Nine Mile Canyon Coalition Honored For Its Efforts

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                                    Nine Mile Canyon Coalition honored for its efforts


      Utah group is singled out for its partnership with two others in striving to save ancient artifacts






By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 05/25/2009

The rural residents who wanted to educate the public about the wonders of Nine Mile Canyon didn't realize when they formed their coalition in 1991 they were in for a fight.

Eighteen years later, the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition has not only battled its way to the table with federal officials considering a massive natural-gas drilling project, the group has won an award from an international cultural preservation group.

The coalition, along with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, were honored Saturday night with the Conservation and Preservation Award from the American Rock Art Research Association during its annual conference in Bakersfield, Calif.

The award recognizes the partnership the three groups formed as they worked to save Nine Mile Canyon's ancient artifacts from harm incurred from oil and gas development on the West Tavaputs Plateau in eastern Utah.

Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. is still waiting for final approval for its full-field development of the plateau. Though the company has taken its own steps to protect priceless rock art and to keep its operations invisible from nearby wilderness study areas, preservationists say the heavy industrial traffic necessary to develop and maintain the gas field are kicking up dust that erodes the canyon's redrock sandstone.

Attempts to control the dust using chemicals, the archaeologists and canyon advocates say, have
worsened the damage because the chemicals are corrosive.

Pam Miller, president of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, said it took the group a while to see drilling's potential threat to the canyon. And it was a hard lesson to learn when they realized the federal government wasn't necessarily on their side when it came to saving cultural resources.

The coalition's members include hikers, off-highway vehicle users, landowners, government agencies, scientists, ranchers, industry representatives, people who grew up nearby and current residents.

"We are the locals," Miller said.

Group members insist they aren't against natural gas drilling in itself, but just don't want to see the canyon damaged by development.

In August, the coalition, along with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society, sued the BLM to stop the drilling.

Nine Mile Canyon holds more than 10,000 known American Indian rock-art images. The Hopi nation, which has filed objections to the drilling plan, considers the entire canyon holy.

In 2004, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the canyon on its list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places to bring attention to the canyon's archaeological importance.

Barbara Pahl, director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's regional office in Denver and the head of the organization's Public Lands Program, said the Conservation and Preservation Award recognizes how necessary partnerships are to saving the canyon's artifacts.

"Still, the threats remain very real at Nine Mile Canyon," she said, "so we know our work there is far from complete."