The Latest News and Current Events ...
The Grand Canyon News!

(It is 20 degrees warmer in the Inner Canyon than on the Rims!) Take a look at Weather Underground to find out the current temperatures and conditions!

December 18, 2004 Colorado River Plan extended to 02-01-05

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent, Joseph F. Alston, today
announced an extension of the comment period on the draft environmental
impact statement (EIS) to revise the Colorado River Management Plan
(CRMP) for Grand Canyon National Park. The timeframe has been extended from
January 7, 2005 to February 1, 2005.

"Given the complexity of the document and the intense level of
interest, we felt it was best to extend the comment period until
February 1," Alston said. "This will give everyone additional time to study the
draft and provide us with the most substantive comments possible."

The National Park Service prepared the draft EIS for the CRMP
under the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. The
initial 90-day public comment period began on October 8, 2004, with
publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Notice of
Availability (NOA) in the Federal Register.  This extension will be
announced in the Federal Register as well.

A complete copy of the draft EIS can be downloaded at
www.nps.gov/grca/crmp. A CD with the complete document can be ordered
online at the same website.

December 04, 2004 Opinions wanted about the Weighted Lottery and other issues!

Steve Sullivan, head of the GCNP River Office has asked GCPBA to
distribute the following questionnaire concerning how to transition
from the current wait-list system to a weighted lottery.

Your comments should be sent to steve_sullivan@nps.gov

Comment Form:
Transitioning from the Waitlist to a Weighted Lottery

Having around 7,500 people on the current waitlist can make
transitioning to a new system difficult. The DEIS proposes an array of
options for those on the list. The next step is to hear suggestions
and proposals from you regarding what to add to this list of options
and how to modify the options already listed. The following are some
questions to get you started:

1. How would you like to see the proposed list of options modified?
Why?

2. What other options would you like to see added to help transition
people out of the waitlist system?

3. What other suggestions do you have regarding how to make the
transition work?

Now that we've outlined the general, overarching framework, the next step is to hear suggestions and proposals from you regarding the details. The following are some questions to get you started:

1. As people apply, should the system provide information about how many applications have
been received for each launch opportunity?

What are the pros and cons?

2. In the proposed system each individual member of the applicant group unsuccessful in the
lottery gets an extra chance the next year. In subsequent years these individuals can choose
to apply with the same or a different group seeking launch dates in the same month or
different month. Should a group's overall chance be based on:

a) the trip leader's chance,

b) the maximum chances held by any individual member of the group,

c) the average chances of all applicant group members, or

d) something else? Why?

3. After trips are awarded, anyone else can be added as a participant provided they have not
already taken a trip during that same year. To prevent group members who intend to go
together from applying separately, what proportion of the group must actually participate in
the trip if the group obtains a permit? For example, should it be required that 50% of the
participants that actually go on the trip must have been listed with the group's original lottery
application?

4. What other suggestions do you have about how to make the proposed Weighted Lottery
system work?

Your Name:
Address:

The National Park Service is proposing an "Adjustable Allocation System" in their efforts to correct the perceived imbalance in the user allocations.

Steve Sullivan, of the GCNP River Office has asked that we circulate the following questionnaire.

Your replies should be sent to: steve_sullivan@nps.gov

Comment Form:
Adjustable Split Allocation System

We heard from many that allocations should be more responsive to demand. Through the DEIS
we responded by proposing:

1) an all-user registration system to document the number of people who want to go and their preferences for trip type, and

2) an adjustable split allocation system where each year future allocations are adjusted to make them more representative of assessed demand.

Now that we've outlined the general, overarching framework, the next step is to hear suggestions and proposals from you regarding the details. The following are some questions to get you started:

1. Requiring every trip member to register will ensure that information is accurate and will help the NPS assess the relative demand for river trips. An alternative to this could be to allow trip leaders and concessionaires to sign up trip members. If there is a better way to balance application ease and assess relative demand for river trips, what is it, and how would it work?

2. As part of the registration process, what questions would you like to see asked, and what data would you like to see recorded?

3. What safeguards could be put in place to help ensure people do not artificially stack the system or generate additional demand?

Other comments or suggestions:

Your Name:
Address:

Source: GCNP
For GCPBA: Richard Martin
 

November 29, 2004 First Flights successful for California Condor Chicks

First Flights Successful for both California Condor Chicks Wild-Hatched this Spring in Arizona

The Thanksgiving holiday was truly a time of thanks and celebration for all those involved with and following the California Condor restoration project. Biologists, volunteers, and condor supporters have held their breath during November, waiting for two wild-hatched chicks to stretch their wings and take their risky inaugural flights. By Thursday afternoon, both chicks, now just over six months old, had successfully fledged.

Hatched in mid-May at Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, California Condor chick #342 fledged on Tuesday, November 23, 2004, at 4:20pm, according to Beau Fairchild, field crew for The Peregrine Fund. Fairchild notes, "I think it is important to reiterate that #342 left the nest cave on its own beyond a doubt. It did not slip and was not forcefully fledged by an outside source. It flew because of its own desire to do so." Vermilion Cliffs is the primary release site for the project, and is now a successful nesting site as well.

Condor Chick #350, also hatched in mid-May in the Grand Canyon, successfully fledged on Thursday, November 25, 2004 at 4:46pm. The fledging was witnessed by Chad Olson and Beau Fairchild. Olson, a raptor biologist for Grand Canyon National Park, commented, "What an amazing first flight! Unlike the chick that fledged last year, this chick managed to glide a long way and just about landed on the cliff face, which would have been an incredible feat considering the sheerness of the cliff. This was definitely the best Thanksgiving present I could have ever imagined."

This is the second year in a row wild California Condors have hatched and fledged in Arizona since releases began in 1996 - the total of free-flying condors in Arizona is now up to 49. Last year, a male condor fledged in the Grand Canyon, the first fledging of a wild-hatched chick in more than 20 years. On November 4, a condor fledged near Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, the first fledging in California since the endangered birds were brought into captivity for their protection and to initiate a captive breeding and release recovery program.

As the largest flighted bird in North America, with a wingspan reaching up to nine-and-a-half feet, condors typically fledge full-grown at around six months of age; however, juvenile condors may be dependent on their parents for more than a year. The California Condor was included on the first Federal Endangered Species List in 1967 and is currently one of the most endangered birds in North America. Condors typically do not reach reproductive maturity until they are five to eight years of age.

In mid-December, 10-14 captive-bred young California Condors will be transported from the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho to the release site at Vermilion Cliffs. These condors will be held in the release pen for three to twelve months to ready them for survival in the wild.

Regular updates on the California Condor Restoration Project in the Southwest are provided in the Notes from the Field section of The Peregrine Fund's website .

The historic Arizona reintroduction is a joint project between The Peregrine Fund, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Southern Utah's Coalition of Resources and Economics, and numerous other partners.

Funding for the project provided by The Peregrine Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Peter Pfendler, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Charles Engelhard Foundation, Arizona Fish and Game, Steve Martin and the Toledo Zoo, The Steele-Reese Foundation, Disney Wildlife Conservation Awards, Kearny Alliance, Patagonia, Philadelphia Foundation, S. Byers Trust, Globe Foundation, Conni Pfendler, Philanthropic Collaborative, Earth Friends, Steve Hoddy, Grand Canyon Conservation Fund, Arizona Bureau of Land Management, and others.

The California Condors are being released as a "non-essential/experimental population" under section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act. Section 10(j) provides that the species can be released in an area without impacting current or future land use planning. This authority has been spelled out further in an innovative agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local governments. This "Implementation Agreement" spells out a positive working relationship between the federal government and the various local governments.

Source: Jeff Humphrey, USFWS

November 23, 2004 River Trip Fatality!

At approximately 10:00 a.m. Grand Canyon National
Park Dispatch received a call from Air Traffic Control located in
Los Angeles, California, of a possible fatality at River Mile 78 on
the Colorado River. Information had been received at the Center
through a ground to air transmission.

