| Summary: | In the United States during the last 30 years there has been a shift from extractive
natural resource-based economies of the Old West to a New West defined by
environmental protection. Over the past century, a growing national support for
environmental protection has influenced a lengthening list of national and state parks,
national monuments, national wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas in the western United
States. Increasingly, urbanites seeking outdoor recreation and enhanced "quality of life"
are attracted to the rural towns, or "gateway towns," bordering these protected natural
areas. Boulder and Escalante, Utah, traditional ranching communities that became
gateway towns to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on September 18, 1996,
are western rural towns currently experiencing such change. President Clinton created
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) by invoking the Antiquities Act
and thus bypassing congressional approval and National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) requirements. As a result, the local people of Boulder and Escalante have
expressed anger and hostility toward the federal government and environmentalists, which
has led to community dysfunction and polarization, leaving Boulder and Escalante in
disadvantageous positions as gateway towns faced with the task of planning for increased
tourism and population growth. In my thesis I utilize cultural survival theory and
perspectives on environmentalism, tourism and growth management to explore the various
impacts of GSENM on Boulder and Escalante's local culture and to identify possible
remedies or alternatives to these impacts. Methods used in collecting data include
background research, participant observation, recent related survey data, and in-depth
interviews with Boulder and Escalante residents. Research findings show that GSENM
threatens the local culture by infringing on local territoriality, introducing outside values,
beliefs and ideas, forcing rapid and unwanted change on a traditional people, and leaving
locals feeling voiceless and powerless in the face of change. In sum, I found that a lack of
both trust and cultural sensitivity have played roles in fostering community dysfunction
and polarization. However, I believe that common ground and community solidarity can
be achieved in Boulder and Escalante through the re-establishment of trust, a greater
sensitivity toward the local culture, and proper leadership. === Graduation date: 2001
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