Environmentalists call ‘bait and switch’ on Utah lawmaker’s plan to create new national park in trimmed Grand Staircase

Brian Maffly

Conservationists often like national park proposals, but they are smelling a Trojan Horse in the latest idea from Utah’s Rep. Chris Stewart to create a sixth park in the state, covering the Escalante Canyons. At a rally Tuesday in front of Utah’s Capitol, speakers claimed that Stewart’s bill to establish a 100,000-acre park in Garfield County is laden with so many toxic provisions that several environmental groups, local business owners, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) and other groups want none of it. Among the chief defects of Stewart’s “Grand Staircase Escalante Enhancement Act,” they said, is that it seeks to write into law President Donald Trump’s recent proclamation slicing the former national monument by half — and puts Kane and Garfield county commissioners in charge of what’s left...more