Richard Moe: Historic Preservation ... An Unfinished Agenda in the West

Like many Americans, I thought for a long time that historic preservation was just about saving grand historic and architectural landmarks – places such as Four Mile here in Denver and the Hotel de Paris in Georgetown – as well as areas such as Lower Downtown where preservation could be a tool for revitalization.
There’s no question that’s part of what preservation is all about. But the more time I spent in the West – and I’ve spent a great deal – the more I realized that preservation is much more than that. It’s also about the very first imprints that man made on the land – the rock art, cliff dwellings, pueblos, kivas and other remnants of the earliest civilizations that flourished here. These cultural resources, mostly found here in the West, represent the opening chapters in the story of America. They represent the heritage of the first Americans, and thus are part of our heritage as well. To lose them – as we are in increasing danger of doing – would constitute a debit against the nation’s spirit.
The American experience – the real American experience – didn’t begin at Jamestown or Plymouth Rock. It began here in the West, at places like Canyons of the Ancients and Agua Fria.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument lies in the far southwestern corner of Colorado. The mesas and canyons of this place encompass an incredibly rich collection of archaeological sites: More than 6,000 have been recorded, and thousands more are believed to exist – up to 300 sites per square mile in some areas, the highest known density in the US. The full sweep of the region’s history can be traced in this landscape – from the early ranchers whose descendants still live here, all the way back to the ancient hunters who crossed the area 10,000 years ago. I wish every American could experience Canyons of the Ancients. I’ve spent a lot of time there – and believe me, there’s no other place like it.
Agua Fria National Monument is located 40 miles north of Phoenix. While it’s not nearly as large as Canyons of the Ancients, Agua Fria is abundantly rich in archaeological resources, including more than 130 pueblo sites, stone forts, terraced agricultural fields and a stunning array of rock art. Scientists have linked many of these sites to a previously unknown culture, now known as the Perry Mesa Tradition, that flourished here from 500 to 700 years ago. More recent history is reflected in the remnants of Basque sheepherders’ camps, mining structures and military sites – all scattered across a landscape that makes the monument a scenic, as well as cultural, treasure.
Because Canyons of the Ancients and Agua Fria have been designated national monuments, many Americans assume that they’re part of the National Park System. Many Americans also assume that these places are adequately protected and cared-for.
They’re wrong on both counts.

Canyons of the Ancients and Agua Fria are among the vast chunks of public land that have been entrusted to the federal Bureau of Land Management, or BLM. Some people think that BLM is responsible for a lot of third-rate real estate – land that isn’t “good enough” for inclusion in the national park system, “leftover” land that is valuable only for exploitation of its minerals. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The land that BLM manages in the West – some 260 million acres of it – is much more than dirt and rock. Those 260 million acres are thickly sown with natural and cultural resources that are part of the heritage of all Americans.
Today, much of that heritage is in real danger of being destroyed.
At Canyons of the Ancients, the sheer size and remoteness of the place put many important resources at risk. The monument spreads across 164,000 acres – that’s more than 256 square miles, or almost twice the land area of the city of Denver. One ranger – let me repeat that: one ranger – is responsible for law enforcement in that vast area, so it’s practically impossible to prevent vandalism, looting, violations of mineral-drilling permits, and other activities that damage or destroy resources that are both fragile and irreplaceable.
Remoteness is not the problem at Agua Fria; in fact, it’s just the opposite. Because of its close proximity to Phoenix, the monument is experiencing explosive growth in visitation – from 15,000 visitors in 2000 to 77,000 in 2004, a five-fold increase in just four years. Looting and vandalism are major problems, but even more alarming is the huge rise in off-road vehicle use, which increased ten-fold in those same four years. These large and very mobile vehicles scar the landscape, kill plants and wreck archaeological sites – many of which haven’t been adequately studied, since the monument doesn’t have a fulltime archaeologist on staff.
Tragically, what’s happening at these two places is also happening at scores of other sites managed by BLM. Many of these sites are part of something called the National Landscape Conservation System, which includes dozens of national monuments, historic trails, wild and scenic rivers, and conservation and wilderness areas – more than 800 units in all, spread over 26 million acres in 12 Western states.
Created in 2000, the National Landscape Conservation System includes only 10% of BLM land, thereby demonstrating that not all of the Bureau’s holdings are equal in importance. This specially-designated system is supposed to spotlight the “crown jewels” of BLM’s lands – but instead, it too often spotlights the bad things that can happen to good places. In fact, the situation has become so alarming that last year the National Trust named the entire National Landscape Conservation System to our list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

