Grand Canyon Issues and News

Like most visitors, you enjoyed or will enjoy your Grand Canyon rafting experience… the awesome beauty of the Canyon, your guides, the exhilaration of whitewater, fantastic hikes, Dutch-oven meals, sleeping under the stars, and camaraderie with family and friends… For many, this has been a life-changing event. In years to come, however it may not be as easy for you or your children or friends to have the same experience. The National Park Service is near the end of a multi-year planning process that will affect the way future generations are able to access Grand Canyon.

Overview

How Much Public Access?
This year, as for each of the past fifteen years, about 19,000 visitors will enjoy a professionally outfitted Grand Canyon river experience. Proposals now under consideration by government regulators may reduce this visitation to as little as 9000 or even 7000 river passengers per year – a sixty to seventy percent reduction. Access in certain months may even be limited further by eliminating helicopter transfers. This would make the canyon accessible to only those who are capable of hiking in and out of the canyon.

How Long Is Your Vacation Time?
For five decades, inflatable rafts powered by small outboard motors have operated on the Colorado River within Grand Canyon National Park. Such watercraft combined with the ability to exit and enter the canyon by helicopter make a full Grand Canyon river trip possible in six to eight days. Today, this is the trip of choice for three out of four visitors. Yet some want to ban motors and replace all such trips with a much smaller number of thirteen to fifteen day trips, destroying the way in which 70% of the professionally guided public now access Grand Canyon. These groups are digging in for a battle, and generating hundreds of letters.

Right now, your letter is absolutely essential to preserve your access.

Broad citizen involvement is critical to the process that will decide how the Colorado River within Grand Canyon National Park is managed. The canyon’s professional river outfitters invite and encourage you to learn about the issues and to lend your voice. The canyon’s future is yours to make.

Western River Expeditions and the National Park Service need your help.

The National Park Service is debating a full range of alternatives from status quo to the complete elimination of motors and helicopters. Its “Preferred Alternative”-- designated Alternative “H”-- preserves most of the motorized raft use and most of the helicopter use. It also increases opportunities for the self-guided public to experience Grand Canyon. There are, however, elements of the plan which cause great concern:

• Registration with the National Park Service would be mandatory before choosing an outfitter, placing a barrier between you and your outfitter and making reservations more complicated. This system is such that it could be unfairly manipulated and used against you to reduce your access in the future.
  
• No motors would be allowed between September 1 and February 28, limiting your choice to take a 3 to 6 day trip. The complete elimination of motorized trips is specified in several of the planning alternatives, and those opposing motors are highly organized and are writing letters urging their total removal.
  
• Fewer commercial trips would launch during the summer with smaller numbers of guests, pushing more launch dates into unusable parts of the year.
  
• No helicopters would be allowed in the spring or fall, limiting access to only those who can hike in and out of the canyon.


Read more details of the Colorado River Management Plan
Learn about the Grand Canyon River Runners Association

What You Could Say to the National Park Service

The Preferred Alternative (Alternative H), proposed by the National Park Service is a good start; however, it is critical that we raise the important points listed below and ask the Park to modify Alternative H. A letter using your own words has the greatest effect, but here is some suggested language:

• Please do not make me call the Park and register my interest before contacting my outfitter.
• I support the continued use of motorized rafts.
• I support the continued use of helicopters for passenger exchanges.
• Please continue to allow motorized rafting use in the month of September.
• Please continue to allow helicopter exchanges at Whitmore in the spring and fall.
• Please increase the group size and or allow more summer launches so that trips will not have to be pushed into unusable seasons of the year.

How to Submit Your Comments

• Mail your comments to CRMP Project, PO Box 129, Grand Canyon, AZ 86023
• Fax your comments to 928-638-7797
• Submit your comments online at www.crmpcomments.com
• Attend a public meeting and voice your opinions (See meeting list). Call or send an e-mail and let us know if you plan to attend.
• Join the Grand Canyon River Runners Association.

Please help preserve future public access to Grand Canyon by submitting your comments today. Your voice will make a difference. We hope to hear from you or see you at one of the meetings.

Sincerely,


Brian I. Merrill
Chief Executive Officer
And the entire crew at Western

Public Meetings » November 8 through December 2

TO DISCUSS THE COLORADO RIVER MANAGEMENT PLAN DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT

The National Park Service will conduct seven separate, “open-house” format meetings where you can learn more about their plan to change the management of river trips through Grand Canyon. It is also an excellent opportunity to comment on the plan. The dates and locations are listed below. Maps to each location can be found using the listed internet links.

A representative of Western River Expeditions will be in attendance at every meeting. If you plan to attend, please give us a call at 866-904-1160 and speak with Brian or Sandy, or, send Brian an e-mail at brian@westernriver.com. We’d love to touch base with you at the meeting.

DENVER, COLORADO:
Monday, November 8, 2004 (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM)
Arapahoe Community College Cafeteria
5900 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton
www.arapahoe.edu/aboutacc/maps/index.html

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH:
Wednesday, November 10, 2004 (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM)
Salt Lake Community College-Miller Campus
Karen Gail Miller Conference Center
9750 South 300 West, Sandy
www.slcc.edu/miller/MAP/

WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA:
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM)
Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel Ballroom
1700 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington
marriott.com/property/propertyPage/WASGW

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA:
Thursday, November 18, 2004 (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM)
Hendersen Convention Center Ballroom and Sierra A & C
200 Water Street, Hendersen
www.visithendersen.com/index01.html

FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA:
Monday, November 22, 2004 (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM)
Coconino Community College Administration Building – Commons Area
2800 S. Lone Tree Rd.
www.coconino.edu/campuses/lonetree.html

PHOENIX, AZ:
Tuesday, November 30, 2004 (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM)
Glendale Community College Student Lounge
6000 W. Olive Avenue, Glendale
www.gc.maricopa.edu/map/

SAN FRANCISCO, CA:
Thursday, December 2, 2004 (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM)
The Presidio of San Francisco Presidio Officers’ Club
50 Moraga Avenue, San Francisco
www.presidio.gov/Visiting/DirectionsShuttle/OfficersClub.htm

Additional Information »

Articles Concerning the Colorado River Management Plan

Wilderness, Motorized Rafts, and the Grand Canyon
For the past three decades, an intractable controversy has simmered and sometimes boiled over regarding the use of low-powered outboard motors on pontoon rafts running the mighty rapids of the Colorado River within Grand Canyon National Park. Today, three out of four professionally-outfitted river trip passengers, and a number of self-outfitted river trippers conducting private trips, choose to utilize motorized rafts powered by low-emission, low-noise, environmentally-friendly motors. More »

Real People and Real Trip Dates
Some applicants wait years to receive a permit while others take advantage of a system that for those "in the know" can provide multiple trips regularly, and sometimes even within the same year. National Park Service non-commercial river trip participant records indicate that in the last five years, one tenth of all private boaters completing trips went on two or more trips. Read More »

State of the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon is one of the most revered natural landscapes in the world, and the condition of the Colorado River ecosystem within it is a widely discussed and debated issue. Here, we will take a look at the current condition of this great ecosystem in relation to its history and discuss how current conditions may result in future changes. Read More »