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In your Comments, Please tell the Park Service to:

The Park Service recommended the river for wilderness designation in 1980. The river is NOT yet managed as wilderness, even though the rest of the Grand Canyon backcountry is.
The existing numbers of users and motors is recent and political. In 1980, the Park Service proposed to phase out motors and increased user-days to compensate for the phase out. Instead, user days increased and motors were never phased out.
Commercial outfitters will have healthy businesses even without motors. There will always be a demand for river trips in the Grand Canyon, with or without motors. The phase out will give outfitters time to convert to non-motorized equipment.
Motorized travel is incompatible with wilderness values and experience. Non-motorized boats provide a safe, wonderful experience for river travelers with a wide range of needs and desires.

Set visitation at a level that will protect the river’s disappearing beaches.

According to the DEIS, the size, number and distribution of beaches used as campsites limit the river’s recreational carrying capacity.
Due to the dramatic decline in the size and number of beaches, primarily due to Glen Canyon Dam, the Park Service must not delay a decision for another 10-15 years to adjust visitor numbers downward.
The Park Service is required to protect the natural resource above all other values, including recreation.
There has been a tremendous increase in the number of people traveling each year through the Canyon’s river corridor, from 2,100 in 1967 to over 22,000 currently. The Park Service’s preferred alternative increases the annual number of people for commercial and private boating combined to 26,317.

Provide a quality river experience appropriate to the Grand Canyon’s wilderness character.

The DEIS acknowledges that lower visitor numbers can allow visitors to enjoy longer trip lengths and more discretionary time on the river without increased impacts to natural and cultural values.
There are many places where we can motor through life, but peace, quiet and solitude are increasingly rare. The Grand Canyon should be preserved for the times when we seek out this kind of experience.
Fewer daily launches will reduce encounters between river trips and increase passenger enjoyment.

The majority of campsites can only support groups of 24 or fewer people. Smaller campsites necessitate smaller groups so that people won’t further degrade the beaches.
Smaller trip sizes enhance the wilderness experience. The NPS 1998 boater survey found that most Grand Canyon River users prefer to be part of and meet groups of 20 or fewer people.
Maximum group sizes for all alternatives are too large, ranging from 25-40.

The Park Service is mandated to restore natural quiet, an important and increasingly rare backcountry resource, yet Alternative H allows up to 1,000 helicopter rides in and out of the river corridor each year.
The use of generators is incompatible with the restoration of natural quiet.
Noisy helicopter passenger exchanges should be eliminated. Traditional wilderness compatible alternatives, such as hiking and mules, are obvious substitutes for helicopters.
Motorboats further erode the natural soundscape rather than contributing to its restoration, especially for those on the boats.

Under all alternatives, the majority of trips are allocated to commercial river concessionaires, even though the wait for a non-commercial private trip permit can be up to 20 years.
The Park Service is legally mandated to limit commercial services to those that are necessary and appropriate. An analysis of what type and amount of commercial services are “necessary and appropriate” should be included in the DEIS.

The DEIS shows that Alternative B is best for protecting the river’s wilderness character and other resources. This alternative is characterized by no motors, the smallest group sizes, lowest number of maximum daily launches, highest average per person discretionary time, substantially fewer probable yearly passengers and no helicopter exchanges at Whitmore.
Humans, plants and animals are all competing for the same dwindling resources in the Grand Canyon river corridor. The Park Service will not be able to avoid resource impacts from increasing overall user numbers simply by spreading out trips into the spring and fall, and reducing trip sizes.

Recommended improvements to Alternative B:

While the DEIS shows that a reduction in visitor numbers will decrease resource impacts it does not clearly justify the specific reduction of visitor numbers by almost half in Alternative B. The DEIS should clearly relate specific numbers to resource impacts.
Alternative B could allow passenger exchanges by hiking or mules rather than abolishing them altogether with the elimination of helicopters.
Alternative B splits commercial and private use more equitably than any other alternative, 69-31 percent, but still does not resolve the problem of fair and equal access for private and commercial boaters.
For Alternative B, the Park Service should look at altering use patterns and implementing the mitigation measures outlined in the DEIS to reduce the effects of spring use on soils, vegetation and wildlife.

To get a copy of the DEIS or to submit online comments, go to: http://www.nps.gov/grca/crmp/.

Mail to: CRMP Project, Grand Canyon National Park, PO Box 129, Grand Canyon, Arizona 86023 or fax to: 928-638-7797.

Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633