National Environmental Groups Target Motors in the Grand Canyon As Their "Next Big War"

NPS Extends CRMP Public Comment Period to September 20th

July 29, 2002

Dear Grand Canyon River News Subscriber:

Beginning Thursday, August 1st in Denver, Colorado, the National Park Service will conduct a series of five public meetings on how to revise and update the Colorado River Management Plan, which governs access to and activities within the Colorado River corridor within Grand Canyon National Park.

Grand Canyon River Management Public Meeting Schedule

The CRMP public scoping meetings will be held at the times and locations listed below. 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.

National Environmental Groups Target Motors in the Grand Canyon As Their "Next Big War"

According to a recent news article that appeared in Washington, DC, a group of professional environmental and wilderness activists recently formed the "Grand Canyon Wilderness Alliance." Led by The Wilderness Society, this new group is dedicated to removing the motorized river trip option from the Colorado River within the Grand Canyon. A staffer for The Wilderness Society states that "I would like it to be one of the top two issues for our organization."

The Grand Canyon's professional river outfitters would like you to know that today, three out of four professionally-outfitted river trip passengers, and a number of self-outfitted river trippers, utilize motorized rafts powered by quiet, low-emission, low-power, environmentally-friendly, four-stroke outboard motors.

The Grand Canyon motor issue is not about proper ecological caretaking. There is no evidence that the current type and level of motorized use harms the Grand Canyon or its river in any way. The National Park Service has made clear that this debate involves visitor experience and aesthetic matters, not resource protection imperatives.

Motorized inflatable rafts have been used in the Grand Canyon for five decades, and are today the principal reason why the Grand Canyon river experience is accessible to a very broad range of the general public, from young children to the elderly, to those with even severe disabilities.

Without motorized use, the number of participants able to enjoy a professionally-outfitted trip could be reduced from about 19,000 to as little as perhaps 8,000 or 9,000 annually. It seems that many wilderness advocates, however, see such a dramatic decrease in public visitation as a positive outcome.

For more about the Grand Canyon wilderness/motors issue, including an in-depth article about its history and status, please visit our website.

NPS Extends CRMP Public Comment Period to September 20th

According to the June 2002 issue of Soundings, the official NPS CRMP newsletter, the NPS has extended the CRMP public comment period to September 20th, 2002.

Because 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, now's the time to share your views with the National Park Service!

Learn about the issues and mail your comments directly to: "CRMP Project," Grand Canyon National Park, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, AZ, 86023.

For more information about the CRMP 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 name, and both your physical and e-mail addresses to grca_crmp@nps.gov.

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.