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Welcome to our new team for 2026!
Photo provided by Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, 2025.
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Dear Supporter of Grand Staircase,
Here, at the end of the year, I'll take a few minutes of your time to introduce our new staff and some practices that I'm trying out to recognize cycles in life and our work. One cycle that we witnessed this year was the emergence of long-dormant native plants in response to wildfire. In 2024, the Deer Springs Fire rapidly burned through over 11,000 acres of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Many people thought that these 11,000+ acres would be ruined by an invasive species, cheatgrass, because of its relationship with fire. However, the seeds of at least two plant species were waiting in the soil for such an event: white phacelia (Phacelia alba) and coyote tobacco (Nicotiana attenuata). The native plants sprung from the burnt soil with an incredible vigor, and may have promise for restoring land after future wildfires. These species appear to be fire-adapted, which means that they need heat or smoke for their seeds to germinate. You can see photos and read more about the white phacelia and its pollinators in the Sego Lily article written by our 2025 Seed Technicians, Heather Vielstich and Tucker Hastings.
In the continuing vein of cycles, three new staff have joined us for 2026: Katie, Mackenzie, and Mary. We are a small nonprofit that often serves as an incubator for young staff as they move through their careers in land stewardship. Learn more about Katie, Mackenzie, and Morgan below and on our website's team page. We will be advertising for seasonal staff for positions in stewardship, restoration, and native plants soon.
To recognize the cycles of the year, my family and some friends are bucking our normal, pragmatic and science-based approach to life by performing a winter solstice "burning ritual" that takes us from December 21, 2025 to January 1, 2026. It's been a nice way to bring the family together and think about the year that is ending and our intentions for 2026. Speaking of the winter solstice, my husband also gifted me a circular, cyclical calendar, the CYCAL, that begins on the winter solstice and not January 1. Instead of writing down all of my meetings, tasks, and appointments, I'll be using this calendar to make note of daily nature observations, and perhaps adding a little art here and there. The link to CYCAL is provided, not as an endorsement, but in case you are interested in such a hyper-specific thing as a lunar-based circular calendar for nature observations.
Thank you for sticking with us through the cycles of public lands protection in Utah and beyond. You all have been amazingly generous this year, and your support helps us document and protect the special places on the Monument while keeping our staff happy and productive. Keep reading to learn about my last trip of the year to the Circle Cliffs, meet our new staff and a new PAWtner, and find out the answer to last month's quiz!
-Jackie
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On my last trip of the year to the Monument, I explored the Circle Cliffs in search of petrified wood. Along the way, I found this little piece of rock covered in dendrites, which are the fossilized traces of mineral-laden water that moved through the rock layers thousands of years ago. Look closely to see the darkened, fern-like patterns that are the dendrites.
Photo by Jackie Grant, 2025.
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As I searched for petrified wood, I was lucky enough to stumble upon a small, sinuous and unnamed slot canyon. A jagged peak of Wingate sandstone peeked through the curves in the short canyon, and pieces of petrified wood were strewn about carelessly by previous floods of rainwater. See more photos in our GSEP Flickr account.
Photo by Jackie Grant, 2025.
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I finally encountered the ancient treasure I was after - in the completely opposite direction of my initial meanderings! This piece of petrified wood is from the same formation that pops up dozens of miles away to the south in the Wolverine Petrified Forest. Fossil collection is prohibited on the Monument, which is one small protection that keeps the petrified forest intact.
Photo by Jackie Grant, 2025.
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GSEP Newsletter for December, 2025
Meet KATIE WOODWARD, Restoration Program Director
Katie has spent more than a decade chasing water across the West, always returning to the Colorado Plateau as the heart of her interests. A riparian ecologist by trade and a reverse snowbird by chance, she spent many summers working in high-desert river and stream monitoring and restoration programs, and seven winters as a professional ski patroller observing water at its source in mountain snowpacks. During this time, she also supported Partners through graduate research and as a watershed field coordinator.
She holds a Master of Environmental/Public Land Management and is completing her M.S. in Ecology at Western Colorado University, where her research has centered on understanding long-term riparian change in the Escalante watershed and Glen Canyon. She earned her undergraduate degree in environmental science from the University of Virginia in 2014.
When she isn’t working or studying, she is somewhere outside with her partner, their reluctantly retired avalanche dog Josie Bassett, and their happily rescued mutt Iris.
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Meet MACKENZIE MORGAN, Stewardship Project Coordinator
Mackenzie was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, and earned her degree in Outdoor Recreation in Parks and Tourism from Southern Utah University. She began working for the National Park Service across the country in places such as Cedar Breaks National Monument, Zion National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Cape Cod National Seashore, and Mount Rainier National Park, focusing on trail work, maintenance, education, and interpretation. These experiences shaped her passion for helping people connect with the landscapes around them. Now living permanently in the desert, Mackenzie loves sharing the beauty of this unique environment with others.
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Meet MARY PEEK, Stewardship Project Coordinator
Mary joined us in November, and she came with several years of experience with Federal agencies. Mary is originally from Layton, Utah, and studied Interdisciplinary Studies at Southern Utah University, where she combined Outdoor Recreation, Hospitality Management, and Psychology. An academic blend that reflects her passion for connecting people with the natural world. From a young age, she struggled to fit into traditional societal roles and found a sense of belonging in nature. She believes the outdoors offers the freedom to be one’s authentic self, a feeling she experiences deeply in southwest Utah.
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Meet a New PAWtner!
Welcome to Cookie, who became a PAWtner this month!
Your Monument companion can be a PAWtner too, for a $25 annual donation. In return, you will receive a special PAWtners sticker, your pet's photo in our gallery, and a digital toolkit that reviews some basic canine first aid and public lands dog-walking etiquette.
Last month we introduced another PAWtner, Bailey, whose owner recommended a GPS-collar when exploring the Monument. Let us know what you and your dog do to keep safe and enjoy the Monument.
Becoming a PAWtner means your four-legged friend joins a community of animal lovers who care about Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Our program informs visitors about hazards specific to the region, explains pet etiquette expectations, and recognizes the pet that has made your trips to the Monument so special.
This month's PAWtners fact relates to leash laws, which are enforced by the respective counties (Kane and Garfield) that cover the Monument. Dogs should be under voice control, and nuisance dogs can be reported to the county Sheriff.
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Cookie, a PAWtner since 2025, is an old hand at navigating Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Always bring water for your dog, especially at places like Lower Calf Creek Falls because harmful algae can grow in the Monument's water sources.
Photo provided by Cookie's owner, 2025.
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In the last newsletter we asked you if you knew which celebrity committed to funding climate change - it was Billie Eilish, who plans to donate $11.5 million to nonprofit organizations whose work addresses the climate crisis, food justice, and climate justice. She has already donated to the Youth Climate Institute.
This month's question revolves around the world of nonprofits that support public lands. There is an entire ecosystem of nonprofits that support Friends Groups like ours. The hint for this month's question is: this nonprofit just celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2025.
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| Which organization's primary focus is public lands protected by the Bureau of Land Management? | | | | |
Thank you for your ongoing support, and we wish you peace during the holiday season.
We couldn't do it without you!
Jackie Grant (she/her/hers)
Executive Director
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Grand Staircase Escalante Partners | gsenm.org
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