Plan and Profile of the Colorado River

Grand Canyon is a World Heritage Site and one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. I remember Grand Canyon National Park Science Coordinator, Dave Haskell, speaking at the 1995 gts, commenting that no matter what the issue was at Grand Canyon, there would be someone with concern about it. That’s a very important point to remember, not only for the Park Service, but for all of us drawn to “this place called Grand Canyon,” one of the extremely high-profile “jewels of the crown.”
Thus flows the Colorado River. All activities concerning the River are also high profile; the Colorado is often referred to as the most-regulated river in the world. But even with this profligate profile, the Colorado River and its system lack a plan, a coherent all-encompassing course of action. A package of laws, decrees, and agreements entitled “The Law of the River,” originated and added to in a piece-meal manner, govern the course of the Colorado River. It is time to look at this package and to re-evaluate it, to realize that the Colorado River and its tributaries are interwoven, and that any action concerning one part affects the others. As we have no other recourse, it is time to conceive a plan, one that will encompass the whole, which is indeed grander than the sum of its parts.
You may have noticed that Grand Canyon River Guides has a somewhat increased profile of late. Gcrg joined Grand Canyon Trust and Southwest Rivers in an April 3, 2002 press release highlighting the continued decline of the humpback chub population and the deterioration of the beaches in Grand Canyon. Our amwg/twg representatives Andre Potochnik and Matt Kaplinski continue to fight the upstream battle for resource protection concerning adaptive management; please read Andre’s report for an update.

The “gcrg Adaptive Management Clearinghouse” list-serve will soon be up and running; more information will be forthcoming through the bqr and www.gcrg.org.
We posted the results of the Glen Canyon Dam poll in the last issue and promised a statement from the Board in this issue. With the hope that we are not quoted out-of-context, the statement of the current Board of Directors in calling for a basin-wide eis is entirely consistent with the feelings of previous Boards over the years and the membership who responded to the poll; I encourage you to read it and to re-read past issues of the bqr for those pertinent articles.The Colorado River Management Plan meetings have not yet been set, but we are anticipating that they will be held late summer. The Board and interested members have met twice and will meet again to discuss gcrg’s position and role in this important process. Everyone knows what the problems are; it is now time to prepare solutions. If you have any ideas, please write or send an email to the office for us to consider.
The “Old-Timers gts” is now a part of our social history. If you were lucky enough to be there, I don’t need to tell you how wonderful, informative, and fun it was. If you couldn’t make it, please read Lynn’s “Homage.” In trying to keep the weekend on schedule, I failed to announce two things: nominations are still open for Board of Directors’ positions, so please let us know who would best represent gcrg for the next two years (self-nominations are welcome); and there is a gts evaluation survey in the packet, so please mail or fax them to us.
I’ll close here with a gts quote from Martin Litton as he narrated some dory river film: “Water running over rocks. Normal people don’t go there.” So, please, continue to act abnormally and run those rivers.
Richard Quartaroli