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Summer 1999 |
The following article is an excerpt taken from the Summer 1999 issue of the Colorado Plateau Advocate,
a publication of the GRAND CANYON TRUST.
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"If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt we must leave them more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it."
-Lyndon Johnson,
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With these words President Johnson signed into law the single
most visionary act of landscape-level conservation and
protection in American history. Faced with the rapid
encroachment of civilization, development and mechanization
of our public lands, loss of habitat and species and an ever-
decreasing am amount of primitive and roadless areas, Congress
passed an Act of singular perceptiveness about the future of our
wildlands and the needs of the people who use them.
However, turning the Wilderness Act and the values it embodies into reality on the ground has always been contentious. In Grand Canyon, the National Park Service has been struggling with the issue of wilderness for the past two decades. With the release of the new draft Grand Canyon Wilderness Management Plan in June 1998, the National Park Service has not yet put this issue to rest. The draft plan, which called for defacto wilderness management for 97% of the Park, excludes the Colorado River, the vital heart of the Grand Canyon. The Trust's position is clear: We support Wilderness designation for Grand Canyon National Park and the Colorado River within the Park, including the end of incompatible uses such as motorized recreation on the Colorado River within the Park. We are working with a number of other environmental organizations to see this position become the reality on the ground at Grand Canyon. In the interim, other management modifications being considered in the draft plan, such as group size, "minimum tool management," electric motors, motor and non-motor seasons, and limiting helicopter exchanges may contribute to restoring wilderness qualities to the Colorado River but do not change our ultimate goal of full Wilderness protection for Grand Canyon National Park.
For the time being we're monitoring the administrative
process carefully - we'll keep you posted!
-Tom Robinson |
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