National Park Service Invites Public Participation in Colorado River Planning Process

Public Comment Period Announced

June 14, 2002

Dear Grand Canyon River News Subscriber:

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Joseph F. Alston announced yesterday the resumption of the Colorado River Management Plan (CRMP) revision process and the opening of a sixty-day public comment period.

The CRMP is the official management document that governs access to and activities within the Colorado River corridor within Grand Canyon National Park. This plan covers all aspects of recreational river running in the Grand Canyon.

The new CRMP will dictate how the American public is able to visit and interact with the Grand Canyon via river trips for the next ten to fifteen years.

For the next sixty days, Grand Canyon National Park will accept public comments on these and many other river-related issues:

· the appropriate level of visitor use along the Colorado River;

· the allocation of that use between professionally-outfitted and self-outfitted groups;

· whether low-powered motorized pontoon rafts should be banned;

· the non-commercial river trip permitting system;

· the level of motorized versus non-motorized use (if motorized use remains);

· the range of professionally-outfitted services provided to the public.

Toward the end of the summer, the National Park Service will also conduct a series of meetings in Flagstaff, AZ; Phoenix, AZ; Salt Lake City, UT; Denver, CO; and Las Vegas, NV to hear from the public. The schedule for these meetings will be announced shortly.

CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT IS CRITICAL

Here are a few of the issues we hope you will care about.

Who Gets to Go?

The CRMP revision will specify who gets to go on Grand Canyon river trips in the future. A common argument voiced by young private boaters, who want to take trips away from professionally-outfitted passengers to use for themselves, is that people who need or prefer the services of a professional outfitter "don't deserve" Grand Canyon river trips.

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 the National Park Service may reduce this visitation to as little as 9,000 or even 7,000 per year.

How Long Is Your Vacation?

For five decades, inflatable rafts powered by small outboard motors have plied the Colorado River within Grand Canyon National Park. Such watercraft 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 sixteen day trips.

PLEASE LEND YOUR VOICE

The Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association encourages you to get involved in the CRMP revision process. Learn about the issues and mail your comments directly to the park at "CRMP Project," Grand Canyon National Park, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, AZ, 86023.

In the coming weeks, we will offer additional news updates and information on issues, and about when and how you can most effectively participate in this important decision-making process.

For more information about the planning process and the issues, please visit www.gcroa.org.

National Park Service information about the CRMP revision process can be found at www.nps.gov/grca/crmp.

To place yourself on the park's CRMP Newsletter mailing list, mail a request with your e-mail address to grca_crmp@nps.gov.

To view the National Park Service News Announcement, go here. (This is a .pdf file that requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader to open and view.)

In the coming weeks, look for additional information about the issues and the process coming from this Grand Canyon River News Bulletin Service. Please take a few minutes to consider the issues and get involved.

The Grand Canyon's future is yours to make!

This Grand Canyon river news update was brought to you by the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association, a non-profit trade group whose members include the sixteen professional river outfitters who provide public whitewater rafting trips in Grand Canyon National Park. Formed in 1996, GCROA works with the public and the media to provide information and to answer questions about Grand Canyon river running and related issues. Please visit www.gcroa.org for more information.