“The Redrock Wilderness is already owned by all of the people of the United States and should be considered a national treasure like the Grand Canyon or the Statue of Liberty. The terrain cannot bear much use or development and the treasures it holds are too rare and special to be exploited. These lands and the wildlife that inhabit them deserve the protection that permanent wilderness designation would offer.” -Rep. Maurice Hinchel (D-NY)

Few places on earth appeal equally to hikers, campers, geologists, ecologists and archaeologists. But the plateaus, canyons and rivers proposed for wilderness designation in Utah fit the bill. There are nine million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land proposed for wilderness. In Utah, conservationists simply call it the Redrock Wilderness, and it holds secrets about the birth of humanity, the earth's adolescence and the placidity only the desert can provide.

The Redrock Wilderness comprises two main regions of Utah: the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range. Both areas are ecologically similar, but their geology (both past and present) is very different.

These two regions connect eight of Utah's nine national parks, monuments and recreation areas.The BLM lands that make up the Redrock Wilderness are just as beautiful and vital as the areas already protected.

The Colorado Plateau
The Plateau is a large basin of 130,000 square miles filled with smaller plateaus and shaped by two of North America's largest rivers, the Colorado and the Green, and their tributaries. In between plateaus, erosion has carved thousands of miles of canyons, a strange landscape of domes, towers, monuments, temples, spires, hoodoos, monoliths and massive stone arches.

This is a land of alarming contradictions. Snow-capped mountains loom over the desert and pools of water hide in petrified sand dunes. The proposed Grand Staircase Wilderness Area alone comprises six major ecosystems, from the Sonoran Desert to alpine forests.

The Plateau began forming 570 million years ago and continues evolving today. Seas have filled the plain and receded, earthquakes have fractured the land and magma has erupted to the surface. Unlike the Rockies and the Sierras, this region has changed gradually. Contained within the strata of the rock are dinosaur fossils, which are covered by remains of mammoths and sloths and covered again by human artifacts spanning thousands of years. The Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi), who lived in the Four Corners region between 1 and 1300 AD, left abundant ruins in the area, including well preserved cliff dwellings and rock art.

The seemingly barren landscape holds a wide diversity of native flora and fauna, from 2,000 year old bristlecone pine to the rare Gila monster, one of only two venomous lizards in the world. But much of it is threatened. It is estimated that 180 plant species in the area are endangered, threatened or sensitive. Many of these are endemic species. The Plateau is home to at least two dozen endangered or sensitive wildlife species, including the bald eagle, peregrine falcon and native fish. Big game animals such as elk, bison, bighorn sheep and antelope fight for existence as well.

Perhaps the most endangered member of the Plateau's web of life is the region's cryptobiotic soil. Covering more than 75 percent of the Plateau's surface, this brittle living crust contains bacteria, lichens, mosses and other organisms essential to a desert ecology. These help create a fertile and erosion resistant surface that retains vital moisture in arid climates. Merely walking on this fragile soil can destroy decades of growth and amplify erosion in surrounding areas. It can take up to 250 years for cryptobiotic soil to regenerate. Off road vehicle (ORV) use and extractive practices are degrading this essential desert resource at an alarming rate.

Utah's Basin and Range
The Redrock Basin and Range is geologically younger than the Colorado Plateau. California's San Andreas Fault helped form the mountain ranges here 20 million years ago. These ranges rise up from salt flats, some of them high enough to draw moisture that support streams, meadows and forests.

These mountains are rugged and remote, with canyons slicing into them and sand dunes surrounding them. Upper elevations support flowering meadows, bristlecone pine, spruce, Douglas fir and aspen. The lower elevations give rise to pinion pine, mountain mahogany and sagebrush. Finally, the salt flats are covered in grasses and sage.

Due to overgrazing, plant life in the area is threatened. Many endemic species are rare now, and in dire need of protection. Livestock has also driven native bighorn and antelope from the area. The Gila monster, chuckwalla, desert tortoise and Bonneville cutthroat are threatened. Cattle have destroyed hundreds of miles of streams in the area, threatening riparian life as well.

Finally, artifacts from the Desert Archaic and Freemont Indian cultures, some dating back 10,000 years, are being vandalized and poached, destroying important records of human history in the area.

We must protect these vital ecosystems and historic artifacts before it's too late. The Colorado Plateau, Basin and Range regions must be made a part of the National Wilderness Preservation System.

More about Redrock
"Bureau of Livestock and Mining"
Citizens take over where BLM fails
What is a Wilderness?