decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of
Utah interpreted the Organic Act unambiguously to prohibit activities
in national parks that would permanently impair unique park resources,
and concluded that the NPS's decision to allow vehicle travel in Salt
Creek would cause significant permanent impairment. The court
consequently enjoined the NPS from permitting motorized vehicle travel
in Salt Creek Canyon above Peekaboo Spring.
Off-highway vehicle groups, intervenors in the case, appealed the
district court ruling, and in August 2000 the United States Court of
Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed the district court decision and
remanded it for further consideration. The circuit court ruled that the
district court had applied the wrong standard in its interpretation of
the Organic Act and should have more fully considered whether the
agency's interpretation of the Act, as applied to Salt Creek, was
"`based on a permissible construction of the statute." The circuit
court determined that the administrative record was not clear
concerning whether motorized travel in Salt Creek would cause permanent
impairment to park resources. The circuit court agreed with the
district court that the Organic Act prohibited the NPS from permitting
"significant, permanent impairment." However, the circuit court noted
that the Organic Act may also prohibit negative impacts that do not
rise to the level of "significant, permanent impairment." The circuit
court remanded the case to the district court, with instructions to
re-examine the record to determine whether the agency's conclusion that
there was no significant impact on Salt Creek Canyon from the decision
to allow limited vehicular traffic in Salt Creek Canyon was adequately
supported. The circuit court also instructed the district court to
consider the new NPS Management Policies in regard to "impairment of
park resources or values," the central issue in the case, and vacated
the district court's injunction on motorized vehicle use in Salt Creek
Canyon above Peekaboo Spring.
The environmental assessment analyzed four alternatives, including
three alternatives which would have permitted vehicle access. Each of
these three alternatives would have allowed vehicle travel on the Salt
Creek trail under the permit system and daily vehicle limits of the
1995 Canyonlands/Orange Cliffs Backcountry Management Plan (BMP).
Alternative A would have allowed motor vehicle access on the current
alignment of the trail year-round. Alternative B would have allowed
vehicle access on the current alignment of the trail each year from
October 1 until ice makes the creek impassable, or January 31 of the
following year at the latest; vehicles would have been prohibited the
remainder of the year. Alternative C would have realigned sections of
the trail to avoid the streambed and riparian area where feasible, and
would have allowed year-round vehicle access. The fourth alternative
analyzed in the EA, Alternative D, would prohibit motor vehicle access
in Middle Salt Creek Canyon year-round. Hiking and pack/saddle stock
would continue to be permitted, under the provisions of the backcountry
management plan.
Under each of the three vehicle alternatives, the use of motorized
vehicles was found to cause impairment to park resources and values
because of adverse impacts to the Salt Creek riparian/wetland
ecosystem. Alternative D, prohibiting vehicle access, was found not to
cause impairment to park resources and values. Consequently,
Alternative D was selected for implementation.
Effective July 14, 2004, no vehicular traffic will be allowed to travel
in Salt Creek Canyon beyond Peekaboo campsite.
For further information, please contact the park superintendent,
Canyonlands National Park, 2282 SW Resource Boulevard, Moab, Utah
84532; Telephone: (435) 719-2101.
