The Conservation Alliance

Help Grand Canyon's Colorado River Ecosystem

Benefitting

Grand Canyon Wildlands Council

Website

http://www.grandcanyonwildlands.org/

End Date

2012-01-31

What You Need To Do

An EIS being prepared by the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service gives us a great opportunity to build support for scientifically credible experiments and stewardship actions to benefit the Colorado River Ecosystem in Grand Canyon over the next 15 to 20 years.

Click here for information about the EIS process and to reach a page for submitting comments. The comment period has been extended through the end of January so you can still get to it after the holidays.

Grand Canyon Wildlands Council holds a stakeholder seat on the Adaptive Management Workgroup of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program, represented by Dr. Larry Stevens, Senior Ecologist. Dr. Stevens points out that what we really are working for is a healthy ecosystem in Grand Canyon, one that contains and supports all native species (500 vertebrate species, 10,000+ native invertebrate species, >500 plant species). Set in the context of wildlands conservation guided by conservation biology, this approach is an effort to counter what has become a narrow focus within the program, on sediment and the endangered humpback chub. Both are absolutely critical, but why not emphasize restoring native fish and wildlife populations throughout the canyon, and enhancing habitat for those native species.

Several important topics for comment are listed below. Please contact us if you have any questions or for further discussion. We look forward to sharing what we have worked so hard to learn, understand, and protect about this amazing river system and the Grand Canyon. Contact information to reach us is on our website.

Test the natural range of flow variability.
Historical flow records show that although pre-dam within-day flow variability was low, between-day, within-week, and within-month variability was extraordinarily large. We should carefully consider how further stabilizing a highly variable system will affect the remaining native species, and all the non-native taxa that have been introduced. This plan needs to include experimental designs for testing the effects of flow variations at 2-day, 4-day, week-long, and month-long intervals. We know a lot about flows and sediment, but still very little about biological responses.

Pushing for real, bar-reworking high flows (>60,000 cfs) should be a priority when reservoir level and inflow conditions permit, so that we can re-open backwaters now choked with sediment and vegetation, and open beaches that are overgrown.


Use Cataract Canyon as a scientific control (reference site).
Cataract Canyon gives us the rare opportunity to study essentially natural flows and native fish populations as well as numerous other species. Despite annual flood flows, greater sediment load and warm temperatures, its native fish populations are in dire condition. The status of many other plant and animal species is unknown. It is essential that we study this reach of the Colorado River for comparison with Grand Canyon, yet there is much administrative resistance keeping it outside the scope of the research effort.

Focus on actions to restore native species and their habitats using the full range of actions, not just flow only.
With Glen Canyon Dam in place and with the Upper Basin so modified (other dams, water quality changes, sediment retention, voracious non-native fish species), we will need to take various actions that restore missing species and adequate habitat for them. Another effort led by Dr. Stevens produced a blueprint for protecting and restoring important species...

Missing Species Paper

Finalize the Desired Future Conditions document.
Dr. Stevens has been the co-chair of an extended effort to complete a document identifying desired future conditions for the range of natural resources in the Colorado River Ecosystem below Glen Canyon Dam. The Adaptive Management Workgroup forwarded a stakeholder developed draft to the Department of Interior for review and revision by DOI staff including the National Park Service. The new version has been returned to the Adaptive Management Workgroup for review and final revision.  This process must be completed to provide the framework for the long-term experimental and management plan.

Please DONATE to help us support Larry Stevens' efforts to help the Colorado River Ecosystem in Grand Canyon. Your contributions are our inspiration! Thank you.