Grand Canyon Decision Reached

The National Park Service has released their new plan for managing the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. The new plan will do away with the wait list over a period of several years and instate a lottery system in its place.  The plan will allow significantly more private boating trips, but will reduce the total number of all trips on the river at any given time.  American Whitewater staff and volunteers are still analyzing the new plan and hope to post additional information on how the plan affects the paddling community in the near future.  For now, we urge paddlers to read elements of the plan themselves.

The main NPS website for the issue is: http://www.nps.gov/grca/crmp/index.htm.  This website has numerous links, including links to the decision, the analysis behind it, and a summary of what it means.

Their page on the key differences between the old plan and the new one is located at the following link: http://www.nps.gov/grca/crmp/documents/feis/changes-from-current.pdf

Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association has pulled out several key passages about what will happen to people that are currently on the wait list.  Check it out: http://www.gcpba.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=2

American Whitewater worked with many partner organizations on this contentious river management issue over the past few years.  We would like to thank Jason Robertson for the role he played in this process on our behalf.  Thanks also to all the people that helped support our work on this project!