f the title didn’t scare you away, thanks for reading this article. The Grand Canyon Association (gca) has been around for awhile, since 1932 to be exact. Our mission is to support education and science at Grand Canyon National Park. In support of our mission, we have donated more than $20 million to the park. Our main source of revenue is the operation of six bookstore locations on both the North and South rims of the canyon. That’s how we make our money. We spend our money in support of our mission by funding the operations of the Grand Canyon Field Institute, providing free public art exhibitions at historic Kolb Studio, sending curriculum based educational trunks about Colorado River ecology, Colorado River history and related subjects out to the entire nation, and by supporting community lectures in Flagstaff and Prescott, az.
So what does that have to do with the river community? More than anything else, we see ourselves as educators, we use different mediums, but we strive to bring people to an improved understanding of what they are experiencing, and that is what a good river guide does as well. We believe that people will value what they understand, and what they value, they will protect. This is why we get up and go to work every morning.
I have been working with organizations like the Grand Canyon Association for the last twenty-some-odd years of my life, either as a volunteer or more recently as paid staff. In every organization like gca I have ever worked with, the association has been heavily involved in the support and delivery of river guide education. Most recently, I worked closely with Colorado Plateau River Guides (cprg), John Weisheit and his crew in Moab.

Year after year Canyonlands Natural History Association (cnha) participated in the annual river guide training events in Moab, either providing speakers or helping to financially support speakers from the river community to enhance the event. I even got to do a flip in Big Drop Three at 43,000 cfs, and to this day I am not sure if John flipped us on purpose as a training event for the forty some odd river guides watching us as the first boat through. I do remember that John was still at the oars upside down as we washed through the tail wave in that rapid and I also remember being very grateful for being scooped up about twenty feet before I was sucked into swimming Satan’s gut. Cprg and cnha also helped Dinosaur National Monument sponsor training in Vernal for guides running the Yampa and the Green.
So, the idea of having a cooperating association, like the Grand Canyon Association, participate in annual spring guide training is not a new one. I apologize that gca has been so slow to step up to the plate, but we are here now and looking forward to establishing a long-term relationship with the Grand Canyon River Guides and your river community.
As a non-profit supporting the park, one of our goals is to encourage your clients to purchase pre-trip materials that will enhance their river experience. By purchasing river guidebooks, maps and river history materials from us rather than from commercial bookstores, your clients can choose to help support the resources they will be enjoying. Another major goal is for continued support of the river community through financial contributions in support of your gts and other events. Gca will have a table set up at your gts this spring at Marble Canyon and we will offer you great river related materials at a significant discount from retail prices. I will present a short session about who we are and why we can be a great partner to you in your career as a professional river guide. Gca, working with gcrg, will also be providing financial support to other speakers to help assure you receive the best possible training experience this spring.
I am looking forward to meeting many of you at Hatchland this spring and to the beginning of a long and meaningful relationship. Please check out our website at www.grandcanyon.org to see the variety of Grand Canyon related materials we offer.
See you at the gts!

Brad L. Wallis
Executive Director,
Grand Canyon Association