‘It’s not a one-time, rare event’; hundreds of glow sticks left in Snow Canyon lava tube create multiple problems

This September 2015 file photo shows trash cleaned up from a previous incident, Snow Canyon State Park, Ivins, Utah | Photo courtesy of Snow Canyon State Park, St. George News

ST. GEORGE— A form of vandalism took place in Snow Canyon State Park last week when an unknown person, or persons, violated park rules by taking glow sticks into one of the lava tubes along the Lava Flow Trail, leaving hundreds of glow sticks strewn about the cave floor. But more than just a mess to be cleaned up, the glow sticks can also cause problems for wildlife.

Park employees are unsure who vandalized the tube or exactly when the act took place.

The incident, while on a larger scale than most, is not an isolated incident. Groups of volunteers are needed to clean glow sticks and other trash from the tubes about once per month, park manager Kristen Comella said. The park has yet to have time to clean the cave from the most recent incident.

Consequences for those caught littering or vandalizing a state park can be charged a fine of varying amounts depending on the severity of the crime.

There are a number of park visitors who view bringing glow sticks into the cave as a tradition and see no problem with the mess they leave behind, Comella said.

“Unfortunately it’s sort of an ongoing issue, and I don’t think we can attribute it to any single group,” she said. “It’s not a one-time, rare event, but something that happens on a pretty regular basis by park visitors.”

Bringing glow sticks into the lava tubes causes a number of issues. Not only does it diminish the experience for others who visit the lava tubes, but the caves are also home to animals like bats and pack rats who use them as overnight roosts. Acts of vandalism displace these animals. Historically, certain species of bats would use the cave for hibernation during winter months.

There’s virtually no hibernation that takes place in those caves anymore due to those sorts of activities,” Comella said.

The glow sticks can even damage the cave itself. When visitors break the glow sticks open in the cave, they spill chemicals, glass shards and plastic. While studies on the chemical itself have not turned up any short-term damaging effects, they could cause long-term damages over time if allowed to build up. And the small glass shards can be harmful to both animals in the cave and other visitors.

“People need to be aware that although some people try to promote it as a tradition, that it ultimately is diminishing the visitor experience,” Comella said, “and it’s diminishing the resource in terms of those underground caves that we have in the park.”

Comella speculates that the reason people continue to bring glow sticks into the caves, despite signs warning against it, has to do with ignorance, not thinking about the consequences or people thinking that because it is underground it is somehow acceptable.

Comella said she thought if people saw those types of conditions above-ground in the park, they would be shocked.

“For some reason people think since it’s sort of ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ that it’s somehow different or allowed when it’s not.”

Glow sticks in the lava tubes is not the only form of vandalism that occurs at the park. Spray paint graffiti, people carving their names into sandstone, defacing buildings and breaking other structures or facilities happens year-round.

“People to have a responsibility to be good stewards when they visit the park and to leave everything that they find here – lava tubes as well as the trails and the picnic areas – in just as good, if not better, shape than they find them,” Comella said. “And glow sticks aren’t permitted in the tubes.”

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Twitter:  @STGnews | @MikaylaShoup

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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