How did this happen? To answer that question, I need to give you a little history.
In 1906 – exactly a hundred years ago next month – Congress enacted the Antiquities Act, which gave the President the power to protect “historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest” on federally-owned land by designating them national monuments. The ink was barely dry on the document when Theodore Roosevelt invoked it to create the first national monument: Devils Tower in Wyoming. Since then, almost every occupant of the White House – both Democrats and Republicans, including the current President – has followed Roosevelt’s lead in using the Act. Several national monuments have subsequently become national parks – including world-famous places like Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Carlsbad Caverns.
Until fairly recently, management of national monuments was the exclusive responsibility of the National Park Service. But in 1996, Grand Staircase-Escalante in southern Utah became the first national monument to be entrusted to the Bureau of Land Management. That started a trend: Since then, 15 new monuments have been created within BLM.
This wouldn’t be a problem if BLM had the support it needs – but it doesn’t. Despite the excellent work of dedicated, highly qualified staff throughout BLM, the agency is practically hamstrung as it tries to do the job it’s been given.
To begin with, BLM’s ability to provide conscientious stewardship is – and always has been – hampered by chronic understaffing and underfunding. No Congress, no President, has ever given BLM the funding it needs. In the 2006 budget, the government provides about $19 per acre to pay for management of our national parks – and we all know that isn’t enough. The National Wildlife Refuge System, another major federal land-management agency, gets even less – roughly $5 per acre. But even that stingy amount looks comparatively generous when you consider this: To pay for management of the sites in the National Landscape Conservation System, the 2006 budget provides about $2.27 for every acre of what are unarguably the most significant BLM lands.
One result of this inadequate staffing and funding support is that many units in the conservation system haven’t developed plans for protecting historic structures, archaeological sites and other resources on their lands. Other units haven’t even been fully surveyed, so officials charged with protecting the resources don’t even know where they are. As a result, sites are being damaged or destroyed before they can be identified, much less studied.
The proliferation of off-road vehicles that can travel almost anywhere is especially damaging to these resources. Recreational use of BLM lands is growing faster than on any other public lands, but BLM has yet to adopt a regulatory framework to properly manage it. Clearly, people should be able to use and enjoy these lands – but not in a way that erases important chapters in America’s story before we even have a chance to read them.
To make matters worse, BLM has always been saddled with a bifurcated and inherently conflicted mission. It is charged with allowing “multiple use” of its lands at the same time it is charged with protecting them. Its mandate forces it to find ways to balance wilderness camping with off-road vehicle use, archaeology with grazing, mineral exploration with conservation. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the concept of multiple use – but it requires recognition that some places must be set aside for preservation, not exploitation. “Multiple use” can’t realistically apply to every single acre of BLM land.

The issues and problems I’ve described are not abstractions. They’re real, and they spell potential disaster for some of the greatest of the West’s great places:

