Prez Blurb

The biggest news this winter is the following, “The National Park Service (nps) is planning to release the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (eis) for the Colorado River Management Plan (crmp) for public review and comment in May 2004.” I wrote in my previous column, “Hopefully by the time you read this, the Colorado River Management Plan will be out in draft form…”. Well, it won’t be.
In fact, if the Park releases its draft when they say they will, it will be the worst time possible for river guides to read the draft eis, formulate a reasoned opinion, and make constructive comments. In May, most of us will be packing for a trip, or packing for the season to move closer to Flagstaff or Kanab, or already down river on our first or second or third trip of the season.
Our crmp mail may arrive at our winter home, our summer home, or at the outfitters. Then if it catches up to us, we can read it on our trips, after the fourteen hour day, write up our comments, find a stamp and an envelope, and mail them from Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon Caverns, or Meadview.
Hopefully that fits in with the 30 or 45 or 60 day review period that the nps will schedule. Sixty days may seem like a long time to review a document, if you are sitting in an office, waiting for it to arrive. But if you are working a full season in the canyon, maybe taking only single trip off to go to a wedding, 60 days will come and go in a flash.
It is going to be hard for the gcrg Board to come up with a position on the draft eis, because we will all be on the water, on different trips, trying to touch base with each other, coming off on different days, going back on this week or next. We will be formally requesting that Grand Canyon National Park (gcnp) develop a very abbreviated executive summary of the Draft eis, listing what would change between the current system and the proposed alternative. We are hoping that this would be easy for guides to take with them on the river and short enough to attempt to read. Gcrg will be doing whatever we can to get information out to members in time for them to comment on the Draft eis. If you have any ideas about the Draft eis, or anything else going on, please contact us at gcrg@infomagic.net or po Box 1934, Flagstaff, az 86002.
I think the next most important issue that gcrg has been discussing this winter is the increasing level of wilderness medical certifications that are being required. Most of us now have quite a bit of training that has become mandatory. Much of which, we have been told not to use unless: 1) we are in a wilderness setting, 2) we have medical protocols in writing, at the company we work for, and 3) our company has “medical control”. Gcrg has asked gcnp to be very specific about what they want us to be doing for people in a wilderness setting. The letter we sent to the park is in this issue.

On a lighter note, I was lucky enough to attend the Second Annual (I hope) “Whale Foundation Wing-Ding” in Flagstaff on the last weekend in January. A lot of Canyon-related art and gear was auctioned off, much good food consumed, and many old friends met and enjoyed. I hope a lot of money was raised. Looking around at the Wing-Ding, I was reminded of Bill Beer’s comment at a gts a few years ago, “You’ve got a tremendous organization with a tremendous group of people.” I saw a number of folks there doing great things, accomplishing plenty, and not worrying who got the credit. That sounds like a good river trip to me. And it was a celebration—a chance to get together and laugh, and tell an old story, or hear a new one, and maybe summon up the courage, or the good sense, to let your friends know how important they are to you. If you’re lucky, you don’t need a celebration to do any of those things, because your friends are close by, and close. Just hanging out at the Wing-Ding, I’m reminded how lucky we are in the river community; we have more friends than we know sometimes. It’s amazing how fast a river season will go by, and how good it is to see friends year around.
Speaking of celebrations, the gts will be coming up soon, and we are hoping for a great turnout, for the land session and for the river session. We’ll be meeting Friday, March 26 at the Old Marble Canyon Lodge for the annual gcrg meeting. We’ll move from there to the Hatch warehouse for dinner and a party. The gts will be at the Hatch warehouse, Saturday and Sunday, March 27th and 28th, starting at 8 a.m., coffee and breakfast earlier. Please come if you can; I know it often conflicts with work, school, skiing, jury duty and everything else in life. The gts is always the best place I know to learn something about the Canyon, meet an old friend, make a new one, and celebrate our community.
I hope to see you there.

John O’