Grand Canyon National Park released the long-awaited CRMP/Final Environmental Impact Statement on Nov. 9, 2005. Unfortunately, it preserved all the worst elements of its preferred alternative H and adopted some even worse ones. The waiting list, with its embarrassing mass of patiently-waiting future permittees, is on its way out--a full 66% of waiters on the list will be thrown to the "weighted" lottery--according to the Park's own determination--and mounds of red tape with little compensation for years of waiting. While the Park rejected an all-reservation system as unfriendly to concessionaires and too complex, it will institute a never-before-attempted weighted lottery for noncommercial river permits.
While there is a substantial increase in user days for noncommercial boaters, it comes largely in the non-summer season and at the expense of resource preservation and is still far short of fulfilling do-it-yourself demand. The bulk of new non-commercial river-running access (1,500 people) comes in the November to February "winter" season. Meanwhile, for the motorized concessionaires, it is essentially business as usual. They gained more user days, and retain their huge share of summer use. The proposal to require 4 days to Phantom for motor tours was dropped, ensuring that quickie-trip profits continue unabated. And still, guide use is not counted against outfitter allocation.
While the Park makes admirable mention of striving to make administrative, educational and scientific trips as wilderness-compliant as possible, incredibly, there was no attempt to evaluate how motors could be removed to smooth the path to wilderness designation and comply with Park Service policies. NPS wilderness policies direct parks to treat proposed wildernesses such as the Grand Canyon backcountry and river, as if they were already designated, pending a vote by Congress.
As for the helicopter shuttles, the park not only refuses to restrict them in most months, but inserted language declaring that they have no ability to do so since the helicopters use tribal lands, conveniently ignoring the parks absolute ability to regulate exchanges.
The Parks demand-measuring all-boater registration proposal was dropped. It would have adjusted commercial allocation according to true demand. This omission locks in the status quo split allocation for the life of plan, which could be 20 years, and dooms noncommercial boaters to continued discrimination and disenfranchisement. The Park will institute a one-visit-per year policy for all river runners, commercial and noncommercial alike (excluding guides.)
For your own investigation into how these changes will affect you, please see our reading guide to the right. The plan is approximately 1500 pages in length, divided into Volumes 1, 2, 3 and Appendixes. Begin with 3 short summary documents: The Executive Summary (22 pages), Key Changes In the FEIS From The DEIS (2 pages), and Key Changes In The FEIS from Current Condition. Continue on to our recommended reading for noncommercial permit and waiting list transition information. The FEIS in its entirely, may be seen at www.nps.gov/crmp/documents. Adobe Reader Version 5 (available free) is required, but Version 6 or 7 provide robust searching capabilities.
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Readers of the DEIS will recognize Volumes 1 and 2 as similar to Volumes 1 and 2 of the DEIS but revised for the final plan. Changes and additions from the DEIS appear in bolded italics. Volume 1 includes the Purpose and Need for Action, Alternatives (Including the Park's Preferred Alternative), and Affected Environment. Volume 2 includes Environmental Consequences and Consultation and Coordination. Volume 3 describes the comments the park received and the responses it has formulated to those comments.
Key Changes In The FEIS From the DEIS - 2 page summary of how the final plan deviates from the proposed plan as it was outlined in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
Key Changes in the FEIS From Current Condition - A 1 page summary of how the final plan changes what is currently in place in the Grand Canyon.
Executive Summary - A 22 page general description of many of the major changes.
Description of the Hybrid Weighted Lottery System for Trip Leaders - Section 2.8.1.2.6 in Vol. 1, Chapter 2, pages 112-116.
Description of the Hybrid Weighted Lottery - Modified Preferred Option - Section 4.4.8.7 in Vol. 2, page 691.
Description of the 3 Stage Expedited Transition (from the waiting list to the new system) - Vol. 2. pages 694-696.
Operating Requirements and New Actions for All Alternatives (New site/camping restrictions and repeat visitor rules) - Section 2.3.1, Vol. 1, pages 36-38.
Sample Launch Calendar - A listing of launches by day of the year.
December 2005 FAQ - Answers questions such as how to find your comments.
Substantive Comments - Comments which recieved a response
Nonsubstantive Comments - Comments which were considered but did not require a formal response.
Stay tuned for continuing content updates!
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| October 1, 2004 | Release date of Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) |
| October 8, 2004 | Publication in the Federal Register |
| 90 days from October 8, 2004 to January 7, 2005 (extended to February 1, 2005) | Public comment period with public meetings |
| February 2, 2004 to July 2005 | CRMP team evaluates comments, revises alternatives and chooses one for implementation |
| November 9, 2005 | Park releases Final EIS |
| December 9, 2005 | End of 30 day no-action (and no comment) period |
| Shortly after December 9, 2005 | Signing of the CRMP into policy (Record of Decision) |
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