But, in many places in the Tooele Valley, our canyons are being overrun. Take a drive up Middle Canyon and you’ll see a level of graffiti that wouldn’t be out of place in urban Detroit. Rubbish litters almost every campsite and turnout, and some areas have taken on the look of small dumps, complete with discarded furniture, car parts and appliances. Trees have been hacked apart for firewood, and charred rocks and logs are strewn about between broken beer bottles and crushed cans.
Besides visual blight, a certain lawlessness also runs through Middle Canyon. Many of the campsites feature clothes hanging on lines and long-standing encampments that seem semi-permanent. Unauthorized roads and ATV tracks scar the hillsides in all directions, even the steepest grades. There’s no signage to denote where camping is allowed, for how long or under what conditions it’s allowed, or what other activities are permitted in which locations. Some drivers roar down the canyon going 60 miles per hour. Every so often, gunshots ring out.
These problems aren’t endemic to Middle Canyon. On a less drastic scale, they are occurring in canyons in both the Oquirrh and Stansbury ranges.
The abuse of our canyons is a relatively new phenomenon, exacerbated over the past decade by greater numbers of out-of-county recreationalists with no connection to the land. But recognizing the problem and its origins doesn’t seem to be bringing us any closer to solving it.
How is it that Wasatch Front canyons like Big Cottonwood remain in almost pristine condition despite the presence of ski resorts and thousands of annual visitors, while many of our local canyons appear much trashier? In our opinion, we need to fight this battle as we have so many others, on two fronts: public education and enforcement.
First off, the public needs to know what’s permitted and what’s not in our canyons. That will require signage, fencing off some areas, and doing a better job of making people aware of the penalties for violating these rules. Perhaps we need brochures, informational kiosks, or manned entry posts to remind people about proper behaviors such as keeping a clean campsite or bringing in their own firewood. Some users might object that this will destroy the “rural feel” of our canyons, but that “rural feel” argument has been tossed out too often in the past as a justification for lawlessness. Saving our canyons will require regulation.
Second, the various local, state and federal agencies that police our canyons need to do a better job of cracking down on illegal behavior. That means more visible patrols, speed traps, roadblocks and checks on campers. Respectful recreationalists will support these measures in the interest of feeling safe and preserving the canyons’ natural beauty.
Our canyons are too precious to allow their desecration to continue unchecked. Only when enough public will — in the form of “good campers” and a stronger law enforcement presence — exists to drive out the abusers will we be able to reclaim our canyons.
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