Pipe Spring National Monument - Environmental Factors

A perfect day at Pipe Spring National Monument: seeing forever; hearing nature’s symphony all around; smelling the fresh air, the plants and soil; existing in perfect balance with all of nature.

Few days are perfect. Though nature itself intrudes, sometimes the greatest impacts are humans and their technology. At Pipe Spring, the sharp clarity of the Arizona Strip, with views of Mount Trumbull and Yellowstone Mesa, at times is haze softened. Dust, smoke, and other pollutants occasionally block the views. Birds singing in the tress and lizards rustling in the dry grasses are sometimes drowned out by fierce winds blowing across the plains or military jets flying overhead on training runs. The clean air can be overpowered by the smell of dust kicked up with winds or by fumes from vehicles on the highway. Long-ago native inhabitants worked to live in harmony with nature. Later immigrants to the Arizona Strip brought their ever-evolving technologies to conquer the environment, resulting in the upset of its fragile balance.

Unable to control natural elements, the focus must be on limiting human caused factors. Pipe Spring’s environmental factors include a few from within this small park and many from other areas. Armed with past knowledge and present awareness, it is imperative that Pipe Spring and surrounding tribes, agencies and communities combine forces to preserve this area for future generations.