Vermilion Cliffs and the Return of the Condor

Northwest of Page, a massive sandstone escarpment blazes red and orange against the sky. The Vermilion Cliffs stretch for miles along the Arizona-Utah border, rising as high as three thousand feet above the valley floor in sheer ledges, terraces, and eroded pinnacles. They are among the most dramatic geological formations on the Colorado Plateau, and they are home to one of conservation biology's most celebrated recoveries.

By the nineteen eighties, the California condor had been pushed to the edge of extinction. Lead poisoning from spent ammunition was the primary culprit, killing birds that fed on the carcasses of animals shot with lead bullets. At its lowest point, fewer than thirty California condors remained alive on earth, all of them in captivity.

Wildlife managers made the agonizing decision to capture every last wild bird and begin a captive breeding program. The condors returned to the Arizona skies in nineteen ninety-six, when the first birds were released at Vermilion Cliffs. Several sites across the West had been considered, and the Vermilion Cliffs was selected for its remoteness, minimal human disturbance, and the powerful thermals rising above the canyon walls.

The program has become a genuine success. Today dozens of condors soar over northern Arizona and southern Utah, and the monument holds a release each year. Condors can often be spotted riding thermals above the canyon country near Page.