Designation of Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument would fulfill Teddy Roosevelt’s vision
We headed east on U.S. 89A in Arizona through the Kaibab National Forest. Winter had just arrived. The falling snow blanketed the old-growth ponderosa pines. The view from the LeFevre overlook was spectacular. Continuing on, the sinuous curves of the road dropped us down onto the floor of House Rock Valley. Stretched out before us was a sweeping grassland abutting the rich red Vermillion Cliffs. Improbably giant boulders that fell long ago from the cliffs were strewn across the valley floor. But for the road we were on, the vista has been virtually unchanged for centuries.
It was clear to me why Teddy Roosevelt wanted this land — the vast watershed surrounding the Grand Canyon — to be protected.
“Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve upon it,” Roosevelt said when he created Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908 (it became a national park in 1919). “But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.”
President Obama need only pick up his pen to complete President Roosevelt’s vision for the Grand Canyon area and achieve the greatest positive impact on America’s most iconic landmark in a century.
In his final year in office, Obama should exercise his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the 1.7-million acre Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument. A presidential proclamation would forever protect the watershed that is the source of the sprawling network of underground aquifers that feed the life-sustaining streams and springs of the North and South rims of the Grand Canyon and provides water to local communities and wildlife. It would also forever protect the remaining old-growth forests on the Kaibab Plateau, which contain some of the last ancient trees in the Southwest.
The designation couldn’t come at a more important time.
Decades of uranium mining in the Grand Canyon region have polluted our land, air and water. Its deadly and toxic legacy is well documented, posing an extreme threat to the Grand Canyon region. In January 2012, the Secretary of the Interior issued a temporary withdrawal of 1 million acres from new uranium mining in the watershed of the Grand Canyon. The uranium mining industry has fought this ban at every turn and a subsequent administration could undo the withdrawal. National monument designation would make the ban permanent.
U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz, recently unveiled the framework legislation for the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument, crafted with input from leaders of the Havasupai, Hualapai, Hopi and Navajo tribes.
In addition to making permanent the ban on new toxic uranium mining, a national monument designation would preserve sacred American Indian sites. Once home to the ancient Clovis, Basketmaker and Puebloan peoples, more than 3,000 ancient archaeological sites have been found, some dating back to 11,000 BCE.
National monument designation would also protect habitat for imperiled Mexican spotted owls, California condors, northern goshawks and the Kaibab-Pausaguant Wildlife Corridor that facilitates migration and survival of large mammals such as mule deer and mountain lions. Securing these wildlife corridors and protecting water quality will help those and other vulnerable species survive in the face of climate change.
There are economic benefits too. The regions included in the proposed national monument generate $51 million a year, according to a study just released by the Center for Western Priorities. A significant portion comes from outside visitors who come to hike, bike, fish, backpack, horseback ride, picnic, watch wildlife and relax.
The study notes that the proposed monument area already sustains 567 jobs in Coconino, Mohave, Kane and Washington counties in northern Arizona and southern Utah. National monuments attract more people who want to explore the area’s pristine beauty. The increased tourism and recreation from the new monument would create jobs — laying the groundwork for a sustainable economic future for local communities and tribal nations.
There are some in Congress who view the nation’s natural resources as mere commodities to be used to enrich private interests and are fighting to strip the president’s authority to proclaim national monuments under the Antiquities Act and create a partisan divide over a power that has been used by all but three U.S. presidents since the law was enacted in 1906. They forget who owns America’s public lands and for whom they are being preserved — all of us.
More than 100 years after designation of the grandest of canyons as a national park, more of the magnificent Grand Canyon ecosystem has been protected through the designation of the Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermillion Cliffs national monuments. But the job is not done.
President Obama can complete Roosevelt’s vision for the Grand Canyon and help secure his place in conservation history. You can help by signing apetition to President Obama to create the Grand Canyon National Heritage Monument and ensure that future generations can enjoy its splendor as I have.
