In Reference to an email sent out to gcrg guide members on November 24, 2004, referencing a New York Times article about the 41,000 cfs November flood flow titled “In Bold Experiment at Canyon, A River Rips Through It” by Sandra Blakeslee, printed on November 23, 2004.

our last letter concerning test flows in the Colorado River, clipped from the New York Times, compelled me to spew forth this diatribe.
I was dumbfounded by a line in the article quoting Bennett Raley of the Department of Interior: “Playing God is harder than it looks.” Raley has since “met his maker” and stepped down as assistant secretary for water and science. This remark is not tongue in cheek, but close to the truth. The secretary may only be a pawn, but under the current administration Christian fundamentalist fanatics are playing God as they systematically destroy the last of America’s wild heritage.
At the risk of being an anachronism, Raley (and in fact all news media if you can believe them) really hit the nail on the head when he said that the primary reason for the 41,ooo “test” release was to build beaches for fishermen and foster a more “natural” environment for boaters. How vain to think that beach building should be considered the number-one objective in the Canyon. How self-serving to think that beaches exist only as an economic asset for a commercial enterprise.
Reaction to the ecological disaster brought about by Glen Canyon Dam seems obsessively focused on the “loss of beaches,” and science perpetrates the illusion that they can “fix” it by collecting mountains of data and spending millions of dollars in the process—as if having beaches was a divine right that we must salvage for our pleasure. Please! Have you heard the scream of the mesquite as they die of thirst along the old high-water line as you shuffle through old driftwood piles? Imagine what it was like when the river was alive!
Don’t you wonder why there was no mention in the article of decommissioning the Glen Canyon Dam as a way of reclaiming beaches and restoring ecosystems? Now wouldn’t that be a “bold experiment,” as the title of the article in the Times suggests!? I’ve got an even bolder one: Are scientists also “playing God” in the Grand Canyon? What may appear as a benign, well-meaning experiment in the name of science and a boon to the commercial boating industry may be a symptom of a larger social disorder propagated by Francis Bacon, who pointed the way toward universal domestication and the abolition of the mystery.
As an industrial society and as slaves to technological thought, what we fear most is the loss of control. Imagine actually letting something be—it is beyond our comprehension! Why must we be drawn into a symbolic system that feels compelled to “manage a resource,” to order, to explain, to interpret, and to assign value?
Who are we to judge which species are “good” and which are “bad,” which are “natural” and which are “alien?” Men’s meddling seems eternal, fostering the illusion that we are God and can recreate a river corridor as it was before the advent of Europeans and commercialization.
Is the peregrine falcon more important than a willow flycatcher? If science was forced to choose, would it prefer that the Colorado squawfish survive rather than a humpback chub? What’s a Kanab ambersnail worth? Meddling biologists revel over their introduction of the condor and, after several of the birds died eating a carcass full of lead shot, arrogantly proclaim that “the birds may be victims of their own success.” What then is the fate of man?
Drifting away from the subject of the “test flow”—why is there no media attention or dollars for far-reaching ecological projects for artists? For writers? For philosophers? For animists? Where are the underprivileged kids from the inner cities who will never be able to afford a trip down the Colorado through Grand Canyon? Where are the Native Americans? The Canyon has become a playground for the rich or for those who have endured a long waiting list. If there were funding, I would take bunch of young kids in a heartbeat and show them the real America with some hands-on diplomacy that would make G.W. cringe.

As the rhetoric over allocation and restoration increases, it might be worth recalling what English writer Richard Jefferies took a lifetime to conclude: “I look at the sunshine and feel that there is no contracted order: there is divine chaos, and, in it, limitless hope and possibilities.” Perhaps if Bennett Raley and other Christian fundamentalist types who play God, in their need for mythologies and miracles, could lean a little toward science—and the scientists could back off and admit that not all phenomena can be explained by science—then there would be peace not only in the Canyon, but in the heartland.
Whatever side suits your agenda, we all need the courage to come together to embrace the “unfamiliar,” to shake complacency and doubt, casting aside conventional vocabularies and discovering a talent for speaking differently rather than arguing well. Perhaps within Jefferies’ “divine chaos” lies our redemption when we accept that we can no longer play God, and that the Grand Canyon is larger and wiser than all of us.

Renny Russell

In reference to “The Powell Centennial—August, 1969” by Pete Winn and “The Curse of Howland Island” by Don Lago in bqr 17:4.

enjoyed the latest issue, especially the Pete Winn’s article on the Powell Centennial and Don Lago’s Amelia Earhart piece. I find it amazing that the bqr consistently finds ways to intersect with my personal interests and history.
I was on the Mexican Hat Expedition the summer of ’69, and we all felt that there was something special about it. It was an honor to be following in Powell’s footsteps, or oar dips, a hundred years after the fact.
I am also a member of tighar, a group researching the last flight of Amelia (www.tighar.org), and a member of the 2001 expedition to Nikumaroro Island, some 450 miles southeast of Howland Island where we think she ended up. Tighar is applying the principals of scientific investigation to the problem in an attempt to separate out the fact from the fiction and conspiracy theories that surround Amelia Earhart, and we think we’ve made some significant progress toward solving the mystery of her disappearance.
We’ve researched the history of the British Colonial system, interviewed former colonists, analyzed artifacts, applied modern forensic techniques, examined satellite imagery, etc.…Along the road, we’ve found that the bones of a castaway were discovered on Nikumaroro in 1940 along with a woman’s shoe, sextant box, water bottle, and a campfire. We’ve also found aircraft aluminum, plexiglass, and other aircraft material that is consistent with the Lockheed Electra, but no smoking gun yet. I’ve learned more than I ever expected during the project.
For those researching the disappearance of Bill Dunn and the Howland Brothers, my advice would be to stick to the facts as best they can be obtained, and keep on with dogged determination. The answer is out there yet to be found.
And remember that whether it is searching for Amelia, researching the Howland Brothers, or taking a river trip, enjoying the ride is more important than getting to the end.

Andrew McKenna

In Reference to “First Aid Options” in bqr 17:4

n the article referenced above there was a mistake on the email address for Remote Rescue. Their correct email address is remoterescue@yahoo.com. We are sorry for the inconvenience.