Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado/Utah (page 3 of 3)

Land Use Issues

Long-term grazing within Dinosaur's boundaries has had a significant negative impact on the natural resources and archaeological sites within the monument. Detrimental effects of domestic grazing include changes in species composition, proliferation of exotic species, competitive exclusion of natural ungulates, increased erosion, and trampling and destruction of artifacts. Congressional legislation enacted in 1960 mandated that grazing within Dinosaur National Monument eventually be eliminated. About half of the grazing rights terminated in 1985, and the remaining areas are being gradually obtained by the Park Service through outright purchase or allotment expiration.

Steamboat Rock at Echo Park, proposed 1950s dam site. Image NAU.PH.93.37.111 by Alex or Dorothy Brownlee, courtesy of Cline Library Special Collections, Northern Arizona University.

In the 1950s, Dinosaur was at the center of a bitter controversy concerning public land management and water development in the West--arguably the greatest environmental battle in the history of the United States. The Bureau of Reclamation planned to build two large dams inside the monument--one in Echo Park and the other near Split Mountain--as part of the Upper Colorado River Storage Project. These dams would have inundated large areas containing irreplaceable natural, scenic and cultural resources under a reservoir.

Led by the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, the National Parks Association and other organizations, thousand of conservationists and concerned citizens protested against the proposed developments. In 1956, Congress decided that the dams would not be built, citing the National Park Act of 1916 which declared that the purpose of national parks is to conserve the wilderness of these reserves for future generations. This landmark decision, an important foundation for the later environmental movement, set an important precedent at a time when conflict was mounting between utilitarian resource managers and those who would preserve the special places of the West. Today, as the last free-flowing, natural river system of the Colorado, the Yampa River System provides many unique opportunities for ecological study and for baseline comparison with dammed river systems.

Although Dinosaur National Monument is free of mines, dams, fire suppression (the park adheres to a natural fire management program), and heavy grazing, certain land uses outside the park exact a toll on the park's resources. Livestock grazing is intensive on much of the land surrounding the park, while sand, gravel, phosphate and coal mining industries operate on some private landholdings nearby. These industries contribute to erosion, sedimentation, high pesticide levels, air and water pollution and scenic disturbance within the monument. In addition, variable releases from the Flaming Gorge Dam, north of Dinosaur, adversely affect the riparian dynamics, aquatic ecology and recreational use of the monument's stretch of the Green River. Park managers and other concerned parties strive to minimize the impacts of these outside forces.

Introduction
Human Occupation

--Researched and written by Shannon Kelly

Harvey, M. W. T. 1994. A symbol of wilderness: Echo park and the American conservation covement. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 368 pp.

Karp, C. A. and H. M. Tyus. 1990. Humpback chub (Gila cypha) in the Yampa and Green Rivers, Dinosaur National Monument, with observations on roundtail chub (G. robusta) and other sympatric fishes. Great Basin Naturalist 50: 257-264.

Lister, R. 1955. The ancients of the canyons. Pp. 48-57 In Stegner, W., editor. This is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and its magic rivers. Roberts Rinehart, Inc., Publishers, Boulder, CO.

National Park Service. 1986. General management plan, development concept plan, land protection plan, environmental assessment: Dinosaur National Monument. National Park Service, Denver, CO, 271 pp.

Newmark, W. D. 1995. Extinction of mammal populations in western North American National Parks. Conservation Biology 9: 512-526.

Stegner, W. 1955. The marks of human passage. Pp. 3-17 In Stegner, W., editor. This is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and its magic rivers. Roberts Rinehart, Inc., Publishers, Boulder, CO.

Truesdale, J. A. 1993. Archaeological investigations at two sites in Dinosaur National Monument: 42UN1724 and 5MF2645. National Park Service, Denver, CO, 123 pp.