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Escalante Wilderness Project Southern Utah 
For Immediate Release June 25, 2001 
Contact: Tori Woodard or Patrick Diehl – 435/826-4778 

Trespass Cattle Still on Fifty-Mile Mountain
- Griffins Overstocked the Lake Allotment -
Escalante Group Calls for End to Grazing on Fifty-Mile Mountain After Documenting Conditions with BLM on June 20-21

Escalante, Utah. On June 20-21, 2001, BLM and National Park Service employees visited ten locations on Fifty-Mile Mountain to document conditions after the drought and cattle trespass that occurred last year. Escalante Wilderness Project (EWP) board members Patrick Diehl and Tori Woodard joined them at six of the locations and also inspected a spring (Tank Hollow) that the government employees did not visit. 

The BLM team included Chris Killingsworth (Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Assistant Manager for Biological Sciences), Gregg Christensen (Range Lead), Kevin Shakespeare (Rangeland Specialist), Mark Miller (Ecologist), and Joni Vanderbilt (Hydrologist). Bob Bobowski (Range Ecologist) represented the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The federal land managers traveled to the sites by helicopter, while Diehl and Woodard hiked. 

The tour spotted at least 10 cattle on Lake Allotment; presumably they belong to permittees Quinn and Gene Griffin. At least 16 cattle and 4 calves were seen on the Mudholes Pasture of the Rock Creek/Mudholes Allotment; presumably they belong to permittee Mary Bullock. The cattle were clustered around springs and seeps. BLM had ordered all cattle off the mountain by September 15, 2000, because the forage was gone and the land was being overgrazed during a drought. 

“Clearly these allotments are unmanageable and should be closed,” said Diehl. “The trees are so thick that neither the permittees nor BLM have been able to find all the cattle, despite months of trying.” The grazing permits for the allotments require all cattle to be moved to lower elevations by October 1 every year, not just during drought years. 

Quinn and Gene Griffin have permits to run 327 cattle on the Lake Allotment. According to Shakespeare, the Griffins and BLM brought more than 400 cattle off of the allotment since the drought began last summer. In addition, 9 cattle starved to death and Quinn had 27 shot from a helicopter. The Griffins have refused to file an Actual Use Report for 2000. The Actual Use Report would state how many cattle were on the allotment. BLM uses the report to determine how much money the permittee owes for forage. 

“The Griffins have been getting a free ride at the public’s expense,” Diehl continued. “Who knows how long they’ve been paying for fewer cattle than they were running?” 

Despite an unusually good winter, the condition of Fifty Mile Mountain has not improved much since last fall, and in some ways it is worse. At the end of the tour, Christensen said, “It hasn’t recovered like I hoped it would.” The green areas around seeps are larger this year than in the photographs that BLM took last fall, but there is downcutting below some seeps that did not exist before. Miller hypothesized that the erosion was caused by over-utilization last year, followed by above-normal precipitation over the winter. In June 2000, Diehl saw flowers around the springs at Indian Gardens and water flowing out from under a side ledge; this year no vegetation grew on the trampled banks, and the area below the side ledge was dry. 

The meadow at the head of Llewellyn Canyon was cropped short and stank from piles of fresh cow manure. Woodard and Diehl saw 4 cattle and one calf there. The meadow at Pocket Hollow Spring was dry, and Christensen said the permitted level of utilization has again been exceeded. The spring was surrounded by fifty feet of bare dirt, most of it bone dry.  Christensen said cattle had torn up the banks with their horns to make dust baths. From the air BLM spotted 11 cattle and 4 calves in the vicinity. 

“I was shocked to see that Fifty Mile Mountain is covered with cheat grass,” said Woodard. “Cheat grass is taking over because cows won’t eat it unless it’s very young. I don’t know if the Kaiparowits was ever suitable for cattle grazing, but it no longer is.” 

Killingsworth said BLM will fly over the area again and try to get an accurate count of cattle remaining on Fifty Mile Mountain. Christensen said the permittees are accumulating trespass fees for every day the cattle have been on the mountain since September 15. BLM notified the Griffins about the trespass cattle on the evening of June 20. The next day, a small plane crisscrossed the Kaiparowits Plateau during the tour; Killingsworth said it was Quinn Griffin looking for cattle. 

The tour visited the following sites: Navajo Point, Georgie Hollow, Pool Hollow, Quaky Spring, and Indian Gardens on the Lake Allotment, and Buck Ridge, Llewellyn Canyon, Mudholes Point, Pocket Hollow Spring, and Gates Spring on the Rock Creek/Mudholes Allotment. 

Fifty Mile Mountain is the southeast end of the Kaiparowits Plateau in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.