Park rangers responded by helicopter to River Mile 78 but could not
land anywhere near the reporting party because of the terrain.
Rangers were able to encourage the group to proceed down river to
Phantom Ranch (River Mile 88) where Search and Rescue crews were
waiting.

Initial investigations indicate the group of 10 were on a
noncommercial river trip that launched from Lees Ferry on Thursday,
November 18th. Yesterday at approximately 3:00 p.m. one of four
boats the group was traveling in, overturned at River Mile 77. Two
of the boats three passengers swam to shore; the third was
recovered near River Mile 78 by others in the group who then administered
CPR. The victim, a 62 year old male from Phoenix, Arizona, could not be
resuscitated.

Following the accident the group attempted to make contact with
over flying aircraft using a ground to air radio. Early this morning an
aircraft received their distress call and relayed that information
to the Air Traffic Center who in turn contacted Park Dispatch.

November 22, 2004 Wet Fall at the Canyon!

It sure has been wet this fall.

Precipitation so far this month = 2.25 inches
Snowfall so far this year= 15.5 inches
Precipitation so far this year = 22.55 inches

Average annual precipitation = 15.68 inches

November 01, 2004 Kaibab Trail Update!

The South Kaibab Trail continues to be closed from Cedar Ridge to the Tonto
Junction. There was an additional rock slide over the weekend in the Ooh
Aah area of the trail. As of today, the rocks have been cleared enough to
keep the trail open through that area. Hikers can expect some delays as
trail crews continue to fix the wall. There is approximately 1650 square
feet of wall that needs to be repaired. The trail could will remain closed
for the next two of weeks.

October 28, 2004 Part of the Kaibab Trail Closed!

The South Kaibab Trail will be closed effective
immediately from Cedar Ridge to the Tonto Trail junction due to significant
trail erosion just below Cedar Ridge. The South Kaibab remains open from
the trailhead on the South Rim down to Cedar Ridge as well as from Phantom
ranch to the Tonto Trail junction. Trail crews will begin work on this
section of trail tomorrow. The trail will remain closed through Sunday
morning at which time it will be re-evaluated and a determination to
re-open will be made.

Heavy rains that began yesterday afternoon and a significant amount of
snowfall that began during the night and continued through most of today
contributed to the trail erosion. If you are planning to hike at Grand
Canyon in the next couple of days, come prepared for winter conditions, icy
and or very wet trail conditions.

Inquiries into trail conditions at the
Grand Canyon can be made by calling (928) 638-7875

October 01, 2004  GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK PUBLISHES DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT TO REVISE COLORADO RIVER MANAGEMENT PLAN

Preferred Alternatives Outline Model System for River Management

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent, Joseph F. Alston, today announced the availability of the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) to revise the Colorado River Management Plan (CRMP) for Grand Canyon National Park. The National Park Service prepared the draft EIS for the CRMP under the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. Alston also announced that NPS would hold seven public meetings around the country to provide a comprehensive public review of the report.

Publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Notice of Availability (NOA) in the Federal Register on October 8, 2004 initiates a 90-day public review and comment period. Comments on the draft EIS can be submitted following publication of the NOA and will be accepted through January 7, 2005.

A complete copy of the draft EIS can be downloaded at . A CD with the complete document can be ordered online at the same website.

“This portion of the Colorado River is one of the longest stretches of navigable white water on earth, and one of the world’s premier river experiences,” Alston said. “Producing a draft EIS was a complex undertaking, and I am proud of all the hard work our park staff put into preparing this report. The document provides a comprehensive analysis of the river’s recreational use, and we are recommending some innovative alternatives to balance all the diverse management objectives.”

The proposed CRMP is a visitor use management plan that specifies actions to preserve park resources while providing recreational opportunities in the river corridor. The plan is designed to cover the next decade, and will also establish goals and objectives for a longer timeframe.

For the draft EIS, the Colorado River is divided into two geographic sections with a specific set of alternatives, including preferred alternatives, for each section:
One section covers Lees Ferry (River Mile 0) to Diamond Creek (River Mile 226), where the majority of commercial and private river trips start and end. A no-action alternative was analyzed as well as seven alternatives.

One section covers the Lower Gorge from Diamond Creek (River Mile 226) to Lake Mead (River Mile 277). This is a transitional area, starting in a primitive setting and ending in the more urban recreational setting of Lake Mead. It is handled cooperatively with the Hualapai Tribe and Lake Mead National Recreation Area. This is the first management plan for the Lower Gorge, where the situation has been complicated by drought conditions impacting downstream boat and passenger take-out options. A no-action alternative was studied as well as four alternatives.

Alternative H is the preferred alternative for the Lees Ferry to Diamond Creek section, providing six months of mixed motorized use and a six-month no-motor period (September through February). Of all the alternatives, it achieves the best balance between group size, trip length, launches per day, the total number of trips and people on the river at one time, and impacts on park resources. It has the highest total user-days and passengers in the summer, but one of the lowest total user-days and passengers the rest of the year. Commercial operators would have the same total user days as they currently do during the high use period of March through October. Non-commercial users would have more user-days and passengers than in any other alternative. Alternative H is one of the best alternatives for protecting park resources.

Alternative 4 is the preferred alternative for the Lower Gorge section (Diamond Creek to Lake Mead). This option increases the overall operations while reducing group size for all Hualapai River Runner trips. It also reduces pontoon boat operations from current levels. It spreads the trips out over a longer period of time to eliminate a peak use pattern, and includes the development of three new campsites for Hualapai use.

NPS will host a series of public meetings to receive comments about the draft EIS in each of the following seven cities, Las Vegas, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; San Francisco, California; Washington, D.C; and Flagstaff, Arizona. The NPS anticipates announcing the public meeting schedule in early October.

Comments on the draft EIS can be submitted any one of the following ways:
Mail to CRMP Project, Grand Canyon National Park, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, Arizona 86023;

Through the Park’s website at www.nps.gov/grca/crmp;
Fax to CRMP project at 928-638-7797;

Hand-deliver to Grand Canyon National Park; or

Provide comments at one of the seven public meetings.

A summary of the scoping process and planning materials are also available on the Internet at . For further information on this planning process, please contact Rick Ernenwein at 928-779-6279.
- NPS -

Editors Note: To be placed on the park’s CRMP Newsletter mailing list, please send your request along with your mailing and email address to: grca_crmp@nps.gov.

Background on the CRMP process:

The first River Use Plan was developed for Grand Canyon in 1972. It was updated several times, and was the subject of two lawsuits in 2000-2001. Settlement of one of the lawsuits began the current effort to update the CRMP in the spring of 2002; public scoping meetings were held throughout the country in summer and fall 2002. More than 55,000 individual comments were received during scoping.

Major issues and concerns regarding resource protection, visitor experience and services raised during the 2002 public and internal scoping process include:

Balance between visitor access and resource protection
Motorized and non-motorized level of use
Commercial / non-commercial allocations and seasonal distributions
Non-commercial permit system
Level of helicopter use at Whitmore Wash, seasonality and exchanges
Quality of river trips (including crowding, trip length, group size and scheduling issues)

The revision of the CRMP is needed to address long-standing Colorado River management issues, including the following:

Appropriate level of visitor use consistent with natural and cultural resource protection and visitor experience goals
Allocation of use between commercial and non-commercial groups
Non-commercial permit waiting list
Level of motorized and non-motorized boat use
Range of services provided to the public
Use of helicopters to transport river passengers to and from the river at Whitmore Wash
Impacts to natural and cultural resources
Appropriate levels and types of upstream travel from Lake Mead

Since the public scoping process ended in late 2002, the NPS has done detailed analytical research, run computer simulations to test alternatives and incorporated the scoping input into the planning alternatives.


September 23, 2004 Ground breaking for new N Rim Rim Trail!

Groundbreaking Ceremony for Multi-Use Trail at North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Joe Alston, will be
joined by Congressman Rick Renzi (R-Flagstaff) and a number of local, state
and federal officials in breaking ground for the construction of a $4.6 million,
six-mile (multi-use) rim trail at the North Rim of the Park.

