(October, 2004) The National Park Service has just released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Colorado River Management Plan that will determine the fate of the river for decades to come.
Of the eight proposed alternatives, the Park champions a high-use, year-round plan that is a thinly veiled version of the status quo and does little to protect the wilderness character of the river. The preferred plan, Alternative H, continues to support the use of motors which are incompatible with the National Park Service Wilderness Management and Preservation policy requirements.
Alternatives that fail to protect the wilderness requirement should be removed from further consideration, not selected as the preferred alternative. The Park Service will host public meetings in Las Vegas, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Phoenix Arizona; San Francisco, California; Washington, D.C.; and Flagstaff, Arizona. Click here to view schedule for public meetings.
View the CRMP draft
Preservation of Wilderness Values
Grand Canyon National Park stirs images of wide expanses, steep cliffs, travertine waterfalls, and the wild and tumultuous Colorado River a mile below the rim of the magnificent canyon. The River has unsuccessfully been proposed for wilderness designation several times. Current management planning will decide the fate of the river for decades to come.
For several decades, the National Park Service (NPS) has allowed motorized raft use on the Colorado River and has permitted helicopters to ferry commercial boating passengers in and out of the canyon. Under the current management system, 80% of all river access is reserved for commercial boating companies, while the self-guided paddler has to wait up to 20 years for a permit to float the river (NPS forecasts).
The Wilderness Society strongly believes that such recreational and commercial activities should be managed in a manner compatible with protecting the wilderness character of the river. To achieve this, we recommend the phase-out of the recreational use of motorboats, helicopters and other motorized equipment on the Colorado River in accordance with the Wilderness Act.
A new management plan that accurately reflects the Park Service's wilderness recommendations would include a decision to stop the current large-scale motorized rafting and helicopter operations that have become the dominant use of the river.
What We Are Doing
The Wilderness Society has teamed up with a coalition of local and national environmental groups, called the Grand Canyon Wilderness Alliance, to guarantee designation of the Colorado River, as it runs through Grand Canyon National Park, as wilderness. This initiative will restore the wilderness qualities of the river by converting river trips from motors to oars.
Our coalition has submitted scoping comments to the Park asking, among other things, to phase out the use of motors. We also collected 7,510 public comments supporting this position and submitted those to the Park Service. All is now under consideration by the Park Service.
About the Grand Canyon Wilderness Alliance
The Alliance is a group The Grand Canyon Wilderness Alliance (GCWA) is a group of 23 organizations whose mission is to preserve the wilderness character of the Grand Canyon for future generations by protecting its ecological integrity and providing opportunities for a wilderness experience.
