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are excited to report that the Grand Canyon Conservation Fund (gccf)
recently voted to help fund the two gcrg programs that deal with
research and monitoring of the river corridor in Grand Canyon: the
Adopt-a-Beach Program (aab), and the Adaptive Management Program
for the operation of Glen Canyon Dam. The gccf is operated by participating
outfitters who decide how to allocate funds each year that they
collect from their river guests. Their guests are asked if they
would like to voluntarily add $1/day of their river trip price to
the gccf, a fund that supports river conservation efforts. Allen
House of azra and Bill Gloeckler of Arizona River Runners are in
charge of the allocation committee for gccf. Gccf has financially
supported aab for each year of its existence, 1996-1999. This is
a demonstration of their continuing support of river guides and
the recreational boating experience along the river.
Johnny Jantzen and Gary OıBrien are presently analyzing the results
of the last two seasons and will have it completed for the annual
Guides Training Seminar in March. Please feel free to adopt your
own beach at the gts or at the gcrg office in Flagstaff. And, a
special ³thank you² to all of you guides who have been doing the
work these past three years. Gccf also decided to provide financial
support for gcrgıs participation in the Adaptive Management Program.
As many of you know, Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt asked gcrg
to represent recreational river runners on the Adaptive Management
Work Group (amwg), a Federal Advisory Committee composed of a diverse
group of stakeholders, which advise him on how best to operate the
dam for the sake of natural, cultural and human resources in the
river corridor.
As your representative on that committee, I regularly attend meetings
of the amwg and Technical Work Group, mostly in Phoenix. These groups
provide administrative oversight to river research and monitoring
work conducted by the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center
in Flagstaff. It is important and time-consuming work that is now
financially supported by river runner dollars through the gccf.
We are encouraged to see that more outfitters have recently joined
the gccf, giving this organization some real financial ³muscle²
to help preserve and restore the river ecosystem in Grand Canyon.
Andre
In 1998 our Adopt-a-Beach (aab) program for the photo-monitoring
of Grand Canyon beaches was given the thumbs-up from both scientists
and policy makers of the river science community. Last August, an
advisory committee of eminent physical scientists from across the
nation gathered in Flagstaff to evaluate the physical science river
program. This committee lauded the aab program as a very cost-effective
means for providing unique data to the river monitoring program
of gcmrc, and it should be encouraged and supported.
The value of guide-monitoring efforts was driven home to them on
a river trip from the dam to Badger Rapid. As we examined and discussed
various resources of the river ecosystem, a big, black storm cloud
roiled and grew above Vermillion Cliffs. When we started our hike
out Jackass Canyon, Badger Canyon erupted from the other side of
the river with a mass of churning red mud, sand and boulders that
slopped and crashed its way to the river. The geomorphologists were
very impressed, not just by the event itself, but by the fact that
if we had not been there to witness and record this aspect of the
physical processes of Grand Canyon, no one would have known about
it. Our knowledge of how rapids change and how much sediment might
be added to the river corridor by such events would remain vague
and imprecise.
The scientists realized, given the enormous expense and infrequency
of monitoring trips, that the aab approach to monitoring is not
only essential for recording anecdotal natural events, but it gives
taxpayers the biggest bang for their buck. Later in the fall, the
Technical Work Group decided to provide additional funding for the
aab program. It was obvious that this was a win-win deal: inexpensive
and essential monitoring of a crucial ³resource² by people who are
always down there and who care most about that resource.
The results are unbiased because 1) the same simple procedure is
carried out at each site, 2) repeat photography can be evaluated
by anyone, and 3) itıs being done by numerous river guides who work
simultaneously and independently. So we have now finally begun to
³connect the dots² between policy, science, people, and the place.
This is a people-based effort that is an essential component of
the monitoring program, involves the people who care most about
the resource, and funds it collaboratively through the donations
of commercial river guests and power revenues from the dam.
Andre
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