The trail segment - designed to be fully accessible for persons with disabilities,
will be part of the Park's "Grand Canyon Greenway" network of multi-use,
rim trails - a project funded through the Grand Canyon National Park Foundation (GCNPF). Approximately four miles of Greenway trails have been completed

September 23, 2004 NPS and FAA hosting meeting on Canyon Overflight Issues!

The Department of the Interior/National Park Service
(DOI/NPS) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are engaging in
a new collaborative process to address aircraft overflights above Grand
Canyon National Park. The agencies will convene an informational meeting
on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. The meeting
will be held at the Elk's Lodge, located at 2101 N. San Francisco Street,
Flagstaff, Arizona. Stakeholders and others interested in Grand Canyon
overflight issues are invited to attend.

The National Parks Overflights Act of 1987 (Public Law 100-91)
requires actions by the DOI/NPS and FAA to provide for substantial
restoration of the natural quiet of the park and for protection of
public health and safety from adverse effects associated with aircraft
overflights. Previous efforts to achieve this mandate have been
challenging - both technically, in terms of developing new analytical
noise capabilities, and practically, in terms of generating broad support
for the specific means of accomplishing substantial restoration of natural
quiet.

The DOI/NPS and FAA recognize that the best means of crafting viable
solutions for resolving the complexities of restoring natural quiet is through
the collaborative involvement of stakeholders. This meeting will provide
information about the current status of the agencies' efforts to implement
Public Law 100-91 and initiate the design of a stakeholder involvement
process. A team of third-party, neutral facilitators will present a proposed
plan for gaining additional insights into stakeholders' concerns, before
developing a specific design for the involvement process.

This meeting will not focus on in-depth discussion of different stakeholder
perspectives about restoration of natural quiet and overflight noise. Rather,
these substantive issues will be addressed later in the proposed stakeholder
process.

The DOI/NPS and FAA have engaged the independent and impartial
services of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (U.S.
Institute) to facilitate interagency collaboration with effective and meaningful stakeholder involvement. The U.S. Institute is a federal program established
in 1998 by the U.S. Congress to assist parties in resolving environmental,
natural resource and public lands conflicts. It is a program of the Morris K.
Udall Foundation, based in Tucson, Arizona.

DOI/NPS and FAA has established the necessary groundwork to begin
this new phase of constructively engaging stakeholders. At the meeting,
they will review the status and methodologies of their joint evaluation of
current Grand Canyon aircraft operations and noise, describe the U.S.
Institute's role in providing impartial process design and facilitation
assistance, and discuss how to proceed with a multi-stakeholder conflict
resolution process.

September 17, 2004 It's a Boy!

Condor 305... It's a boy! (Last year's chick, that is, based on the DNA
test results reported by Chad Olson.)

Also he's out and about again beyond Salt Creek drainage, and for instance
has shown up for some of the Condor Talks lately. Keep an eye out for tag
#05!

September 14, 2004 Body of Man recovered from Colorado River!

The body of a man was recovered today at River Mile
122.5 on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, near Forster
Canyon, four miles from where a commercial river trip passenger disappeared
late Wednesday night.

The body was located by crew members from a commercial river trip and
secured until National Park Service (NPS) personnel arrived on scene.

A passenger from a commercial river trip was reported missing at
approximately 12:15 a.m. on Thursday, September 9. A trip leader had
reported that two hours earlier another passenger heard calls for help
coming from the river. A check of the camp indicated one of the male
passengers was missing. River trip crews searched the area for two hours,
but were unable to locate the missing man. The trip leader reported the
incident to the NPS via satellite phone. National Park Service search and
rescue crews began a search at first light Thursday morning at River Mile
118 where the passenger was last seen. A helicopter search was initiated
and a dive team from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was brought in to
search a large eddy and last known point. Search efforts continued with
daily reconnaissance flights between River Mile 118 and River Mile 133.
The body was located at approximately 10:30 this morning. The body was
recovered by the NPS and transported by helicopter to the South Rim
Helibase. The body will be transported to the Coconino County Medical
Examiner's Office later this afternoon for positive identification.

September 01, 2004 Upper Colorado River Basin Hydrology

The Colorado River Basin is completing its 5th year of drought. In July 1999, Lake Powell was essentially full, with reservoir storage at 97 percent of Capacity. Since that time, inflow volumes have been below average for 5 consecutive years. The last month when inflow to Lake Powell was above average was September 1999. Unregulated inflow in water years 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 was 62, 59, 25, and 51 percent of average, respectively. Total unregulated inflow for water year 2004 is likely to be 51 percent of average, almost the same volume as 2003. Inflow in water year 2002 was the lowest ever observed since the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963.

The summer season in the Colorado River Basin has featured cooler than average temperatures with precipitation at near average levels. With the exception of the Green River Basin above Flaming Gorge, river flows around the basin have been much below average this summer. Unregulated inflow to Lake Powell in July was only 35 percent of average and inflow in August will likely end up being only 29 percent of average.

Peak inflow to Lake Powell this year occurred on May 14 (about three weeks earlier than normal) when inflow was 21,400 cfs. As of August 30, 2004 observed inflow to Lake Powell was 4,400 cfs about 45 percent of what is normally seen as August comes to a close.

Low inflows the past 5 years have reduced water storage in Lake Powell. The current elevation (as of August 30, 2004) of Lake Powell is 3,572 feet (128 feet from full pool). Current storage is 9.3 million acre-feet (38 percent of live capacity).

The water surface elevation at Lake Powell reached a seasonal low of 3,582.7 feet on April 2, 2004 and then increased to a seasonal high on June 14, 2004, reaching an elevation of 3,587.4 feet. The water surface has since been declining, and will likely continue to decline for the remainder of the year. Under the current inflow forecast, the water surface elevation of Lake Powell is projected to be about 3,565 feet on January 1, 2005. It should be noted that this projected elevation will likely shift, depending upon weather patterns the remainder of the year.

August 28, 2004 Hikers prompt most rescue missions in national parks
By RICHARD POWELSON

Wild-animal attacks and mountain-climbing accidents command the biggest
headlines, but search-and-rescue teams are called out most often to help
lost or injured hikers in America's national parks.

The National Park Service reports spending $3.5 million last year on 3,108
search-and-rescue operations - 1,264 of them to assist hikers.

Even though the cost went up about $500,000 last year compared with 2002,
the Park Service has no plans to change its policy of absorbing the expense
itself. Only rarely does the agency go to court to seek reimbursement for a
mission, and those cases involve severe negligence or fraud, Park Service
official Dennis Burnett said.

A single, lengthy search-and-rescue mission involving helicopters and many
federal personnel can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.

"Most folks from Middle America who that happens to are not in a position
to pay that kind of a cost," Burnett said.

Hikers in need are a miniscule percentage of the 266 million annual
visitors to the 385 units of the national park system.

Mary Margaret Sloan, president of the American Hiking Society, said her
group provides safety information to members and urges them to check with
each park about weather or trail conditions.

She warned the growing number of people who take cell phones into parks not
to be confident that a call will get them out of a jam. Large areas of
federal lands have spotty or no cell phone coverage.

"It's much better to take safety precautions beforehand so you don't get
yourself into a predicament," Sloan said.

The largest number of emergencies - 34 percent - are reported in person,
according to 2003 Park Service records, while 13 percent are reported by
cell or satellite phone. Other reports of accidents come through locater
beacons, CB radios, marine radios and regular phones.

One challenge for the national parks: Getting safety information to more
visitors to prevent emergencies. Some visitors come ill prepared, according
to accident reports this summer.

One elderly man who is legally blind and hikes alone has prompted
search-and-rescue efforts in three national parks. Last month in
California's Lassen Volcanic National Park, he was lost overnight and, the
next day, a search team found him with injuries he suffered when he left
the trail and fell down steep slides. He also was dehydrated from packing
just a single bottle of water for his hike, records showed.

