UPDATE | DOI Officials To Meet With Utah Politicians Regarding National Parks

Editor’s note: This updates with additional details.

A meeting next week between Interior Department officials and Utah politicians has raised concerns the topic might be co-management of national parks in the Beehive State.

Some Utah legislators early this year proposed that the state "co-manage" Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion national parks, and state and congressional politicians in the state long have desired to see federal lands transferred to the state.

Early this year Utah state Rep. Steve Eliason said he would introduce a resolution calling for the state to co-manage the five national parks, saying the parks face a combined maintenance backlog of about $400 million and that the federal government alone can’t wipe that out.

"It could be decades, if ever, if the federal government sufficiently funds these fabulous resources," the Republican told Salt Lake City's Fox 13, adding that the state could help tackle that backlog.

Whether the state could afford to make a dent is hard to say, as it’s facing a significant financial challenge to save the Great Salt Lake.

According to information shared with the National Parks Traveler, the meeting on December 1 will involve Deputy Interior Secretary Karen Budd-Falen and other political appointees from Interior; the State of Utah (Governor Spencer Cox’s office, Utah’s Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office [PLPCO], and more); Utah’s congressional delegation/staff; Utah state legislators; and commissioners from several counties where national parks are located (Grand, San Juan, Wayne, Garfield, Kane, and Washington counties).

Superintendents and/or leadership from most of the national parks in the state reportedly will be in attendance.

Interior officials said state and Park Service officials routinely meet, but they had no comment on Monday’s meeting.

"We suspect that this meeting will be teeing up (if not implementing) a new framework by which the State of Utah will have significant management and decision-making authority over National Park Service units in Utah," said Neal Clark, wildlands director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "This is entirely consistent with recent efforts by both the Utah legislature and Utah’s congressional delegation to push for state management (if not outright ownership) of federal public lands.

"We are concerned that DOI may be using National Parks in Utah as a first attempt to authorize state management and oversight of national parks, which would set a dangerous precedent with wide ranging and significant impacts for the millions of acres of national parks nationwide," he added.

It was a year ago that Utah tried to have the U.S. Supreme Court consider a lawsuit seeking to have about 18 million acres in the state handed over to Utah. the challenge bucked more than a century of legal rulings and the state's own constitution. The high court declined to hear the matter.

Mention of the upcoming meeting between state and federal officials was mentioned in the agenda of the Grand County Commission meeting on November 18. According to commission documents, the meeting was scheduled to discuss a draft county proposal to better manage visitation to Arches National Park.

While the Park Service has studied different approaches to dealing with congestion, including the use of a timed-entry reservation plan, county officials said that approach was “unacceptable” due to the economic impact and unspecified impacts to the local community.

Instead, the county wants to re-evaluate how best to manage visitation to “reflect modern use and operational realities.”

The county also criticized the Park Service at Arches for relying on a general management plan written in 1989.

”During the intervening 36 years since 1989, there have been significant demographic, technological, and environmental changes, including a doubling of Utah and Colorado’s population, the expansion of park boundaries (including the 3,140 acre Lost Springs Canyon addition in 1998), the construction of new infrastructure, and advances in visitor management technology, including the advent and near universal adoption of the mobile phone and the Internet,” the document said.

County officials also appear to desire greater visitor capacity at Arches, noting in the meeting documents that because park studies on how to manage visitation relies on outdated data and desired conditions, “any solution which expands capacity will continue to be excluded.”

”The Desired Conditions re-evaluation process should employ modern social science and economic data to establish a Performance-Based Carrying Capacity Model, setting adaptive thresholds based on contemporary, measurable indicators such as resource conditions, visitor satisfaction, and infrastructure performance. This will enable Arches to accommodate more visitors responsibly, enhance public enjoyment, and ensure long-term conservation,” the document added.

The county proposal calls for more parking areas inside Arches, specifically to serve the Delicate Arch, Devils Garden, Park Avenue, Windows, and Balanced Rock areas, as well as multi-use trails along with more “interpretive trails” to help disperse foot traffic.

The Grand County documents envision a partnership involving the National Park Service, the Utah Transportation Department, the Utah Office of Tourism, the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, the Moab Area Transit, Southern Utah University Visitor Use Research Center, the federal Bureau of Land management, and Utah State Parks.