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June 7 is a Day of Action for Public Lands - make a sign and show your support for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and other public lands by posting a picture to social media and tagging us (@grandstaircasepartners), Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum (@secretaryburgum), The Wilderness Society (@wildernesssociety), Conservation Lands Foundation (@conservationlands), and any other people or groups who should know about the importance of public lands. Remember to tread lightly, pick up any trash, and follow the rules about maximum allowable group size.
Photo provided by Jackie Grant, 2025.
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Dear Grand Staircase,
An unexpected rainy late spring has been traumatizing one of my dogs, Sunny, but is still very welcome after such a dry winter. The land and plants are responding with a vigor that I might almost describe as joyously frightening. I am finding enormous joy in the many plants that are blooming for the first time in years, or with more zeal than I've seen in a very long time. The frightening part comes with knowing that these rains bring the peril of flash floods, which can be both exhilarating and deadly in this land full of canyons. In fact, a group of hikers had to be rescued this week after a storm many miles upstream caused water flow to increase from 7.5 gallons per second to nearly 18,000! Luckily, everyone was safely retrieved from Big Horn Canyon where the flooding occurred.
Aside from nervous dogs and rushing water, the rains have been a real boon to our beleaguered native plant program. We've been able to hire two seed technicians, Heather Vielstich and Tucker Hastings (meet them below), who are keeping busy tracking native plant populations all over the Monument. Being able to immerse myself and the team in the search for desert plants has been an excellent way to cope with repeated requests from DOGE and the loss of funding for our plant collaboration with Bears Ears Partnership. I highly recommend getting into the desert and away from cell service if you can do it!
This month we also welcome a new summer intern, Jack Behrens, from Bowdoin College. Jack's first contribution to GSEP starts with this newsletter!
As always, thank you for being part of our community, and for your continued support of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
-Jackie
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Meet our two new seed technicians, Tucker Hastings and Heather Vielstich. Tucker and Heather will be spending many hours on the Monument and other nearby areas administered by the BLM as they look for seeds from native plants. Their work contributes to the national Seeds of Success program, which helps improve our ability to restore the environment after natural disasters like wildfires.
Photo provided by Jackie Grant, 2025.
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Late spring and early summer rains are making for a fabulous wildflower season on the Monument this year. This little plant is the silvery Townsend's daisy (Townsendia incana). This Townsend's daisy is called silvery or hoary because its leaves are covered in special plants hairs that make it glisten in a silvery way. This common native plant is often overlooked because of its tiny size.
Photo provided by Jackie Grant, 2025.
| | | Your donations enable our stewardship, native plant and conservation work. | | GSEP Newsletter for May, 2025 | |
Grand Staircase’s Ghostly Desert Parasite
-Written by Jack Behrens
Blending into its sandy surroundings with pale ivory petals and glimmering purple bracts, it is easy to overlook this desert broomrape on hikes through the brilliant backcountry. Unlike its showier cousins Castilleja (paintbrushes) that splash the Monument in vivid crimson throughout the spring and summer, this plant from the genus Aphyllon appears ghostly and almost unplantlike. In fact, Aphyllon taxa do not produce the characteristic green pigment chlorophyll that most plants use to harness the sun’s energy and produce sugar during photosynthesis. Instead, Aphyllon species are obligate parasites, meaning they siphon the nutrients they need to survive by tapping into the root systems of nearby plants. Haunting indeed!
It may be easy to paint these desert parasites as ecological poultergeists, but native broomrapes like Aphyllon are essential players in the larger ecosystem of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The holoparasitic broomrapes help structure native ecological dynamics by regulating dominant plant species and promoting overall plant biodiversity. Many broomrapes are also pollinated by and support GSENM’s vast diversity of native bees. With over 660 species from 55 genera, the Monument is one of the most species-rich bee hotspots in the west. Broomrapes serve as a reminder of the complexity, nuance, and robustness of native ecosystems and that the importance of plant conservation extends beyond their direct utility to human agricultural operations.
-Jack Behrens, GSEP Summer Intern
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The Arizona broomrape (Aphyllon arizonicum) contributes to biodiversity in the Monument. The genus name, Aphyllon, means without (-a) leaves (-phyllon).
Photo above provided by Jackie Grant, 2025, and selfie below by Jack Behrens, 2025.
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2024 Annual Report
We're pleased to release our 2024 Annual Report. This year marked significant achievements in stewardship, conservation, science, and outreach. As we continue to protect GSENM, we are grateful for the hundreds of donors and volunteers who made this past year successful.
Your support is what keeps us going and allows us to share the incredible beauty of the Monument with the world. Thank you!
Photo provided by Jackie Grant, 2025. See our Flickr Page for more photos of the Monument, plants, and our June 7 Day of Action signs in support of public lands.
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Update from the GSEP Conservation Program
-written by Kevin Berend, Conservation Program Manager
In May, I had the privilege of attending a four-day retreat organized by the Network for Landscape Conservation (NLC), which seeks to build "collaborative capacity" for watershed-based conservation and stewardship across the United States. The retreat was held in beautiful North Bend, Washington, nestled in the wet and mossy foothills of the North Cascades.
GSEP, on behalf of the Escalante River Watershed Partnership, was awarded a two-year grant from NLC called the Catalyst Fund in 2023. Catalyst Fund grantees are watershed- or wildlife-based collaboratives doing crucial work to advance cross-boundary conservation and stewardship in geographies across the country. For the most part, they are watershed-focused collaboratives that convene and facilitate multi-jurisdictional partnerships and projects that address ecology, watershed health, and sustainability.
