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.

The GMP is a general plan, meant to provide guidance on all issues facing the park, and allowing the actual details to be filled in at a later date. One of those details is how Climbing and Canyoneering will be managed, and how the Backcountry will be managed.

Zion GMP Page 25

Issues to be Addressed in Future Plans

... Wilderness Management
About 90% of the park is recommended wilderness and is managed as wilderness. It is essential that these areas be managed to protect the wilderness characteristics and values, both for the resource value itself as well as for the visitor's wilderness experience. As backcountry use is expanding dramatically, it is increasingly difficult to protect resources and manage for solitude and primitive recreation. A comprehensive plan is needed to address wilderness management. The park staff will complete a wilderness management plan within five years. This plan will follow NPS policy, including the minimum requirement process, to determine appropriate uses and levels of use in wilderness. In addition to carrying capacity, the wilderness management plan will specifically address climbing/canyoneering, river recreation, and the potential for commercial guiding.

Climbing and Canyoneering
Climbing and canyoneering are two activities that have dramatically risen in popularity in recent years. These activities have the potential to adversely affect park resources, defacing rock faces, disturbing cultural resources, disturbing sensitive species (e.g., peregrine falcons, spotted owls, and desert bighorn sheep), trampling vegetation and forming social trails. Climbing/canyoneering will be addressed as a component of the wilderness management plan.

The next step in the process is the development of the wilderness management plan (WMP). Staff has indicated (informal conversation) that the WMP will start into the development process in the fall of 2003. This plan will be developed with a fully public NEPA process, but will be written mainly by the park staff, rather than the Denver Planning Center.

In the meantime, the park has proposed Interim Use Limits to "protect the resource" for the three years that the planning process will take. We consider those limits to be overly restrictive and inappropriate.

What the Zion General Management Plan Says

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

Management Zones

The plan divides the park into management zones. Here's how the plan describes the concepts of zones, desired conditions and strategies (points I added emphasis to are in bold italics):

GMP Page 28

Definitions of Planning Terms
The following terms are used throughout this document.

Desired conditions refer to the goals or end results park managers are striving to achieve. The NPS can set desired conditions for park resources, visitor experiences, management activities, and facilities. Desired conditions reflect the park's purposes and mission goals, and ensure that the NPS preserves Zion's resources and provides quality experiences.

General management strategies describe the general actions park managers intend to take to achieve the desired conditions. These strategies are not tied to management zones. They may apply parkwide (e.g., general visitor use management) or to specify geographic areas or facilities (e.g., Zion Canyon Lodge).

Management zones identify how different areas in the park will be managed to achieve a combination of desired conditions. Each zone prescribes a unique combination of physical, biological, social, and managerial conditions.

Zone-specific management strategies describe the actions that would, or could, be taken to achieve the desired resource conditions and visitor experiences for a given zone.

Seven Park Zones

Seven zones are defined in the GMP. (Note: my comments within quotes from the GMP are in italics).

Frontcountry High Development Zone
includes the roads, visitor centers, museum and other facilities. "In essense, visitors will feel that they are in a pocket of civilization surrounded by the park's natural beauty."

Frontcountry Low Development Zone
includes more primitive development like paved trails close to the road, bathroom and picnic facilities, and the Lava Point campground.

Transition Zone
"The main purpose of this zone will be to allow visitors to view or directly access many of the park's prime resources by means of nonmotorized, well-developed, high use trails."

The park has only a few transition zones, mostly trails that the planning team thought had too much traffic to qualify for the Primitive Zone, or areas too close to civilization. Examples are the Narrows from Mystery Falls to the mouth of Orderville, the MIA roads out near Lava Point, and the Canyon Overlook Trail; plus a swath adjacent to the road in all places, and the paved trails in the valley bottom.

Primitive Zone
"This zone will provide better opportunities for visitors to experience wildlands and solitude than the zones described above. However, compared to the pristine zone, access will be easier into this zone, there will be signs of people, and the area will feel less remote. (...)

"• Park personnel will manage the number of people in this zone. Hiker group sizes for day and overnight use will continue to be limited to 12 or fewer individuals. A maximum of six saddle stock and six people will be allowed per group. Hikers will generally encounter no more than 12 groups per day in the zone, while saddle stock groups will encounter no more than one other group per day. (Note: All of the above limits are interim limits, which may change in the future.)"

