The Planning Process

Planning at all our National Parks is governed by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Zion started developing a new General Management Plan (GMP) in 1996 to replace the previous GMP, from 1977. Be it highways, oil wells or national parks, NEPA requires the land manager to develop alternative plans, consider the long-term ramifications of its actions, and involve the public in the planning process. A Draft GMP was released for public comments Dec 6, 1999. Comments were incorporated into the Final GMP, released May 8, 2001. The final step in the process, the Record of Decision (ROD), was signed off by Regional Director Karen Wade on June 8, 2001; with essentially no changes.

The GMP was developed by the NPS Denver Service Center, with a lot of input from Zion National Park's staff (though staff has largely changed over since this plan was developed). Of the three National Park Plans I have read, this is by far the clearest and best written.

General Management Plan - Executive Summary

The GMP is a general planning document, and defers the all-important detail work on how the backcountry is managed to the Backcountry (or Wilderness) Management Plan. It calls for a Visitor Experience and Resource Protection study to establish the Carrying Capacity of the Zion Backcountry, and completion of a Backcountry Management Plan in the next couple of years.

Comment: Carrying Capacity is a dangerous concept. The VERP study can make an estimate of the allowable visitor use (Carrying Capacity) to achieve specific objectives as established by park management. The rubber meets the road in setting those objectives, which is essentially a political process.

It is important to note that the GMP is a document that provides guidance. It is NOT the law. The Park does not have to meet every point in the GMP. It is allowed to be out of compliance with the GMP, though generally the idea is to be at least generally in compliance with the Plan.

The GMP divides the Park into Zones. This is the modern method for managing parks - establish zones (ie, draw lines around places of similar type as far as development, visitor use and degree of isolation), and prescribe general objectives for each zone, and methods of achieving or maintaining those objectives.

The Zones that interest canyoneers are the Primitive Zone and the Pristine Zone.

The Primitive Zone includes all hiking trail accessible areas, plus the Subway, Orderville Canyon, Pine Creek Canyon, and the Keyhole. The zone prescription is that visitors would generally expect to encounter 12 or fewer other parties when doing these canyons or when hiking in these areas. Hiking trails close to the road are in the Transition Zone, since they would be more crowded than this.

The Pristine Zone includes most of the backcountry that requires technical gear to access, and thus most of the terrain that is visited only by canyoneers. The prescription for this zone is that visitors would have a high sense of solitude, would have the feeling of being alone in the vast, rugged landscape of Zion. The GMP speaks to the prescription in several places, and several times makes the statement (paraphrased): "Visitors would not generally expect to encounter other visitors or rangers in the Pristine Zone".

And that is pretty much it. A more thorough discussion of what the GMP says is available through the links below.

What We Object To:

We have only a few objections to the GMP. For a more thorough discussion of these points, please see Part Four: GMP Summary, and ZCC Comments on the GMP.

1. Emphasis on "Zero Social Encounters" in the Pristine Zone Prescriptions.
The General Management Plan is meant to be a planning document, offering guidance but avoiding specific prescriptions. In several places, the GMP mentions that the Pristine Zone encounter rate level should be zero, though in other places it uses terms like "few", or that "visitors will usually not expect to encounter other groups". Use of such a specific target in the GMP is not appropriate.

Promotion of "Zero Social Encounters" is a political statement. Research has established that zero social encounters are not required for visitors to achieve a high degree of solitude. The GMP should not write into its zone prescriptions a minority, discredited management method, it should write in general objectives, with the method to achieve these objectives left to the Wilderness Management Plan.

2. Inclusion of Mystery Canyon, Echo Canyon and Behunin Canyon in the Pristine Zone
Three heavily used canyons were included in the Pristine Zone, and we feel their inclusion is inappropriate. These canyons have become popular in recent years and are occasionally subject to a moderate level of crowding.

3. Closure of Research Natural Areas to All Public Use
The plan closes the Goose Creek and Parunaweap Canyon RNAs to all public use. The GMP should establish management objectives for these areas, and avoid making hard and fast rules for the next 20 years. RNAs across the National Park System are not universally closed to all public access - they usually allow for some limited amount of public access carefully managed for zero impacts. There is no reason to categorically exclude public use from these areas for the next 20 years.

The Process: How it Works and GMP Executive Summary
Part One: General Management Plan - The Planning Process and Management Zones
Part Two: General Management Plan - General Statements
Part Three: GMP - Specific Statements about the Pristine Zone
Part Four: GMP Summary, and ZCC Comments on the GMP