The Escalante River Watershed Partnership (ERWP) remains one of the premier examples of collaborative conservation in the United States, and with the support of the Catalyst Fund, its influence has only grown. Our award has supported Tribal representation at ERWP meetings and events, specifically travel reimbursements and honoraria for full partnership meetings and our annual Symposium. Tribal representatives have been active on ERWP committees, contributing perspectives that have not been historically included in ERWP's discussions, such as traditional knowledge of plants, context of archaeological sites, and the cultural importance of springs. The result has been a broader and more holistic scope of ERWP's work. These efforts complement Tribal priorities to assert sovereignty over Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and its connected lands, which has culminated in the recently formed Grand Staircase Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition.
I've been meeting regularly via Zoom with the other current Catalyst grantees, but the retreat was a chance for all of us (about 20 people) to get together in person, and to cultivate a deeper level of sharing and learning from each other. Over four days, we engaged in breakout groups, deep conversations, field trips, and hikes to explore the surrounding area. One of the days, we were led on a field trip by Tracy Stanton of the Emerald Alliance, which works toward inclusive and equitable approaches to land conservation and natural infrastructure investments across Puget Sound. Along the way, we were treated to tours of project sites by representatives of the Snoqualmie Tribe and Kate Fancher of the nonprofit Mountains to Sound Greenway. But most of all, the retreat was an opportunity to connect and network with like-minded practitioners doing critical work and to dissect and begin to work through the many obstacles and challenges that we face given the recent withdrawal of federal grant funds and diminished resources from agency partners that has taken a toll on all of us engaged in this work.
One theme that emerged was that of community. As conservationists, our job is to find solutions to problems at the intersection of people and the natural world. To do that, we have a role (some would say responsibility) of bringing people together over shared goals/interests. The result is that rather than suspicion, we cultivate trust and understanding; rather than stereotypes and caricatures, we begin to see each other's humanity. In this sense, conservation is also an expression of democracy, strengthening the bonds that tie us together to a landscape.
I can't say we solved anything, but I'm returning to the office fulfilled and rejuvenated, and grateful that passion has not yet been -- cannot be -- quashed.
- Kevin Berend
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Update from the Development Program
-written by Jason Pulver, Development Director
We're grateful to have received $9,900 from American Trails as part of its Trails Capacity Program Grant.
This funding will enhance GSEP's Trail Ambassador Program through volunteer recruitment, training, and the coordination of educational and stewardship events. The project will include 40 volunteer events in 2025, focused on visitor education, impact reduction, and habitat restoration across Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM). As the official Friends Group of GSENM, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is a key partner for this project. The project will reduce environmental impacts, build volunteer capacity, and strengthen local stewardship efforts.
- Jason Pulver, Development Director
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How do you remember your trips to the Grand Staircase?
One of our supporters commemorates his trips to public lands with patches mounted to the inside of his vehicle. He sent us this photo of his new Grand Staircase-Escalante patch that marks his latest visit to the Monument. Check out our online store if patch-collecting appeals to you, or to see the latest GSEP swag, which includes sales of a very limited edition cactus blossom candle from soap- and candle-makers, My Cluck Hut. Thirty percent of all proceeds from sales of this new candle will be sent directly to Grand Staircase Escalante Partners!
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Update from the GSEP Stewardship Program
It has been a busy spring for our stewardship crew and spring volunteer project stats are in!
- Total volunteer hours: 833
- Total pounds of trash removed: 553
- Feet of vehicle trespass remediated: 6,437
- Square feet of graffiti remediated: 467
- Number of campfires and camp areas addressed: 65
Are you interested in making a difference on Grand Staircase? We still have some room left in our fall 2025 projects! You can learn more and sign up in our volunteer portal.
-Kaitlin Martin, Stewardship Programs Manager
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Our Volunteer Programs Manager and Volunteer Coordinator make breakfast for our volunteer crews on a chilly April morning during a multi-day trip near Kanab.
Photo by a GSEP Volunteer
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What Utah sports team is named after an extinct mammal?
Last month we asked if you knew which Utah sports team was named after an extinct mammal. Many of you did know that it was the new National Hockey League team, the Utah Mammoth. Mammoths did once roam the state of Utah, and nearly intact fossils have been found, often by accident during earth-moving projects. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is extremely rich in fossils that help us understand the evolution of life on Earth.
Fossils can also be associated with coal and other non-renewable fossil fuels, which is why we are concerned about last month's announcement by the U.S. Department of Energy in which they designated metallurgical coal as a "critical material." Metallurgical coal is also known as coking coal because it is used to make the fuel and reactant mixture (coke) that is crucial to the steel making process. The Department of the Interior can now use an expedited environmental review to facilitate the extraction of materials and minerals that are designated as "critical."
Because the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument sits atop a large coal deposit, it could be at risk because of the new "critical designation on metallurgical coal. Alternatives to metallurgical coal do exist, but that's a discussion for another newsletter.
Don't forget to answer this month's poll about dogs!
-Jackie Grant, Executive Director
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The more you explore, the more there is to find on the Monument. This site on the south side of the Monument reveals the history of wet and dry periods in the past.
Photo provided by Jackie Grant, 2025.
| | We want to hear from you! | | How interested are you in bringing your dog to the Monument? | | | | |
Thank you for your ongoing support.
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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