GMP p. 45 "The primitive zone will apply to 13,602 acres in the recommended wilderness, including numerous trails and routes. (...) To meet desired zone conditions, on occasion managers may need to limit or reduce visitor numbers on the Narrows route from the northern park boundary to the junction with Orderville Canyon, Orderville Canyon itself, the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek (a day hiking trail, currently open (non-permitted)), and the La Verkin Creek trail (primarily an overnight hiking trail, camping is controlled but day-hiking is currently open (non-permitted)). In the future, managers may need to place limits on visitor use elsewhere in the primitive zones if visitor use levels increased to the point where desired conditions are not being met."

The primitive zone includes what I consider to be Zion's "Hiker" terrain - areas that are accessible by Zion's hiking and backpacking visitors, without using ropes. Large areas included in the Primitive Zone include: Horse Pasture Plateau (the entire mesa-top area (atop the West Rim)); South and Middle Forks of Taylor Creek; and much of the main canyon away from the road and paved trails. (Adjacent to the road and the paved trails are in the Transition Zone). Many trails and routes are "cherry stemmed" into the Primitive Zone, specifically: the Narrows (North Fork) above Orderville Canyon, Orderville Canyon; the East Mesa, Observation Point, Echo Canyon and East Rim trails (including Cable Mountain and Deertrap Mountain); LaVerkin Creek and Hop Valley trails; the Connector and Wildcat Canyon trails; the Left Fork (Subway) and the Right Fork up to Barrier Falls; Huber and Coalpits Washes, and the Chinle trail.

Pristine Zone

This is the zone that includes most of the canyoneering resources in Zion, and is the zone who's management we are most concerned with. Thus I have included more extensive quotes from the GMP.

GMP p.33 "The pristine zone will offer the feeling of being entirely alone in Zion's remote and isolated wildlands. Visitors will have a chance to experience a natural landscape.

  • "Natural Conditions and processes will be largely undisturbed by people. Bolts on climbing routes may be present. Culturally significant resources also may be maintained.
  • "Routes and paths may be defined and maintained if necessary to prevent resource damage; no visitor facilities will be provided.
  • "Visitors can camp throughout the zone, although in some cases, camping sites will be designated to protect resources.
  • "Opportunities for a high degree of solitude will be provided throughout the zone.
  • "Use of these areas will be limited. Saddle stock use will be prohibited. Hiker groups will continue to be limited to no more than 12 people. Visitors will usually not expect to encounter other groups in the zone. (Note: The groups sizes and encounter rates are interim limits, which may change in the future.)"

GMP p.45 "The Park Service will apply the pristine zone to 110,083 acres in the recommended wilderness, which will include a number of known routes. (...) In general, existing conditions already meet the undeveloped very low use nature of this zone. However, to ensure the probability of encountering no other people, managers may need to limit or reduce visitor numbers on sections of the following routes: Camp Creek, Willis Creek, Beartrap Canyon, Right Fork of North Creek, upper Coalpits Wash above the junction with the Chinlee Trail, Dalton Wash, upper Hidden Canyon, and Mystery Canyon. In the future, managers may need to place limits on visitor use elsewhere in the pristine zone if visitor use levels increase to the point where desired conditions are not being met.

"There may be areas zoned pristine that do not meet desired conditions. In such cases, park managers will remove the evidence of human use and restore those areas to natural conditions when feasible. Bolts on climbing routes and either national register-eligible or listed resources, including historic structures, will remain. These areas will be restored either by letting the areas naturally recover or by taking active measures such as planting native vegetation."

Research Natural Area Zone

Reasearch Natural Areas (RNAs) are areas held for research. According to Zion's interpretation, this means zero visitation by citizens. The areas effected are the Goose Creek drainage (to the last rappel), and Parunaweap Canyon.

Administrative Zone

Admin Zone includes those areas that are used by the park for administrative purposes. Public visitation is not encouraged. This is a few small areas such as employee housing, vehicle maintenence facility, etc.

Creating Zones is the current method for managing National Parks. It should be noted that almost everything above (almost everything in the GMP) is a "goal" or "objective". The park is not required to meet all elements of the plan at all times - the GMP lays out guidelines for the park to make decisions with, not laws about what the park MUST do.

What does the plan say about how canyons will be managed?

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