Washington and San Francisco Grand Canyon Meetings To Be Held

Grand Canyon National Park NewsRelease

 

DATE: August 22, 2002                                                 

For Immediate Release

Maureen Oltrogge 928-638-7779

 

 

 

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARKEXTENDS PUBLIC MEETING SCHEDULE IN REVISION OF COLORADO RIVERMANAGEMENT PLAN

 

            Onthe heels of five successful open house meetings in cities throughout the West,Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent, Joseph F. Alston, today announcedthe Park’s intent to conduct two additional public meetings in the SanFrancisco/Oakland and the Washington,D.C./Baltimore areas. Meeting dates and locations are forthcoming and will beposted on the Colorado River Management Plan (CRMP) Web page (www.nps.gov/grca/crmp).

Meetings in Denver, Colo.;Salt Lake City, Utah;Flagstaff, Ariz.;Las Vegas, Nev.;and Mesa, Ariz.were held during the first two weeks in August and drew attendance from approximately 850 people. To date the Park has received morethan 3,000 comments via various public involvement venues, including theInternet, mail, hand-delivered letters and the open houses.

“We were verypleased with the attendance at the open house meetings,” Alston said. “Theformat lent itself to helping everyone realize the complex issues we face as weprepare the draft environmental impact statement (EIS). There was a lot ofdiscussion we hadn’t heard in the public involvement phase before.”           

Alston said thesemeetings were added to give the public, interested organizations and agenciesfurther opportunity to interface with Park staff, have their questions answeredand submit comments.

“Many othergovernmental agencies work with the Grand Canyon National Park,” Alston said. “Thefinal results of this EIS could affect their dealings with the Park, so thereis a lot of interest there.”

In June theSuperintendent announced the initial meetings, the first stage in preparing anEIS to update the CRMP for Grand Canyon National Park. The National ParkService (NPS) is preparing the EIS for the Plan under the provisions of theNational Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

            Thepurpose of this EIS is to update management guidelines for the Colorado River corridor through Grand Canyon National Park.  Current guidelines can be found in the 1989CRMP. A copy of this plan, as well as background information and publiccomments received from past CRMP discussions, can be found on the Internet at www.nps.gov/grca/crmp.

            Indeveloping a draft CRMP/EIS, the NPS seeks public input to reaffirm previouslyidentified agency and public issues, and to identify any new public issues andconcerns.  Scoping information will alsobe used to help narrow and define the significant environmental issues andmanagement alternatives to be analyzed in theEIS.  Public input will continuethroughout the planning process.  The NPSwill actively seek out and consult with all interested members of the public.  

            During this process, the NPS willdevelop and evaluate alternatives to address resource protection issues,potential resource impacts, user capacities, and mitigation measures necessaryor desirable to achieve the NPS mission. The NPS will review some key resource issues outside of the park’sboundaries that affect the integrity of the Grand Canyonand will consider alternatives that include no-action (the status quo), nomotorized use, and varying levels of motorized and non-motorized watercraftuse.

            Issues to be addressed in the EIS will include, but are not limited to:

  Majorissues to be included in the EIS are as follows:

ü     appropriate levels of visitor use consistentwith natural and cultural resource protection and preservation mandates;

ü     allocation of use between commercial andnon-commercial groups;

ü     non-commercialpermitting system;

ü     level of motorized versus non-motorized raftuse;

ü     the range of services and opportunities providedto the public; and,

ü     in consultation withthe Hualapai Indian Tribe and other appropriate parties, the continued use ofhelicopters to transport river passengers from the Colorado Rivernear Whitmore Wash.

            Information about this planningeffort and how the public can be involved throughout the process can be foundin Soundings, a newsletter availableon the Internet at www.nps.gov/grca/crmp.Due to the public interest in this planning process, the NPS has decided toextend the public comment period until November 1, 2002. Comments can be submitted by any one of the followingways:

ü     mail to CRMP Project, Grand Canyon National Park,P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, Arizona 86023; 

ü     send by electronic mail togrca_crmp@nps.gov; 

ü     hand-deliver to Grand Canyon National Park;or

ü     provide at one of thepublic scoping meetings to be announced.

            Completion of the EIS process willfulfill an agreement reached through a negotiated settlement of recentlitigation between several organizations and individuals and the federalgovernment.  The settlement requires theNPS to complete this EIS by December 31, 2004.  The NPS plans torestart the process to review and revise the park’s 1988 Backcountry ManagementPlan subsequent to the completion of the CRMP.

            Forfurther information on this planning process, please contact Jeffrey Cross,Director, Grand Canyon Science Centerat 928-638-7759.

 

-NPS –

 

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