"He refuses to ... admit difficulty in locating the trail due to poor
eyesight" despite the three incidents, a park report said.

In deserts, such as Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, life or death
can depend on a bottle of water.

A 24-year-old Illinois woman, who was a top athlete but not accustomed to
desert conditions, died in July while attempting a 27-mile run with a
companion. They had only five quarts of water between them, Grand Canyon
officials learned later. When the water ran out on a day that reached 105
degrees along their route, the pair separated in a search for water or
human assistance. But the companion could not find help until the next day
when the woman already was dead.

In Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park in July, a 22-year-old woman was
hiking on steep, hard-packed snow wearing only tennis shoes and carrying
only ski poles. She had no ice axe, which is used to prevent slides and
serious injuries, the report said. Her fall and long slide into rocks
caused a dislocated shoulder and other injuries. Her hiking partner used a
cell phone to bring a helicopter rescue with six rangers.

A Texas man rode a plastic trash bag down a glacier at Rocky Mountain
National Park in Colorado, lost control, crashed into rocks, and suffered
"serious head injuries" on Aug. 2. Someone called by cell phone for aid.
Rescue rangers helped get the man to a hospital's helicopter.

In June, a 37-year-old woman, her 15-year-old daughter and their dog
carried an air mattress to the water at Lake Mead National Recreation Area
on the Arizona-Nevada state line. They were warned about high winds, the
park's rescue report said, but entered the water anyway without life
jackets.

Later, the wind flipped the air mattress and blew it away from the
floaters. A witness on shore reported the emergency. The mother drowned,
but federal rescuers found the daughter and dog alive.

While some people ignore warning signs, almost all visitors pay close
attention if the warnings involve bears, said Laura Loomis of the National
Parks Conservation Association.

"People are very fearful of the bears," she said, "when in truth they are
much more likely to get hurt from a fall or dehydration or drowning than
they are by being attacked by a bear."

August 18, 2004 Phantom Ranch Closure

A pipeline break north of Phantom Ranch has necessitated the closure of
Xanterra services at the Ranch Monday, 8/16 and Tuesday, 8/17. Guests with
confirmed reservations to Phantom are being offered an alternative one-day
mule ride to Plateau Point. Reopening of the Ranch is dependant on the
waterline repair schedule.

June 28, 2004 Fire restrictions went into effect on Arizona Strip Friday

St. George, UTAH  Due to extreme fire conditions, no open fires, including
charcoal, will be allowed outside developed campgrounds and administrative
sites on all lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management?s Arizona Strip
Field Office beginning at 12:01 a.m. Friday, June 25.

Smoking is prohibited except in buildings, vehicles, developed campgrounds
and administrative sites. Fireworks, including those labeled ?safe and
sane,? are always prohibited on the Arizona Strip and other public lands.
Gas stoves continue to be allowed.

These restrictions apply to BLM and National Park Service lands in the
Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument. They also include the BLM?s
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.

The fire restrictions will remain in effect until the fire danger has been
reduced to a level deemed safe.

For the latest information about fires, restrictions and closures on the
Arizona Strip and southwestern Utah, call (435) 688-3333.

May 02, 2004 May 2, 2004 Drought Settles In, Lake Shrinks and West's Worries Grow
By KIRK JOHNSON and DEAN E. MURPHY

PAGE, Ariz. At five years and counting, the drought that has parched much
of the West is getting much harder to shrug off as a blip.

Those who worry most about the future of the West ? politicians,
scientists, business leaders, city planners and environmentalists ? are
increasingly realizing that a world of eternally blue skies and meager
mountain snowpacks may not be a passing phenomenon but rather the return of
a harsh climatic norm.

Continuing research into drought cycles over the last 800 years bears this
out, strongly suggesting that the relatively wet weather across much of the
West during the 20th century was a fluke. In other words, scientists who
study tree rings and ocean temperatures say, the development of the modern
urbanized West ? one of the biggest growth spurts in the nation's history ?
may have been based on a colossal miscalculation.

That shift is shaking many assumptions about how the West is run. Arizona,
California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the states that
depend on the Colorado River, are preparing for the possibility of water
shortages for the first time since the Hoover Dam was built in the 1930's
to control the river's flow. The top water official of the Bush
administration, Bennett W. Raley, said recently that the federal government
might step in if the states could not decide among themselves how to cope
with dwindling supplies, a threat that riled local officials but
underscored the growing urgency.

"Before this drought, we had 20 years of a wet cycle and 20 years of the
most growth ever," said John R. D'Antonio, the New Mexico State engineer,
who is scrambling to find new water supplies for the suburbs of Albuquerque
that did not exist a generation ago.

The latest blow was paltry snowfall during March in the Rocky Mountains,
pushing down runoff projections for the Colorado River this year to 55
percent of average. Snowmelt is the lifeblood of the river, which provides
municipal water from Denver to Los Angeles and irrigates millions of acres
of farmland. The period since 1999 is now officially the driest in the 98
years of recorded history of the Colorado River, according to the United
States Geological Survey.

"March was a huge wake-up call as to the need to move at an accelerated
pace," said Mr. Raley, assistant secretary of the interior for water and
science.

Losing Water at Lake Powell

Some of the biggest water worries are focused here on Lake Powell, the vast
blue diamond of deep water that government engineers created in one of the
driest and most remote areas of the country beginning in the 1950's. From
its inception, Lake Powell, the nation's second-largest artificial lake,
after Lake Mead in Nevada, was a powerful symbol across the West. Some saw
it as a statement of human will and know-how, others of arrogance.

Powell, part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, has lost nearly
60 percent of its water and is now about the size it was during the
Watergate hearings in 1973, when it was still filling up. White cliffs 10
stories high, bleached by salts from the lake and stranded above the water,
line its side canyons. Elsewhere, retreating waters have exposed mountains
of sediment.

The tourist economy here in Page has been battered. The National Park
Service, which operates the recreation area, has spent millions of dollars
in recent years just to lay concrete for boat-launch ramps that must be
extended every year, a process that one marina operator here called
"chasing water."

Daniel C. McCool, a professor of political science at the University of
Utah and director of the American West Center, says Powell is the barometer
of the drought because what has happened here is as much about politics,
economics and the interlocking system of rules and rights called the law of
the river as it is about meteorology.

Part of the lake's problem, for example, dates to a miscalculation in 1922,
when hydrologists overestimated the average flow of the Colorado River and
locked the number into a multistate agreement called the Colorado River
Compact. The compact, along with a subsequent treaty with Mexico, requires
Lake Powell to release 8.23 million acre-feet of water each year below the
river's dam, Glen Canyon, no matter how much comes in.

Because the river's real average flow was less than the 1922 compact
envisioned, Powell very often released more than half of the water the
Colorado River delivered. But it did not really matter because the upper
basin states were not using their share. Now, communities from Denver to
Salt Lake City and Indian tribes with old water rights in their portfolios
are stepping forward to stake their claims. Lake Powell, which has been
called the aquatic piggy bank of the upper West, is overdrawn.

If water levels continue to fall, Powell will be unable to generate
electricity as early as 2007 or sooner, some hydrologists say. And it would
be reduced more or less to the old riverbed channel of the Colorado River
not long after that. Even now, the lake's managers say, it would take a
decade of historically normal rainfall to refill it.

"If we're only in the middle of this drought, then Lake Powell might be
very close to some very dramatic problems," said Dr. John C. Dohrenwend, a
retired geologist for the Geological Survey who lives near the lake.

Insufficient water for the Glen Canyon Dam turbines would be only the
beginning. At that point, much of the lake bottom would be exposed,
creating a vast environment for noxious weeds like tamarisk and thistle.
The next step in the spiral would come at what is called "dead pool," where
decades' worth of agricultural chemicals at the lake bottom would begin
mixing more actively with the reactivated river. The question then,
environmentalists say, is what would happen to the Grand Canyon, just south
of the dam.