• At the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana, the cliffs along the Missouri River look pretty much as they did when Lewis and Clark were awed by them 200 years ago – but in many other ways, the area is changing fast. The Interior Department is interested in exploring land inside and adjacent to the monument for oil and gas, and there have been legislative efforts to re-draw the boundaries to make the monument smaller. In the meantime, the area’s natural and cultural resources are threatened by new roads, increasing off-road vehicle use, and inappropriate development on private inholdings.
• Nine Mile Canyon in Utah has been called “the world’s longest art gallery” because it includes such an incredible array of rock art – as many as 10,000 petroglyphs – plus a thousand archaeological sites, the remains of historic ranch settlements and a stagecoach stop. Today, the canyon is threatened by unregulated visitation, increased recreational use and vandalism. Even more alarming, proposed oil and gas development could bring more than 2,000 new wells to the canyon and the surrounding area, along with hundreds of miles of pipeline, compressor stations, new roads and greatly increased truck traffic. This kind of development could turn the world’s longest art gallery into the world’s most culturally-significant industrial zone.
• In Nevada, more than 10,000 years of human presence – ranging from ancient Native Americans to Spanish explorers and 19th-century miners – can be traced at Gold Butte, near Las Vegas. Its proximity to the city has made Gold Butte a popular destination for visitors and off-road vehicle enthusiasts, leading to largely unregulated recreational use and widespread vandalism. A recent study showed a 366% increase in major damage to cultural sites in the past year alone, with numerous incidents of graffiti and bullet holes in petroglyph panels, unauthorized road proliferation, pot-hunting and trash accumulation.
• Finally, in the so-called Arizona Strip north of the Grand Canyon, BLM is preparing a long-range plan that would create a 7,000-acre “play area” for dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles – right next to land previously set aside to protect a threatened cactus species and Native American petroglyphs. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times last month, the plan would also permit nearly unrestricted livestock grazing in two national monuments, Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Canyon-Parashant, and would open 3,000 miles of new roads – including some in the monuments – for recreational use. Critics point out that more than 97% of the land in the monuments has not been surveyed for archaeological sites, which are highly vulnerable to damage by grazing animals and may lie near (or directly in the path of) the new roads. BLM’s district manager says the plan is “all about finding the right balance between protecting the resource and allowing the public to use the land for grazing and other activities.” But a member of the Coconino County Board of Supervisors takes a different view: “We have ample evidence that misuse of…these landscapes is sometimes irreparable, and sometimes it ain’t gonna be right in your lifetime.”

Let me emphasize a couple of points: First, none of the places I’ve described is part of the National Park System. America’s national parks are great places, but not all great places are national parks. Some of the greatest, in fact, are on BLM land.
Second, many of these places are part of the National Landscape Conservation System, but others aren’t. The conservation system is a work in progress – and even though it already encompasses 26 million acres, the list of places worthy of inclusion is far from complete.
The public lands I’ve described are as diverse as America itself, but they share two things in common: They’re managed by BLM, and they need help.
They have both long-range and immediate problems to worry about: The cities of the West are booming, as we all know, and that growth puts them on a collision course with the areas where the fragile evidence of our past is still in place. Urban sprawl, air pollution, greater accessibility, increased visitation – these are causing problems at many sites, and things are only likely to get worse in the future.
Meanwhile, today, right now, natural and cultural resources are being damaged or destroyed by unmanaged grazing, mineral exploration, theft, vandalism and off-road vehicle use. If action isn’t taken soon to identify and preserve them, extraordinary places could be lost forever. Somewhere down the line, our children will surely look back and ask us, “How could you let this happen?”

How can we fix it? What’s to be done?
I recommend four things that need to happen soon if we’re to have any chance of preserving the natural and cultural resources on our public lands.

First, Congress and the Administration need to give the Bureau of Land Management the support it needs to protect and manage the resources it holds in trust for all of us. Here in the West, BLM manages the largest, most diverse, most significant collection of cultural and natural resources of any federal land agency. Yet, of all those agencies, BLM has the fewest employees and receives the fewest dollars per acre to preserve – or even to identify – the resources for which it is responsible.
Staffing must be beefed up. BLM currently has 178 rangers on the ground. To put that figure in context, consider that Mesa Verde National Park has 52,000 acres of land and 12 rangers; Canyons of the Ancients is more than three times larger and has one ranger. A recent study of 15 BLM units found that most of them had only one fulltime ranger, who had to patrol an average of 200,000 acres.
At present the budget for management of cultural resources throughout BLM totals $15 million annually, most of it for staff. However, much of that total has been reprogrammed to deal with the needs of increased oil and gas drilling. BLM should use those funds for their original intended purpose – and Congress should increase cultural funding over five years to $50 million, primarily to undertake the surveys of cultural resources that BLM is mandated by law to do.

