Volume 2, Number 5, September 2002
The National Park Service (NPS) is getting underway on rewriting its management plan for the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park. With four of the Canyon’s eight native fish species extinct, two more headed in that direction and little action on behalf of the Park Service to uphold the Endangered Species Act against the impacts of Glen Canyon Dam, Living Rivers initiated an organizing effort to demand that this new plan address the declining ecological integrity of the river.
When first announced, NPS implied that this new river plan would principally focus on human recreation on the river and defer all comments pertaining to river ecology to the Bureau of Reclamation’s Adaptive Management Program for Glen Canyon Dam. This runs counter to the first goal of its existing 1989 plan, “To preserve the natural resources and environmental processes of the Colorado River corridor and the associated riparian and river environment.”
"The Park Service’s failure to preserve natural process is rationale to elevate this objective to the highest priority, not to eliminate it from their management objectives altogether,” said John Weisheit, Living Rivers Conservation Director. Weisheit and other Living Rivers staff and volunteers took this message on the road for two weeks in August. Dubbed the “Habitat Security Tour,” the crew conducted outreach at public meetings pertaining to the river management plan in Denver, Salt Lake City, Flagstaff, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Clad in life-like endangered fish costumes of Humpback Chubs and Razorback Suckers, and sporting Living Rivers Habitat Security jumpsuits, participants were greeted with a friendly message about the need for swift action on behalf of NPS to reverse the native habitat decline in Grand Canyon’s river corridor.
“You’re certainly getting your message out,” said Joe Alston, Superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, and “We want you to know that we do care about the fish.”
In the letter delivered to Mr. Alston, in Denver, Living Rivers also reinforced that the ecological changes occurring in Grand Canyon’s river corridor represent a significant violation of the NPS’s Organic Act (1916) which requires that NPS preserve its lands unimpaired for the enjoyment of current and future generations. Specifically the letter demanded that the new river management plan identify means to:
- Restore essential sediment and nutrient flows from the mainstem Colorado River into Grand Canyon.
- Restore natural flow regimes to properly transport this sediment within Grand Canyon, when and where the sediment belongs.
- Restore natural seasonally variable water temperatures in the mainstem Colorado River through Grand Canyon.
- Develop a restoration and recovery program for the Colorado River corridor in Grand Canyon that includes the full recovery of all species known to be native to Grand Canyon prior to the operation of Glen Canyon Dam.
- Implement a non-native eradication program to minimize alien species in the Grand Canyon River corridor with a priority on those that prey on, compete with, or otherwise impair the health of native plants and animals.
To further this effort, Living Rivers has also helped to form the Grand Canyon Wilderness Alliance, a nationwide coalition working to ensure this new river management plan addressees a range of issues. In addition to ecological integrity, high on the Alliance’s list is ensuring the river corridor is managed as wilderness, eliminating the use of motorized rafts, and improving access for private river runners, who currently must wait up to 20 years to run the river as commercial outfitters are given 80 percent of the permits.
Public comments on the proposed scope of the Grand Canyon River Management Plan are being accepted until November 1, and additional public meetings are scheduled for Washington DC and San Francisco. Please send letters demanding that the Park Service address the river’s ecological integrity in the plan. Direct them to: Colorado River Management Plan, Grand Canyon National Park, PO Box 129, Grand Canyon, AZ 86023. Email: grca_crmp@nps.gov