An Issue That May Go to Congress

"Americans won't stand for the Grand Canyon being endangered," said John
Weisheit, the conservation director for Living Rivers, an environmental
group in Moab, Utah, that advocates removing the dam at Glen Canyon and
allowing the river to return to its natural course. "In another year,
they're going to be talking more seriously about Powell in Congress."

But the fact is, no one knows: the weather could change tomorrow. Many past
Western droughts have ended suddenly, with a bang of precipitation. But
some dry spells persisted for generations. From about 900 to 1300,
scientists say, periodic drought in the West was the norm. Only a few times
during that period, according to tree-growth measurements, was
precipitation anywhere near the relatively high levels of the 20th century.

"What is unusual is not the drought periods, but the above-average wet
periods," said Dr. Robert Webb, a hydrologist with the Geological Survey
who specializes in the Colorado River.

The uncertainty has local, state and federal officials along the 1,450-mile
river scurrying to secure water allotments while also preparing for the
worst.

Already in Las Vegas, the regional water agency is removing the equivalent
of a football field of grass every day from front lawns, playgrounds and
golf courses to save on outdoor watering. Farther downriver, Arizona
officials are pumping billions of gallons of water into aquifers to save
for an even less rainy day.

Electricity has become a concern. The Western Area Power Administration,
the federal agency that distributes power from hydroelectric projects in
the Rocky Mountain West, plans to reduce by about 25 percent the amount of
electricity it can promise in future years.

Conserving on a Large Scale

In Los Angeles, a representative from the West's largest urban water
agency, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is among a
group of Western water officials dusting off plans to help limit
evaporation from reservoirs, which could save billions of gallons. One idea
is to pour a nontoxic substance over the reservoirs to form a
water-trapping barrier.

The group, which has been holding meetings, is even looking at far-off
solutions like raising the height of Hoover Dam so that more water could be
collected and saved during wet times.

"We understand we have a problem and we are working on it," said the Los
Angeles representative, Dennis Underwood, a former head of the federal
Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees dams and reservoirs in the West.

There are also worries downstream from Powell at Lake Mead, which serves
Nevada, Arizona and California. It could drop low enough as early as next
year to force officials to declare a drought emergency. That would hurt the
booming southern Nevada economy through significantly higher water rates
and outright bans on things like new swimming pools, said Patricia Mulroy,
general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Mr. Raley of the Interior Department said he wanted the states to consider
a water bank, in which unused water could be leased or sold across state
lines. Some previous efforts to create banks, with federal oversight, have
been contentious because they were seen by smaller states as a means to
funnel more of the river to water-guzzling California.

But the notion of cutting private water deals on the Colorado is gaining
broader acceptance, in large part because of the drought. The most
celebrated example was a deal last year to sell irrigation water in the
Imperial Valley of Southern California to the urban water district in San
Diego.

Some advocates for agriculture fear that water-to-the-highest-bidder could
ravage ranches and farms if owners were induced to sell their irrigation
rights. But private-market supporters say the truth, like it or not, is
that farmers own most of the West's water, and ultimately there will be
fewer of them.

There is some concern that if the Colorado River goes into crisis, the
ensuing tangle of litigation over water rights, endangered species and
border disputes could undo the system of Western water law that has evolved
over the last 100 years.

Some say that would be a good thing.

"The law of the river is hopelessly, irretrievably obsolete, designed on a
hydrological fallacy, around an agrarian West that no longer exists,"
Professor McCool at the University of Utah said. "After six years of
drought, somebody will have to say the emperor has no clothes."

Water officials in Arizona and Nevada say they would also like to rethink
the law of the river to put their states on a more equal footing in sharing
the Colorado River. But Mr. Raley said such talk invites disaster and
chaos, especially during a drought.

"This isn't the time to plunge into chaos," he said.

Other people who live here on the fringe of Lake Powell say that the West's
great reservoirs have, in their very decline, proved their value in
stretching out limited water resources and underlined the difference
between past civilizations here that anthropologists say were wiped out or
displaced by drought.

"Those people back then had nothing to catch and save their water ? now we
do," said Ronald W. Thompson, district manager of the Washington County
Water Conservancy District in southwestern Utah.

"I'm a believer that history repeats itself ? long-term drought could
return," Mr. Thompson said. "But I suspect our civilization can weather
this."

Kirk Johnson reported from Page, Ariz., for this article and Dean E. Murphy
from Grand Canyon National Park.

August 12, 2004 North Rim Fire Update!

Six fires on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park are currently
being managed under the park's Wildland Fire Use strategy. This strategy
allows some lightning-caused fires to burn, under favorable conditions and
within a predetermined area, for resource benefit.

The Marble Complex consists of the Marble, Saffron, Bravo, Galahad,
Rainbow, and Quartz Fires. The Uncle Fire, which started yesterday, is
also being considered for Wildland Fire Use. These fires are located
northwest of the North Rim developed area; the closest to the developed
area is the Marble Fire, which is two miles away.

Fire progress has been very slow because of recent rains, but the Quartz
and Uncle Fires remain active. Both of these fires consist of low
intensity, approximately 6" flames, that are creeping along the forest
floor and consuming pine needles and duff. There are no fire related
closures at this time.

Fire Managers at Kaibab National Forest are also managing four fires under
the Wildland Fire Use strategy for resource benefit. The Transfer, Twin
Lake, Hull, and Camp Fires are all located on the Tusayan Ranger District,
south of the park.

For additional information, please call Donna Nemeth at 638-7944.

August 6, 2004 Swamp Ridge Road may Close!

Fire managers continue to manage the Marble Fire Complex, consisting of the Marble and Saffron Fires, under Grand Canyon National Park's Wildland Fire Use strategy. This option allows some lightning-caused fires to burn under specific conditions and within a predetermined area for resource benefit.

The Marble Fire has not been very active although logs and other large
fuels continue to smolder. The fire is located approximately two miles
northwest of the North Rim developed area and remains 25 acres in size.

The Saffron Fire, near Rainbow Plateau, 15 miles northwest of the North Rim
developed area, is still south of the Swamp Ridge Road and now 107 acres in
size. Firefighters are planning to create a black line along the fires
northern boundary as soon as conditions are drier. This tactic is used to
slow or stop progression of the main fire by starving it of fuel as it
approaches the boundary, making the boundary more secure. When this
occurs, smoke will be highly visible.

At this time, no fire related closures are in effect. To ensure public
safety, the Swamp Ridge Road, along with the Forest Service 268 Road
system, may temporarily close while fire fighters conduct the burn along
the Saffron fire's northern boundary.

For additional information, please call 928-638-7819

July 31, 2004 Parks scandal: Numerous subcontractors, unpaid and going broke!

By Christopher Smith The Salt Lake Tribune

Already under fire by lawmakers over unchecked expenses, the
National Park Service has apparently lost more than $2 million through
contract mismanagement at Grand Canyon, pushing dozens of small businesses in Utah and Arizona to the brink of bankruptcy.

Members of Congress want to know why Grand Canyon National Park doled out
$17 million in publicly funded construction jobs to a California company
without securing insurance bonds required by federal law to assure the work would be completed and the suppliers and subcontractors would be paid. The prime contractor that received the money, Pacific General Inc. (PGI), went out of
business in March, owing nearly 50 canyon subcontractors an estimated $2.5
million and unable to explain to park officials where the money went.

The projects included new entrance stations at North Rim and Desert View,
rehabilitated cabins at North Rim, improvements to the Colorado River
bridge at Phantom Ranch and a new South Rim waste-water treatment plant. Today, because of the missing funds, several of those projects sit abandoned and
half-finished during the tourism peak at one of the nation's most popular scenic wonders and heavily visited national parks.

The senior-level park employee who awarded the 40 no-bond contracts to PGI
abruptly retired in January as subcontractors began clamoring to get paid.
When auditors from the agency's Washington headquarters arrived at his Grand
Canyon office, they were stunned to find contract files empty or in disarray.

According to a report by the investigators, the absence of records raises a "grave concern" whether valid contracts between PGI and the park even existed and could "indicate that these dollars and actions were never reported."

