Late Breaking News in the Adaptive Management Program, Glen Canyon Dam

Technical Work Group Meetings, 2001
The twg was busy in 2001. We had two days of meetings about every month and went on a river trip March 24–31. At the request of the Adaptive Management Work Group (amwg) strategic planning group, the majority of our time was spent discussing, arguing, and revising the goals, management objectives, and information needs sections of the amp strategic plan. Every sentence, phrase, and syllable in that document was scrutinized and our recommendations passed on to the amwg.
A synthesis of sediment-related research was delivered to the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (gcmrc) in August of 2000 (the epochal “Rubin memo”). The twg formed an ad-hoc group to investigate what the implications were to the program. In a nutshell, the research shows that the present operating criteria (the eis preferred alternative) are exporting, not conserving, sediment from the system! The researchers also recommend some possible remedies that include large spike flow releases timed with tributary sediment input events and sediment augmentation. The sediment ad-hoc produced a paper that stresses the importance of the research and developed a series of experimental flows to test the new hypothesis. These recommendations were unanimously accepted by the twg in November, 2001 and forwarded to the amwg for approval.
Adaptive Management Work Group Meeting January 17–18, 2002
The Adaptive Management Program (amp) Strategic Plan is finally accepted, a document in progress for two and a half years! We think it’s a strong document and a major step forward for the program. We hope Secretary Norton will concur.
Long term monitoring shows decline in endangered Humpback chub and sandbars/beaches over the previous decade. Here’s what the amwg is doing in response to the recent monitoring results:
A) Non-native fish control gets moving. We helped push through a motion to immediately begin efforts to control the proliferation of non-native fish in Bright Angel Creek and the mouth of the Little Colorado River (carp, catfish, trout) that prey upon and compete with endangered native fish (Humpback chub, Razorback sucker).
B) Sediment conservation flows are initiated. We passed motions to accept the twg Sediment White Paper and initiate plans for sediment conservation flow experiments from the dam this year.
One of the experimental flows being developed is a test of Seasonally Adjusted Steady Flows—the alternative advocated for by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and gcrg during the eis. Other flows include short-duration high flows (31,000 cfs) or high fluctuating flows (8–31,000 cfs/day) in the fall following significant tributary inputs. We even have budget dollars built-in to test these experiments.

We (Andre and Matt) feel the amp is finally showing signs of progress. The amp’s monitoring program has identified some disturbing trends in the ecosystem—a good sign that we have an effective monitoring program, no? The amp is designing experimental flows to test new hypotheses that, hopefully, will reverse the declining trend in native fish populations and dwindling sediment supply. In our opinion, that’s how the program is supposed to work—experimentation based on the scientific method is used to revise dam operations in order to meet the intent of the Grand Canyon Protection Act. It may be shown that a new eis will be needed on dam operations, but scientific experiments and long-term monitoring will tell the story. The whole process is slow, but it’s important to remember that the whole thing is an experiment, not just flows, but also the management and policy aspects of the program. Although it isn’t very sexy, we choose to work within the amp to foster relationships with other stakeholders to accomplish our goal of protecting the Grand Canyon.
Colorado River Symposium
January 30–February 1, 2002
At the end of January, the Water Education Foundation convened stakeholders of the Colorado River basin to discuss problems facing our use of the Colorado River. The symposium took place at The Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe where, in 1922, the Colorado River Compact was signed by the seven basin states and President Hoover.
We were honored to serve on a panel that discussed how dams should be operated in the 21st Century. The panel was convened by Barry Gold (gcmrc-Chief) and comprised Rick Gold (Reclamation), Nikolai Ramsey (Grand Canyon Trust), Steve Glazer (Sierra Club), Clayton Palmer (Western Area Power Administration), and Andre Potochnik (gcrg). We thank Rita Sudman-Schmidt and her staff for orchestrating a fine conference and for supporting our participation. A verbatim proceedings volume is forthcoming.
All of our meeting notes and stuff are on file with Lynn at the gcrg office and are also available as public domain info from the good folks at Reclamation. If anyone is interested in joining our effort to “be a part of the process” with adaptive management, please contact us and join the fun—even if you disagree with how we are going about it.
Andre Potochnik and Matt Kaplinski
The gcrg Adaptive Management guys