[Awclist] [Fwd: RRFW Riverwire - RIVER PLAN OBLITERATES WILDERNESS]

[Thomas Robey]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	RRFW Riverwire - RIVER PLAN OBLITERATES WILDERNESS
Date: 	Thu, 10 Nov 2005 23:41:35 -0700
From: 	Riverwire <riverwire at rrfw.org>
Reply-To: 	<Riverwire at rrfw.org>
Organization: 	River Runners for Wilderness
To: 	Riverwire at rrfw.org



RRFW Riverwire - RIVER PLAN OBLITERATES WILDERNESS
Release date: November 10, 2005

Grand Canyon National Park released the Final Environmental Impact Statement
today for the Colorado River through the Park.

"The park ignored alternatives which would end the discrimination between
user groups, equalize group sizes, maintain and enhance wilderness values,
maintain trip lengths, bring the river concessions oligopoly into the free
market, and operate in a run-of-the-river drought" said Tom Martin,
Co-director of River Runners for Wilderness, a national preservation group. 

"This plan, six years overdue, makes a sad mockery of wilderness character
on America's premier river trip" adds Jo Johnson, also of River Runners for
Wilderness.

Motorized use on the river increases in the park's plan, with more
helicopters and more motorboats, while do-it-yourself river runners will
have to speed through the Canyon faster then ever and will still be forced
to stay off the river in the summer in deference to concessions operations.

Instead of re-distributing river access between the do-it-yourself public
and the river concessions, the Park has sidestepped the issue by simply
increasing use. Even its common sense proposal to register all prospective
visitors and nominally adjust allocation between commercial and
noncommercial rivers runners based on relative demand has been dropped from
the final plan.

"While the river concessions have been discount-selling their river access
on e-Bay and at Costco, access for the public who would like to do a river
trip on their own is made even more difficult with the Park's proposed
weighted lottery-gambling-scheme. At least with the waiting list, you were
assured of a trip, even if you were aged by the time you got it" observes
Martin.

To see the park's plan, visit http://www.nps.gov/grca/crmp

The release of the Final Impact Statement triggers a thirty day waiting
period of no change, which will be followed by a Record of Decision.

RRFW will continue its evaluation of the plan and publish informational
updates.
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