The Grand Canyon scandal comes after several members of Congress this
spring blasted the Park Service for spending $94 million on overseas travel the
past two years and questioned major construction projects that were undertaken
without required congressional authorization.

At the same time, agency officials have said park hours and services to
visitors may need to be reduced due to budget shortages.

In asking the Interior Department for an Office of Inspector General probe
at Grand Canyon that could lead to criminal charges, the team of auditors
wrote they had uncovered "apparent, nearly total disregard of federal agency and bureau procurement regulations and policy" by Grand Canyon's senior
contracting officer, Gordon Placesteadt. Placesteadt could not be reached for comment, nor could PGI President Robert McFarland.

Auditors reported they believed the payments PGI certified were going to
subcontractors were instead being used to bankroll PGI projects elsewhere.
In 2002, the Mission Viejo firm was awarded contracts from the federal
government for a $908,000 facility improvement for the Fish and Wildlife Service in New Mexico and for a $7 million water project at Camp Pendleton in California.

Although PGI was awarded $17 million in Grand Canyon contracts, its Arizona
contractors license has been suspended by the state for nearly two years.
While federal investigators try to unravel the multi-million-dollar
mystery, subcontractors from Phoenix to St. George say they are struggling to make ends meet.

"We've lost everything we worked for the past three years," said Mike
Richardson of Southwest Waterworks Inc., whose company was subcontracted by
PGI to build the park's new wastewater treatment plant, the parts to which sit
in his closed shop in Phoenix. After running up $60,000 in credit card debt
and taking out a $70,000 second mortgage to try to stay in business, he was
forced to give up after waiting months for payment of the $373,000 his firm is
owed for park work.

Ron Steed's R&W Excavating in Hildale was one of approximately 10 Utah
firms on the Arizona Strip subcontracted by PGI, and did more than $400,000 worth of work on the park's new North Rim fire station, administrative offices and water system. He's still owed about $340,000.

"Our company is not that big and you take a $300,000-plus whack out of it,
it's terribly painful," Steed said.

The National Park Service used some "surprisingly untraditional trade
practices" in the PGI contracts, said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz. Rep. Jim
Matheson, D-Utah, has encouraged the agency "to resolve a potentially
far-reaching problem for the small businesses that are involved."

In replies to lawmakers, Grand Canyon Superintendent Joe Alston said
because PGI never declared bankruptcy and has no assigned financial trustee, the
park must continue to withhold $900,000 in payments for completed work. The park suspended PGI's contract this spring, shortly before the company shut down, and is now trying to rebid the half-finished projects while researching ways to make payment directly to the subcontractors.

"We very much regret what has happened and we feel a huge sense of
obligation to the subcontractors, so our biggest effort right now is to
find some way to get them paid," said Kate Cannon, Grand Canyon deputy
superintendent. "We are looking hard and trying to be creative, and we're
not done trying."

Salt Lake City attorney R. Scott Berry, who is representing some of the
subcontractors, said although the Park Service was clearly negligent, the
Federal Tort Claims Act gives the agency immunity from most civil suits.
"We're frankly getting so desperate that even if it's a long shot, it's the
only shot," said Berry.

The money pit!
**** Here are excerpts of e-mail correspondence by National Park Service
officials investigating how a Grand Canyon National Park employee awarded
$17 million worth of federal construction contracts to Pacific General
Inc.(PGI), a now-defunct California company without securing the required bonds to insure payment and completion. More than 40 Utah and Arizona subcontractors who did the work say they are owed over $2 million, and many are facing bankruptcy as a result.

''Without the payment bond Jerry [O'Nan, U.S. Department of Interior
Solicitor] confirmed that we could wind up having to pay the subs for what
we have already paid PGI, so keep a million handy just in case. Let's hope we
never get there.''
Feb. 2 e-mail from Roy Navik, chief of contracting for the National Park
Service Intermountain Region to Grand Canyon National Park officials

''The file is pretty bare. No payrolls, no daily reports, no insurance
certs [certifications], no precon [preconstruction meeting] minutes, no COR
[Contracting Officer Representative] designations (or inspector) and of
course, the big one . . . no bonds.''
Feb. 26 e-mail from Navik to Park Service officials after going through the
office of Grand Canyon Senior Contracting Officer Gordon Placesteadt, who
abruptly retired in January

''I explained the situation to Ron Piceno [Phoenix district director for U.S.Rep. Ed Pastor]. When I got to the part about 'no bonds' he said, 'How can
this happen?'-'I don't know.' The discussion concluded with, 'Are you telling me
that there may be actionable recourse against the Government?'-'Yes'-'OK, that's
all I needed to know.' ''
March 9 e-mail from Navik to Park Service regional officials in Denver

''They could not say where our payments went.''
March 18 e-mail from Navik to Grand Canyon National Park bosses after he
spoke with PGI officials

July 30,2004  Glen Canyon Dam /Lake Powell Update!
gcpba

In August 2004, a volume of 900,000 acre-feet is scheduled to be
released from Lake Powell, which is an average of 14,600 cubic feet per
second (cfs). On Mondays through Fridays in August, daily fluctuations
due to load following will likely vary between a low of about 10,000 cfs
(during late evening and early morning off-peak hours) to a high of
about 18,000 cfs (during late afternoon and early evening on-peak
hours). On Saturdays, releases will likely vary between a low of about
10,000 cfs during off-peak hours to a high of about 16,500 cfs during
on-peak hours. On Sundays, releases will likely vary between a low of
about 10,000 cfs during off-peak hours to a high of about 17,000 cfs
during on-peak hours. The release pattern in August will be similar to
that observed in July. Releases in September, 2004 will be much lower.
A volume of 480,000 acre-feet is scheduled to be released in September,
which is an average of 8,000 cfs.

Because of the draw down condition of Lake Powell, releases from Lake
Powell in water year 2004 are being scheduled to meet the minimum
release objective of 8.23 million acre-feet. This is consistent with
the requirements of the Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of
Colorado River Reservoirs.

Upper Colorado River Basin Hydrology

The summer season in the Colorado River Basin has featured cooler than
average temperatures with precipitation at near average levels. This
has caused inflows to be just a bit above those forecasted when the
summer began. Regardless, inflows remain much below average. In early
June, April through July unregulated inflow to Lake Powell was
forecasted to be 43 percent of average. Actual April through July
unregulated inflow in 2004 will likely end up being 3.64 million
acre-feet, 46 percent of average.

The month of March dashed hopes that 2004 would bring relief to the
ongoing drought in the Colorado River Basin. Basin snowpack on March 1,
2004 was 96 percent of average. At that time, the April through July
inflow was forecasted to be 82 percent of average. The weather pattern
in March, 2004 was very dry and extremely warm for early spring.
Temperatures around the basin for much of the month were 20 degrees
above average. Basinwide snowpack dropped over 30 percentage points in
March. Inflow projections to Lake Powell were reduced to 50 percent of
average in early April.

The Colorado River Basin is completing its 5th year of drought. In
July 1999, Lake Powell was essentially full, with reservoir storage at
97 percent of capacity. Since that time, inflow volumes have been
below average for 5 consecutive years. The last month when inflow to
Lake Powell was above average was September 1999. Unregulated inflow in
water years 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 was 62, 59, 25, and 51 percent of
average, respectively. Total unregulated inflow for water year 2004 is
now forecasted to be 52 percent of average. Inflow in water year 2002
was the lowest ever observed since the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in
1963.

Peak inflow to Lake Powell this year occurred on May 14 (about three
weeks earlier than normal) when inflow was 21,400 cfs. As of July 29,
2004 observed inflow to Lake Powell was 6,900 cfs about 51 percent of
what is normally seen as July comes to a close. Total unregulated
inflow to Lake Powell in March, April, May, and June of this year was
81, 83, 51, and 36 percent of average, respectively. Unregulated nflow
in July will likely be 550,000 acre-feet, or 35 percent of average.

