"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,
signing the 1964 Wilderness Act
Travertine Falls, Grand Canyon National Park
Jeff A. Sorensen
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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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