July 2, 2002

Dear Grand Canyon River News Subscriber:

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Joseph F. Alston announced this morning the schedule for public scoping meetings to be held on the National Park Service's Colorado River Management Plan (CRMP) revision process.

There will be a total of five meetings, one held in each of the following cities: Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Flagstaff, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Mesa, Arizona (suburb of Phoenix). The meetings will be conducted during the first two weeks of August.

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.

CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT IS CRITICAL

The CRMP public scoping meetings will be held at the times and locations listed below. The Grand Canyon's professional river outfitters encourage you to stop by one of these meetings to share your views. Your perspective is important! Please drop by the meeting in your area between the hours of 4pm and 8pm to offer your thoughts about the future of Grand Canyon river running.

Thursday, August 1, 2002

Denver, Colorado
Community College of Denver Downtown Campus
Tivoli Student Union Conference Center
900 Auraria Parkway

Tuesday, August 6, 2002

Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake Community College-Miller Campus
Miller Training & Conference Center
9750 South 300 West

Thursday, August 8, 2002

Flagstaff, Arizona
Coconino Community College Commons
2800 S. Lone Tree Road

Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Las Vegas, Nevada
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Moyer Student Union Building
4505 Maryland Parkway

Thursday, August 15, 2002

Mesa, Arizona
Mesa Community College
Kirk Center-Navajo Room
1833 W. Southern Ave.

PLEASE LEND YOUR VOICE

In addition to the public scoping meetings, until September 20th, Grand Canyon National Park will accept written 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); and

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

The Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association encourages you to get involved in the CRMP revision process. For more information about the planning process and the issues, please visit www.gcroa.org. 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

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 name and both your e-mail and physical addresses to grca_crmp@nps.gov.

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 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.

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.