Low inflows the past 5 years have reduced water storage in Lake Powell.
The current elevation (as of July 30, 2004) of Lake Powell is 3,580
feet (120 feet from full pool). Current storage is 9.9 million
acre-feet (41 percent of live capacity).

The water surface elevation at Lake Powell reached a seasonal low of
3,582.7 feet on April 2, 2004 and then increased to a seasonal high on
June 14, 2004, reaching an elevation of 3,587.4 feet. The water surface
has since been declining, and will likely continue to decline for the
remainder of the year. Under the current inflow forecast, the water
surface elevation of Lake Powell is projected to be about 3,570 feet on
January 1, 2005. It should be noted that this projected elevation will
likely shift, depending upon weather patterns the remainder of the year.
 

July 20, 2004 Bright Angel Trail reopens!

Early this morning the National Park Service reopened the Bright Angel Trail to all pedestrian travel.  The trail is currently being assessed by crews from Xanterra Parks and Resorts, LLC (Xanterra) for mule travel.

The Bright Angel Trail closed late July 14, 2004 following an afternoon
storm that caused rock slides and other associated damage.  Trail crews
began working on the trails immediately following the storm to clear
rock and debris on several sections of the Bright Angel Trail.  Although some
rock retaining walls were damaged, both National Park Service and
Xanterra trail crews have been able to reconstruct most of the walls
that were damaged as well as clear a significant amount of debris that
resulted from flash flooding.  Trail crews will continue to work in
several of the areas damaged, including the day use area at Indian
Garden.

Both one-day and overnight mule trips have been suspended until a
complete assessment has been conducted by Xanterra crews.  Visitors
holding reservations for mule trips may contact Xanterra at (982)
638-2631.

June 10, 2004 Helicopter Passenger Jumps!

A passenger, sitting next to the pilot in a Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopter, unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door and jumped out over the Dragon corridor. Unfortunately, a helicopter pilot can’t let go of the controls much once in the air, so the pilot was not able to restrain the tourist.

May 15, 2004 Scientists warnings of Canyon troubles going unheard!
From AP
It's hard to get the sense anything is wrong in the Grand Canyon while floating through it. On a recent spring morning, the Colorado River was cool and calm. Trout leapt, splashing back into the river with a thick plop. Stands of salt cedar lined the banks, offering shade from desert heat.

But all is not well in this crown jewel of America's national park system.
The salt cedar and trout are invaders, part of a wave of alien fish and
plants that have moved in. Native species are disappearing, beaches are
washing away, and once-buried Indian archeological sites are eroding into
the river.

The landscape has been forever altered by Glen Canyon dam, built 40 years
ago just upstream. Since then, nearly $200 million has been spent assessing
what the dam has done to Grand Canyon and exploring what can be done to
heal it.

An ambitious experiment is under way to see whether Glen Canyon dam, the
root cause of many of the problems, can also help fix them. Operators have
unleashed floods, pulses of water and even a simulated summer drought to
see whether the environment responds.

Now in its eighth year, the recovery program is in trouble. A team of
government scientists say Grand Canyon's ecosystem is continuing to
deteriorate, and the goal of restoring it may fail unless drastic actions
are taken.

But a panel of river users and interest groups that directs the science
doesn't seem to be listening. It's caught in an internal political struggle
among competing interests for the canyon and the water that runs through
it.

"The program is not willing to stand up and announce that the program's a
failure," said John C. Schmidt, a veteran canyon researcher from Utah State
University who has been involved in the effort to restore it. "They're not
willing to say the irreversible price for Glen Canyon dam and its power and
water storage is the deterioration of the Grand Canyon."

When the dam was completed in 1963 to generate power and store water, there
was much hand-wringing over the loss of Glen Canyon, stretching upstream
into Utah. But no one anticipated the consequences to wildlife in the
canyon below.

Forty years later, four of the canyon's eight native fish species have
disappeared. Prospects for a fifth, the endangered humpback chub, are grim.

The Interior Department began studying the effects of the dam on Grand
Canyon in the early 1980s and soon found that the beaches were washing
away. By 1996, the department had spent more than $100 million studying the
canyon's environment.

Today, a U.S. Geological Survey team conducts $7 million worth of science
each year, paid by hydroelectric power sales. Lasers and sonars map the
canyon's loss of sand. Implanted microchips allow scientists to monitor the
few thousand humpback chub that remain and follow the movements of boulders
downstream. Much of this work confirms what scientists say they already
know. The sophisticated tests "measure the ever-fainter pulse of the
patient," Schmidt says.

In an experiment of another sort, the Interior Department decided in 1996
that a group of civilians would direct the science in the canyon. The
"adaptive management" program is designed to give managers flexibility to
learn from the canyon's evolving science. A 25-member work group involves
everyone with a stake in Grand Canyon: a river guide, a trout fisherman,
tribes, environmentalists, water managers and power company officials. The
group reports to Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

Putting civilians in charge of science has had some confusing results. The
panel has set out "diametrically opposed" goals that scientists struggle to
decipher, said Ted Melis, a Grand Canyon scientist with the Geological
Survey. Anglers want to catch trout at the eastern edge of Grand Canyon;
environmentalists want chub preserved 60 miles downstream. One problem:
Trout eat young chub.

To save the chub, scientists are removing the trout by hand, after zapping
them with a 300-volt burst of electricity during nighttime
"electro-fishing" runs in the canyon. Jeff Lovich, chief of the Grand
Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, said there are preliminary
indications that the electro-fishing may be helping the chub, but it will
be years before researchers are sure.

Another major goal of the science is to build up sandbars in the canyon
with a flood that would push sand out of the Colorado River. Grand Canyon
researchers said in a 2002 paper that there may not be enough sand in the
river to do that. Sand may need to be pumped into the system to restore it.

"What do you do when the science tells you the problem is bigger than you
want the problem to be?" Schmidt said.

The adaptive management work group finds itself pulled in different
directions as each member looks after his or her own interests.
Environmentalists see life or death for the canyon. The states see water
that grows flowers and flushes millions of toilets. Power officials worry
about lost revenue; it cost $21 million to replace power lost during a
three-month experiment with lower-than-normal flows in 2000, said Leslie
James of the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association.

"That's where the program has the hardest time: What are you willing to
give up in return for improving something else?" James said.

The canyon researchers say the competing interests make the river system so
inflexible that it interferes with the science. Dam maintenance and complex
rules regulating releases, for example, have repeatedly delayed and
canceled a series of experiments.

"We're not adapting with our adaptive management program," said Robert H.
Webb, a hydrologist with the Geological Survey.

At some point, scientists say, the group will have to make a choice. Trout
or chub. Beach-building floods or healthy plants on the riverbanks. "There
is no restoration or rehabilitation strategy that will improve the status
of every riverine resource," reads a 1998 paper on Grand Canyon.

The group's two environmental members, Pam Hyde and Nikolai Ramsey, say the
program has gotten "dangerously off-track" and the panel lacks the
political will to take the bold steps needed to save the native Grand
Canyon ecosystem.

"The best that we can do is keep slapping on as many Band-Aids as we can
and hope the patient survives," Hyde says.

In a clear break with the collaborative process of the work group, Ramsey's
group, Grand Canyon Trust, sued Norton to block a recovery plan that it
says jeopardizes the humpback chub. "The resources are declining and we are
in a sense doing less not more," Ramsey said.

A retreat is scheduled for June to get the program back on course. The
alternative is lawsuits and the possibility that a judge could dictate the
balance of interests in the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River - exactly
what the Interior Department hoped to avoid by giving everyone a voice at
the table.

During an eight-day rafting trip last month through Grand Canyon last
month, Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett Raley, the Bush
administration's top water official, said the canyon recovery effort was
struggling and may need some "care and feeding" at the secretary's level.

"We want to make this work because we're terrified at the prospect of it
not working," Raley said.

May 05, 2004 Long Jim Control Burn Update!

