Regarding the recent article about a planned resort near Zion National Park.
Having been closely associated with the Trees Ranch near Springdale for many years, decades in fact, I am compelled to comment on the current plans and approvals to develop luxury lodging, spa and homesites on that property.
Trees Ranch, surrounded by Zion and the Canaan Mountain Wilderness Area, is of significant ecological importance and is just as breathtakingly spectacular as the protected lands at its boundaries.
The ranch, with its river and perennial streams, provides critical habitat and an irreplaceable link between park and wilderness for Utah’s largest desert bighorn sheep population and other wildlife. The property’s development will jeopardize both that nearby wilderness and an existing Resource Natural Area in Zion.
The ownership of such unique and irreplaceable ground requires vision and commitment far beyond financial gain and the lax requirements of a pliant Washington County Commission.
The current owners, Parunaweap Canyon LLC, assured the locals, those who know the land best, that Trees Ranch would never be developed in the manner just approved.
Mr. Trees spent much of his life committed to developing a working farm on this property and founded The Grand Canyon Trust, an environmental organization, along the way. He would be outraged, livid, to know the fate of his beloved ranch. He would be wounded and insulted to learn that the development bears his name.
Coby Jordan, Paonia
