Noel Eberz
geologist, commercial & private boatman

   If the question is a Canyon quality experience, the starting point is access and the bottom line is River User-days, by whom and how they are used. Personally I don't have the answer to what would be the best directive or if the goals of the present River Management Plan can be profitably improved.

   On the practical side, while there might be ways to seasonally disperse some river traffic or devise some techniques to reduce the main river corridor impact, present total allocation should probably remain about the same. Therefore any change has to apply to existing Private and Commercial user-day allocations. The present complexities of Private access and the frozen Commercial access allocation create justifiable concerns vs. maintaining the status quo. There are good arguments both ways. Consequently; I think an open commercial bid for purchase of River User-days is justified and timely, if some reasonable restrictions and controls are applied. Basically, the bid should include a description of the service to be offered, the daily Park Fee and a nominal capitalization fee transferable to the selling or losing party. Present owners could bid for a larger share. New bidders need to qualify on more than just price. Unwilling losses of River User-days might be limited to 20% per year for a given owner. A voluntary sale would be required to meet these minimums. This approach also seems compatible with creating a new intermediate stage of independent boatmen.

   Some boatmen are getting older. Ha! Some are tired of working for others or would like to see their spouses more often. Some are interested in smaller groups, special topics and so forth. Consider the possibility of qualified boatmen, each owning a number of River User-days subject to a separate set of guidelines. Cooperatively these boatmen could advertise trip dates and types, have some mutual office space, insurance and equipment and help each other with put-in and take-out requirements. Each River User-day owner would dictate his trip features: History, Geology, Academia, Kayaker assist, etc. 350 River User-days would permit 3 trips of 14 days, of 8 passengers providing a modest supplement to their other wage commitments. Twenty such entrepreneurs would be about 6% of existing commercial river traffic, would use smaller camps, frequent less popular sights and have less total impact.

   On an experimental basis such an intermediate level may lead the way as to how to best utilize our precious resource. With evaluation over time, the National Park Service could make a more appropriate distribution of River User-days between Private, Intermediate commercial and Large commercial operations to best diversify the “Canyon Experience” to all types of users.