A number of spot fires have occurred with the Long Jim prescribed burn.
These spot fires have pushed the fire north and it is now crossing over
highway 64. Because of the smoke conditions this has created, the south
entrance road has been closed at South and Center to Mather Point as well
as Desert View Drive. Mather Point is still open and can be reached from
the west. The Desert View entrance station is turning around traffic at the
entrance station. These roads will remain closed until smoke conditions
improve. We will notify you as soon as the roads are re-opened. The south
rim village area remains open and is not being threatened.

Shuttle bus traffic has been shut down to Mather point, CVIP and the South
Kaibab trail head.

May 5, 2004 CRMP Draft EIS Release Delayed Until Late July!
from the GCPBA Newswire
National Park Service Solicitor Rob Eaton informed Grand Canyon Private
Boater Association attorney Lori Potter that the date for release of
the forth coming Colorado River Management Plan has been pushed back to
late July, 2004 to be followed by a 90 day comment period.

Previously the plan was expected to be released this month after an
earlier postponement.

According to one National Park Service planner, "the plan has been
delayed in an effort to insure a quality plan, not just a quick one— we
began with an ambitious deadline and it remains an ambitious one."
Additionally "there are simply steps not within the Park's control that
can cause delay."

The Park Service intends to provide a formal statement within the next
several days.

May 05, 2004 Global warming debate aside, the West is heating up!
from AP
1200 year old Pinion pines are dying. Something unusual must be going on?

Just outside of Flagstaff, Az, a mountain town, where the acres
of ponderosa pine turn into a Christmas green blur, Tom Whitham eyes the
weary, struggling forest.

Death is everywhere. Their limbs bare and bark brittle, the trees quickly
turn this forest into an aching reminder of the devastation of drought and
a massive bark beetle infestation.

Whitham pulls his pickup truck over and gestures to the dead trees -- 75
percent in this area alone.

Forget talk of global warming and speculation of what it might do in 50
years, or 100. Here and across the West, climate change already is
happening. Temperatures are warmer, ocean levels are rising, the snowpack
is
dwindling and melting earlier, flowers bloom earlier, mountain glaciers are
disappearing and a six-year drought is killing trees by the millions.
Most scientists agree humans are to blame for at least part of that warming
trend, but to what degree?

"That's the $64,000 question," said Whitham, a regents' professor of
biology at Northern Arizona University. "If we aren't causing it, we're certainly
contributing to it. Humans can take a drought and make it even worse."

The West is unique in that it depends so heavily on snowpack -- melting
snow provides three-fourths of the water in streams. Over the past 35 years,
temperatures across the region have inched up 1 to 3 degrees, causing the
snow to melt as much as three weeks earlier, said Kelly Redmond, regional
climatologist for the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno, Nevada.
Lilac and honeysuckle bloom up to 10 days earlier. Warmer temperatures lead
to a huge surge in woody plants that thrive in warm, wet conditions.
Glaciers are retreating, roads are buckling in Alaska and shifting some
supports on the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Already-low reservoirs
are called upon to water fields and quench thirst for longer and longer
periods after the seasonal snowpack is gone.

"The West has become habitated because of the ability to store and have a
reliable water supply," said Martin Hoerling, a research meteorologist who
studies climate for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"Simply the temperature effect is going to put a much greater strain on
water availability."

Bennie Hodges of the Pershing County Water Conservation District in rural
Nevada, said the drought has forced him to allot farmers such a meager
amount of water that they can only farm a fraction of their land. The
county's only reservoir is at 17 percent capacity.

"We're in tough shape here. Is it global warming? I don't know," Hodges
said. "When you're in the desert, the wet and dry cycles come and go. I ask
myself many times, 'Are we having global warming?' What do we do? We just
try to get through."

Many scientists blame greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and ozone for
causing global warming because the pollutants tend to trap the sun's heat
in the atmosphere. But some contend the warming is just natural climate
variability and humans have nothing to do with it.

Environmentalists preach conservation, especially with an uncertain
snowpack and peak runoff occurring earlier. If that continues, "you would have a
real problem that the current reservoir systems aren't designed to deal with,"
said Daniel Lashof of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Climate
Center.

"It's sort of like a cancer," he said. "We still have an opportunity to
avoid the most severe consequences, but we have to act now."

Mike Wagner saw it coming. He predicted a beetle outbreak years ago in
northern Arizona when he saw how abundant older trees were in overcrowded
forests. When the drought began, the beetles were ready. By 2002, trees
weakened by drought were unable to fend off the beetles, and they were soon
overcome. Tens of millions of trees across the West have been killed at a
rate never seen before.

"Absolutely unprecedented," said Wagner, a regents' professor of forest
entomology at Northern Arizona. "We've never had these conditions before,
never had that combination."

Scientists expect another devastating beetle outbreak this year.
Warmer temperatures only help the beetles reproduce more quickly, leading
to more lost trees. Some types of beetles that used to propagate two
generations in a year now can produce three.

"This is all due to temperature," said Barbara Bentz, a research
entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service who is studying bark beetles.
"Two or three degrees is enough to do it."

Dan Fagre, an ecologist with U.S. Geological Survey in Montana, stands
along the shore of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park.
Outside Cody, Wyoming, an entire forest has been killed by the drought and
beetles.

"It used to be a nice spruce forest," said Kurt Allen, a Forest Service
entomologist. "It's gone now. You're not going to get those conditions back
for 200 or 300 years. We're really not going to have what a lot of people
would consider a forest."

Already, warmer temperatures have allowed the mountain pine beetle to be
more successful in attacking high elevation pines, Bentz said.
"What we're seeing is consistent with what we expect to happen under global
warming," said Evan Mills, scientist at the Energy Department's Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory. "We will expect more beetle infestation, more
drought, more wildfires."

Not everyone subscribes to the global warming theory. Frontiers of Freedom,
a Washington, D.C. public policy group, doesn't believe humans have
anything to do with the gradual warming of the Earth.

"These things happen. That's just the way nature has always been," said
George Landrith, president of Frontiers of Freedom. "Variability has always
existed. There's nothing new about that."
Landrith dismisses global warming as politically motivated.
"It's about making energy scarce and expensive," he said.

Jeff Kueter, executive director of the George C. Marshall Institute,
another public policy group, said more research needs to be done because there is
too much uncertainty about global warming and the role humans play in it.
"We don't buy into alarmists' speculation of what's going to happen in the
future," he said. "There's so much we don't know about how the climate
system operates."

A blooming problem In a meadow near Crested Butte, Colorado, wildflowers of purple, red, white and blue pop out under three electric heaters. Tourists flock to these lush meadows -- dubbed the wildflower capital of Colorado -- but John Harte is looking at the world 50 years from now, when it could be 4 degrees warmer.

For 14 years, Harte, an environmental science professor at the University
of California-Berkeley, has artificially heated wildflowers and documented
what warmer temperatures can do to them.

He has seen firsthand the Rocky Mountain snow melt earlier, felt the
temperature warm, the soil dry and watched his wildflowers bloom earlier.
"We're projecting, from these experiments, there's going to be a tremendous
decline in the abundance of the flowers," he said. "You think of meadows
strewn with gorgeous flowers. Many of those flowering plants are going to
be decimated."

Scientists say continued warming across the West will mean a smaller
snowpack that could affect ecosystems that depend on stream flows and water
temperature. Soils and vegetation will be drier, increasing fire risk and
prolonging the fire season. Plants and trees will be able to grow at higher
elevations, threatening ski resorts. Sea levels will continue to rise,
putting beaches and cities at risk.

In Flagstaff, home to the world's largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest,
Tom Whitham wonders how much more devastation the drought and beetles will
cause, and to what extent humans will contribute to it.

"The thing that would make me really sad is if this were human caused," he
said, glancing at the bare trees towering over his pickup truck. "If you
lose a 200-year-old forest, you can't get it back."
 

January 2, 2004 President Bush refused to meet with retirees!

CONTACTS:  Bill Wade, (520) 615-9417 or sarpig@att.net; and Rick Smith, (505) 867-0047 or rsmith0921@aol.com.

January 01, 2004 Happy New Year!