[Awclist] [Fwd: RRFW Riverwire - NATIONAL PARK SELLS ACCESS ON COSTCO AND EBAY]

[Thomas Robey]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	RRFW Riverwire - NATIONAL PARK SELLS ACCESS ON COSTCO AND EBAY
Date: 	Wed, 3 Aug 2005 13:52:46 -0600
From: 	Riverwire-RRFW <riverwire at rrfw.org>
Reply-To: 	<riverwire at rrfw.org>
Organization: 	River Runners for Wilderness
To: 	riverwire at rrfw.org



RRFW Riverwire – NATIONAL PARK SELLS ACCESS ON COSTCO AND EBAY

Release date: August 3, 2005

River concessionaires, operating at the behest of Grand Canyon National
Park, are selling public access to the Colorado River in Grand Canyon
with the help of Costco and eBay. Various marketing channels have
attempted to fill at least a portion of unused commercial seats for
years, while public access to a permit system to raft the river without
the use of river concessionaires was stopped two years ago. To see the
bargains offered on access the do-it-yourself paddler does not have,
check the Costco Online
<http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?prodid=10043480&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=4851&hierPath=1133*4851*> 

website. On eBay, the trips are even cheaper for a variety of dates at
the Grand Canyon auction
<http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Day-Grand-Canyon-Raft-Trip-for-2-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ6549929529QQcategoryZ1310QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem>, 

indicating once again that concessionaires are hustling to “unload”
their allocated trips.

Grand Canyon National Park officials are poised to release the first
complete review of recreational rafting on the river in late August or
early September, but little will change to address this problem, notes
Tom Martin, Co-Director of the national organization River Runners for
Wilderness.

“Vigorously discounting empty seats while the self reliant public is
denied access is not what the founders of the National Parks envisioned”
notes Martin. “An unbiased NEPA review conducted today, given the ever
growing demand for non-commercial paddling, would never allow such huge
blocks of wilderness access to go to concession services.

The park’s river concessions never went through a NEPA (National
Environmental Policy Act) review when the park’s superintendent made 21
companies into river concessions in 1972. This legally mandated NEPA
review requires concessions services to be provided only when—and at the
level—proved through the review to be “necessary and appropriate.”

“Our parks are about preserving our American heritage, which includes
preserving the do-it-yourself frontier spirit of discovery. The selling
of commercial seats at Costco and eBay while those folks seeking to
discover our heritage on their own are kept out certainly doesn’t pass
the National Park smell test, either” he added.

“Marketing through these sites while noncommercial river runners endure
long waits or no access at all marks a new low” says Martin, who
predicts the park will further limit public river runners by allowing
limited access through a once-a-year lottery for one launch date,
erecting yet another barrier for noncommercial river runners while the
park’s river concessions “take cuts” and try to sell their empty river
trips through discount web-based marketing tactics.

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