[Awclist] [Fwd: RRFW Riverwire - ASK CONGRESS FOR A GRAND PERMIT]

[Thomas Robey]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	RRFW Riverwire - ASK CONGRESS FOR A GRAND PERMIT
Date: 	Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:11:24 -0600
From: 	Riverwire <riverwire at rrfw.org>
Reply-To: 	<Riverwire at rrfw.org>
Organization: 	River Runners for Wilderness
To: 	<Riverwire at rrfw.org>



RRFW Riverwire – ASK CONGRESS FOR A GRAND PERMIT

June 15, 2006

River Runners For Wilderness is notifying all non-commercial river 
runners who are going through Grand Canyon National Park’s Phase 2 
transition, that your elected representative may be able to help you in 
getting a permit. RRFW has set up a special page at www.rrfw.org 
<http://www.rrfw.org/>. Click on the “Waiting List Transition” link to 
help you compile both a briefing statement of the facts, and a draft 
letter that your congressman can use as a template to write Grand Canyon 
National Park on your behalf.

Here’s what you will need to do, in addition to filling out and sending 
in all the paperwork the Park requires of you:

Arrange a visit with your elected representative or one of their staff 
who deals with National Parks issues. Tell them you’d like to speak with 
them about a problem you are having in obtaining a rafting permit, and 
let them know you will explain the details when you meet.

At the meeting, explain that you have been waiting for years for a 
permit to float the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, and 
that you would appreciate the congressman’s help obtaining a launch date 
for a non-commercial river trip in the Park.

Tell your congressman that Grand Canyon National Park’s new river 
management plan is doing away with the waiting list (where you had a 
reasonable expectation of receiving a launch date) and will land you in 
a lottery you may never win.

Let your elected representative know that in the next stage, Phase 2, 
you are supposed to join up with other permit holders resulting in a 
smaller trip size for your friends and family, and that you do not want 
to raft Grand Canyon with unknown people for a trip that requires a 
great deal of coordination and cooperation to ensure the safety and 
enjoyment of the entire group.

Inform your congressman that the Park is scheduling rafting dates 
between now and 2012.

Let your elected representative know that over 600 hundred launch dates 
per year, beginning in 2008, are “reserved” for the park’s river 
concessioners to market and sell to commercial customers, even though 
not one of these trips is booked as of yet.

Then, and this is important, make sure that your representative knows 
that the Stage 2 transition instructions noted that the “National Park 
Service will monitor [the progress of current waitlist members] and may 
apply adaptive management measures to ensure that their wait times do 
not increase excessively beyond what they would have waited under the 
old waitlist and allocation system.”

Finally, ask for assistance with obtaining a launch date through Phase 2 
adaptive management so that your group may enjoy one of the primary 
resources of Grand Canyon National Park which has been preserved for the 
people of the United States.

For more information on how to compose a briefing statement and present 
a rough draft of a letter for your congressman to send to the park, see: 
http://www.rrfw.org/letters.php. Or from our home page at www.rrfw.org 
<http://www.rrfw.org/>, click the “Waiting List Transition” link.

River Runners For Wilderness has challenged the legality of the new plan 
on different grounds, including inequitable access by the public, 
non-commercial users, but until those legal issues are resolved, the 
Park Service is implementing its transitional permitting from the 
waitlist. So, for the time being, RRFW would like to help waitlisted 
applicants increase their chances of obtaining a permit to float the 
Colorado. Good luck in obtaining a permit, the RRFW Team.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RIVERWIRE is a free service to the community of river lovers from River 
Runners for Wilderness.
Sign up your friends! Send an e-mail address to riverwire at rrfw.org 
<mailto:riverwire%40rrfw.org> and we'll add it to the RRFW RIVERWIRE 
e-mail alerts list.
Join RRFW’s listserver to stay abreast of and participate in the latest 
river issues. It’s as easy as sending a blank e-mail to
Rafting_Grand_Canyon-subscribe at yahoogroups.com 
<mailto:Rafting_Grand_Canyon-subscribe%40yahoogroups.com>.
Check out our great book/guidebook special deals and donate at RRFW 
Store. RRFW is a project of Living Rivers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~