Eroded banks of the unstable Virgin River. Zion NP
The post on the lack of cougars resulting in damage to the ecology of Zion National Park has prompted a lot of comments.
I thought I’d post a photo I took of the Virgin River in Zion Canyon last March. The streambanks are trampled and bare or are calving off where the silt is deep. Some of the erosion is human, but the deer follow the human trails and vice versa.
Those high scenic photos you see of the Virgin are taken up in “The Narrows” where the walls close, leaving little riparian zone.
The eroding banks of the Virgin River in Zion Canyon. Zion NP. Photo by Ralph Maughan. March 2006

Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Recent Posts
- BLM Fails To Protect Public Patrimony Through Renewal of Grazing Privileges Without Environmental Review May 17, 2022
- Conservation Groups Threaten To Sue On East Paradise Grazing Decision May 12, 2022
- Gratitude for National Parks May 11, 2022
- Jimmy Carter Supports Protection of Izembek NWR Wilderness May 10, 2022
- Good News–Grazing Allotments to Remain Closed on Bridgeport Ranger District May 4, 2022
Recent Comments
- Ida Lupine on BLM Fails To Protect Public Patrimony Through Renewal of Grazing Privileges Without Environmental Review
- Ida Lupine on BLM Fails To Protect Public Patrimony Through Renewal of Grazing Privileges Without Environmental Review
- Laurie on BLM Fails To Protect Public Patrimony Through Renewal of Grazing Privileges Without Environmental Review
- Charles Fox on BLM Fails To Protect Public Patrimony Through Renewal of Grazing Privileges Without Environmental Review
- Maggie Frazier on BLM Fails To Protect Public Patrimony Through Renewal of Grazing Privileges Without Environmental Review
- Ida Lupine on Gratitude for National Parks
- Hiker on Gratitude for National Parks
- Hiker on Gratitude for National Parks
- Mark L on Gratitude for National Parks
- Hiker on Gratitude for National Parks
- Hiker on Gratitude for National Parks
- Hiker on Gratitude for National Parks
- Chris Zinda on Gratitude for National Parks
- Frank Krosnicki on Gratitude for National Parks
- Ed Loosli on Conservation Groups Threaten To Sue On East Paradise Grazing Decision