The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has scenery. And it certainly has recreational opportunities.
However, the nation's newest national monument exists today - as stated in the presidential order creating the monument - because of its unique scientific resources: the archaeology, paleontology, geology and wide range of animals, insects and plants, some of which are found nowhere else in the world.For the past week, about 300 scientists gathered at Southern Utah University to share research on what they know about the resources in the national monument and, more importantly, what they don't yet know.
"It should come as no surprise we know a whole lot less than we do know," said monument manager Jerry Meredith. Which is why Meredith envisions a national monument that is nothing short of an outdoor laboratory spanning almost 2 million acres.
The rugged terrain and sheer isolation of the region has made the monument area in Kane and Garfield counties one of the best preserved ecosystems on the Colorado Plateau. It has also posed formidable challenges to scientists that have tried to unlock its secrets.
Surrounded by Capitol Reef, Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon national parks, as well as the Glen Canyon Recreation Area, monument planners realized from the beginning they had to develop a park attraction that offered something more than spectacular scenery.
"Somehow, the monument has to provide a visitor experience that is different, one that includes learning about the land and the scientific and historic and Native American values out there," Meredith said. "We have to get past the point of just looking at the scenery and start learning about what is there. People are hungry for something more than just looking at the scenery."
The idea of a joint state-federal symposium on the scientific resources of the monument emerged within the first week after President Clinton created the monument by executive order. And monument planners immediately recognized that the key to making this monument different was a strategy that capitalized on science found within the monument.
Two goals emerged from those early meetings: one, find out what research has already been done in the region, and two, develop a plan for protecting those resources but still encouraging new scientific research.
The scientific symposium is the first in what could become regular meetings of academics. Another symposium is planned for social scientists, recreation managers and historians.
This week's symposium attracted scientists from all over the nation, as well as Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. Both argued forcefully that scientists must communicate better with the public, for whom the monument was created.
"People continue to come to me asking why politicians continue to ignore the science. But whose science?" Leavitt said. "All scientists do not agree, and there are people of substantial sincerity and enormous credentials who disagree."
Leavitt called for scientists to better speak in one voice and one language that can be understood by land managers, public policy-makers and the public. He also urged the scientists to move forward in a spirit of conciliation.
Babbitt, on the other hand, called on scientists of various disciplines to work cooperatively, to work across jurisdictional lines and to look at environmental wholes rather than narrow slices of the scientific pie.
That theme was echoed by Tom Edwards of the U.S. Geological Survey, who argues the massive size of the monument creates an unprecedented opportunity for scientists to "expend our efforts and energy on large-scale issues."
Things like the migration patterns of mammals within an ecosystem, the distribution of plants over a varied landscape, the importance of water corridors to living organisms and its contributing effects to erosion, and the effects of man on natural resources in historic and prehistoric times.
In effect, the monument is the largest outdoor laboratory in the United States.
A common theme throughout the conference was interpreting the many disciplines of science in such a way as to make it relevant to visitors and to those whose job it is to protect the resources for future generations.
"We're not talking about science just for science sake, although that is not necessarily bad," Meredith said. "We are talking about science that enriches people's lives. That is a tall order to fill."