That brings me to my second recommendation: Comprehensive surveys to identify significant natural and cultural resources on BLM lands must be undertaken immediately.
Here’s a snapshot of how things stand right now: Thanks to good leadership and hard work on the part of the BLM manager at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument here in Colorado, about 18% of the monument land has been surveyed. That’s a small percentage, you’ll agree – but it’s a remarkable achievement in comparison with other sites. Overall, only 6% of BLM land – roughly 1 out of every 16 acres – has been surveyed so that we know what’s actually on it. The good news is that about 263,000 culturally-significant sites have been found; the bad news is that archaeologists think there may be 4.5 million others not yet identified – much less protected, preserved, monitored and interpreted. The bottom line is this self-evident fact: You can’t protect it if you don’t know it’s there.

Third, the National Landscape Conservation System needs to be codified in law. What’s needed is legislation similar to the 1916 Organic Act that established the National Park Service – a law that would give the conservation system an official statutory basis and would express a clear commitment to identify and preserve natural and cultural resources. This doesn’t mean that BLM must abandon its traditional “multiple use” mandate – but it does mean recognizing the need to manage special places in a special way, making conservation and preservation goals paramount over other uses in the properties that make up the national conservation system.

Fourth, we should work together to establish a foundation that will raise private funds to help protect the cultural and natural resources in the National Landscape Conservation System. Models already exist to bring non-governmental support to these kinds of public resources. Creation of this foundation could well be our most lasting gift to the future.

One final – but very important – point: Our public lands are part of the heritage of all Americans – but because so much of that land is here in the West, I believe Westerners should take the leading role in helping Congress and BLM improve the way public lands are managed. It’s an enormously complicated issue – and it needs solutions that are crafted by people who live among these lands and love them.

Much of what I’ve been saying is included in a report entitled Cultural Resources on the
Bureau of Land Management Public Lands, prepared by Destry Jarvis, whose 33 years of experience with federal land-management agencies include serving as assistant director of the National Park Service and senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Interior. This report is being formally issued today by the National Trust. We hope it will open people’s eyes to the seriousness of the current situation – and spur them to join us in finding ways to fix what’s broken in the management of cultural resources on America’s public lands.

To address this issue, the National Trust has formed a partnership with the Wilderness
Society and other groups. Partnerships between preservation and conservation organizations don’t happen every day – but this one makes perfect sense. It acknowledges the incredible diversity of the resources that are at risk, and it recognizes that they are inextricably intertwined on BLM land. They include landscapes that allow us to see the West through the eyes of its original inhabitants, or as it appeared to the first European explorers and settlers. They also include the tangible remains of thousands of years of human interaction with the land, ranging from the ruins of prehistoric Native American pueblos to the wagon ruts left by westward-bound pioneers and the remnants of mineshafts and farmhouses left by those who sought to make a living out of the rock and soil of the Western frontier. Whether natural or cultural, these resources open windows to the past, offering a glimpse – often the only glimpse available to us – of the people who were here before us, the land they found here and the lives they lived on it.

I want to make one point perfectly clear: No one is saying there should not be “multiple use” of these BLM lands. Clearly, people should have wide access to them and be able to enjoy them. Equally clearly, we should permit appropriate extraction of minerals and other resources, as well as uses such as grazing. No one is saying we should lock these lands up.
What many people are increasingly saying, however, is that conservation must be the highest priority within the national conservation system. We must also manage these lands more carefully, so that BLM’s conflicting missions of preservation and exploitation can work – if not in total harmony, at least compatibly. The agency has been given the name “Bureau of Land Management” – but it has yet to be given either the resources or the mandate to manage properly.

As I mentioned earlier, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Antiquities Act. That visionary law encouraged Americans to feel that our heritage is a public treasure, not merely a commercial asset. It fostered the belief that natural, cultural and historic resources on our public lands should be treated with the utmost respect, employing only the best stewardship practices, the highest level of scholarship and the most up-to-date technology in their identification, preservation and interpretation.
That was 1906. A century later, BLM lands represent an incomplete agenda, an unfinished chapter in the long and complicated story of man’s impact on the lands of the West. We have an opportunity – and an obligation to the generations that will follow us – to complete that agenda, to finish writing that chapter and ensure that it has a happy ending.
The time to do it is now.