Officials search for answers to problems ranging from graffiti and vandalism to homelessness

Picturesque landscapes, stunning pines and charming streams were once the only way Tooele County’s many canyons were remembered. Today, however, visitors are too often taking home images of graffiti, vandalism, vagrancy, reckless ATV use and rubbish.

“Some of the canyons that used to be so pristine now have a lot of problems,” said Tooele County Commissioner Jerry Hurst.

While the problems associated with local canyons aren’t particularly new, they seem to have accelerated in recent years. The consistent disrespect shown the canyons has angered county officials and prompted them to search for answers to help curb such behavior.

“Graffiti and the dumping of trash are some of the most common things we see,” Hurst said. “I’ve seen places where people have dumped out entire truck loads of garage and left it there.”

Also particularly troublesome is the practice of carving unauthorized ATV trails through publicly and privately owned land.

“I was in Ophir Canyon over the weekend riding my horse and I saw many places were people have made ATV trails,” Hurst said. “That really upsets landowners. Not only does it damage the land, it’s a source of erosion because it gives the water a channel to go down.”

Hurst said Middle Canyon is No. 1 on the list for most desecrated canyon in the valley, probably because it’s the most accessible.

“Middle Canyon is probably as bad a canyon as there is for graffiti,” he said. “Davenport [near Grantsville] is another one. It used to be the cleanest, nicest canyon and now it’s just trash. I hate to say it, but I think it’s all coming from people from outside the county who come here to play.”

Troy Hammond, a wildlife resource officer for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, seconded that theory.

“Tooele County has become the Wasatch Front’s playground,” he said. “A lot of people are coming from out of town, and when they are recreating they think that anything goes. There haven’t been a lot of restrictions put into place here. In Salt Lake County, people aren’t allowed to take machines certain places, but here there are fewer restrictions and fewer officers, so more and more people are coming here.”

The county is currently working to create and sign authorized trails, which Tooele County trails coordinator Dave Brown said will hopefully resolve some of the ATV situations.

“We are dealing with 1 percent of the population that is making it difficult for everyone else,” Brown said. “But if we can let people know where they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to be doing, hopefully we can control that 1 percent.”

Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park said the canyons don’t see any more crime than elsewhere in the county, but sometimes crimes does trickle into the mountainous areas.

“Minor crime that occurs every day in some parts of the county unfortunately sometimes occurs in the canyons as well,” Park said, adding that the majority of the problems stem from senseless dumping, poor ATV etiquette and vandalism.

Such problems in Settlement Canyon became almost non-existent with the installation of a toll gate at the canyon mouth more than 10 years ago, but Park said he’s not too keen on pushing officials to gate other canyons.

“With the gate on Settlement Canyon, we just do not have the problems that we have in other canyons,” he said. “I’m not an advocate for gates on every canyon, but I would love accountability.”

Hurst said he too hates to put a gate at the mouth of every canyon and require everyone to pay fees just because a small percentage of users abuse the areas. The county is, however, considering installing a gate at Middle Canyon, although an official decision has yet to be made on the matter.

“When they gated Settlement Canyon, my first response was that I hate to see that happen,” Hurst said. “But that canyon was a filthy canyon. Now it is probably our cleanest canyon. Installing the gate might have been the best thing we did.”

Brown, who also works in the canyons on an almost daily basis for the county’s park and recreation department, said the rule sheet given at the gate helps take away any gray area about what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior, further deterring problems.

“People know what’s expected of them when they go through the gate,” Brown said. “There’s accountability associated with paying a toll and driving through the gate, although it’s really not about the money. It’s just the idea that the canyon is regulated. I bet 85 percent of the problems disappeared since that gate went up.”

Toll money collected at the gate goes toward cleanup efforts in all the county’s canyons, as well as the purchase of picnic tables, fire pits and other such infrastructure, according to Hurst.

As far as littering in the canyon goes, Hurst created a new ordinance, approved by the commission last July, which banned the bringing of glass bottles onto public land to prevent the difficulty of cleaning up glass shards. Hurst said determining the overall impact of the ordinance is tough, but he believes it is making a difference.

“I’ve heard a lot of comments from people who appreciate having the ordinance in place,” Hurst said. “We aren’t trying to tell people they can’t have a bottle of pickles on the table for lunch, we are trying to regulate the guys who are out throwing their beer bottles against rocks. It’s something that is difficult to police so we just need the public to be our eyes and ears.”

Homelessness in the canyons has also been a problem, with nearly 100 families calling the county’s canyons home last year, according to Karen Kuipers, Tooele County Relief Service director. But the situation has improved, Kuipers said, after another county ordinance was enacted last year that limited camping in any canyon to a seven-day stay.

“It still is a place they go, but only if it’s a last resort,” Kuipers said. “The number of homeless in the canyon is a lot less now that that change has gone into effect.”

Park said he feels like the ordinance has helped his force better police the canyons.

“We have had some homeless that have tried to reside in the canyons, but I think the biggest problem was construction workers here for the summer living up there,” Park said, adding that the ordinance has helped deputies crack down on these squatters as well.

The Sheriff’s Office is trying to control canyon problems through its citizen patrol, but even that can be somewhat difficult, particularly when problems occur off the main roadways.

“Canyons are easily patrolled up the road, but they aren’t so easily patrolled off the road, and therein lies the problem,” Park said.

The Sheriff’s Office recently obtained a Buel motorbike from Harley Davidson on a one-month loan to see how the vehicle would better enable deputies to patrol off road.

“We don’t have the manpower or the budget to patrol all the trails, but we have guys who will go out off-duty and throw on a Sheriff’s Office shirt and patrol,” Park said.

In the end, officials say the only way to really gain headway on canyon cleanup is to have help from canyon goers.

“We really can’t do what we do without public information,” Park said. “We can investigate things like graffiti and illegal dumping after the fact, but it’s a whole lot easier if someone comes forward with a license plate number or vehicle description.”

Hurst said a number of community groups have taken the initiative to better situations in the canyons on their own.

“We have groups like Tracks Brewing Company that go up Middle Canyon every year and pick up trash,” Hurst said. “The Backcountry Horsemen are also very good to help. They aren’t just riding, they are cleaning and improving trails as well. And there’s the families who every time they go to a campsite leave it cleaner than they found it.”

It’s this community participation that will ultimately improve the condition of canyons in the long run, Hurst said.

“Ninety-five percent of the people are very good, but you always have that five percent that trash it for the rest of us,” he said.

Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com