A bill would preserve Grand County’s historical and paleontological treasures.
(Francisco Kjolseth | Tribune file photo) Mary Beth Bennis-Smith, left, and Heather Finlayson with the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal, Utah, take their 14-foot-long Utahraptor for a walk in the Capitol on Tuesday. February 3, 2009.
History buffs and dinosaur aficionados are making yet another foray into Grand County’s Utahraptor State Park, on a fossil-rich stretch of land that is currently suffering from overexploitation and vandalism.
Rep. Steve Eliasons’ earlier attempt to build the park in honor of Utah’s official dinosaur failed last year, largely because of its $ 10 million cost. But he’s not giving up on the idea – and in fact, he’s expanding it at this session by promoting a two-for-one bill that would create Utahraptor State Park and a second new park around a Morgan County reservoir.
“It’s hard to say it’s a generational opportunity. It’s more of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, “Eliason, R-Sandy, said Thursday during a hearing for the House’s Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee. “As you know, they are not building any more land. And there are extremely few ways the state owns significant pieces of land suitable for a state park. “
The first planned park would be located about 15 miles north of Moab and protect the Dalton Wells Quarry, which produced the first fossils of Utahraptor and many other unique species from Grand County. The second would be called Lost Creek State Park and would cover Lost Creek Reservoir, an area currently visited by people for fishing and boating.
“I hope that this will help make it a safer place that more people can come to,” said MP Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, whose district the reservoir is a part of. “Something that generates money to continue its own growth.”
House members applauded and voted in favor of the bill’s goals, but warned that lawmakers will have to decide later in the session whether to donate millions of dollars to the parks.
Legislative analysts estimate that Utahraptor State Park would cost nearly $ 26 million to acquire and develop, and they have yet to figure out how much the state would have to spend to create Lost Creek State Park.
If heads of state fund Eliason’s law, the new Utahraptor State Park could be about 6,500 acres and offer biking, hiking and camping trails, he said.
Lee Shenton, representative of the Utah Friends of Paleontology, said the Dalton Wells Quarry has produced fossils of 13 new species in the past few decades. Unfortunately, group members who have been monitoring the quarry have noticed repeated vandalism at the sensitive area, and Shenton said he hopes converting the area into a park will protect it while allowing more people to enjoy its treasures.
“We particularly want that not only are these paleontological resources protected and preserved, but that there is an opportunity in the future to have some kind of exhibition that can show these many very important fossils that have been found here,” he said.
The area is also the site of a historic Civilian Conservation Corps labor camp that served as the Moab Isolation Center, a facility for the “relocation” of Japanese-American internees during World War II.
Park tourism could boost the local economy in the area, public commentators said, and improved plumbing and camping facilities would help alleviate the waste problems that have arisen near the quarry as its popularity has increased.
Grand County Commissioner Jacques Hadler said he has mountain biking and hiking the trails in the area and can confirm the urgent need for protection. Campsites have sprawled in the desert and “a lot of native vegetation has been burned in huge rings of campfires that you will see everywhere, scarring the land,” he said.
“Grand County doesn’t have the resources to protect this great area,” he added. “I think it would fit nicely into the Utah State Park system. … I think it would quickly become a crown jewel in the Utah State Park system. “
Eliason said the preservation of this state-owned property could also show that Utah is a good steward of its public spaces, which may reinforce his case for taking greater control of the states within its borders.
Now that the draft law has been passed by the committee, it will be submitted to the plenary for consideration.
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