This past spring I had the privilege of visiting Cathedral in the Desert, a magnificent place that had been inundated with water from Lake Powell for the last 40 years. Standing in this place filled me with awe and provided an opportunity to reflect on both the progress we have made in the last decade and how much more work still remains to be done.

Standing beneath sandstone cliffs that dwarfed our small party, the image of a full Lake Powell reservoir in the mid 90’s seemed a strange and distant memory. The reservoir has been steadily dropping and western residents are now wondering how to best manage the scarce water resources. The time when large storage projects is rapidly coming to an end as we realize there are now more sustainable options to guarantee water for the basin.

When I started Glen Canyon Institute in 1995, I dedicated our efforts to restoring a healthy Colorado River through Glen Canyon. At that time, Glen Canyon was still thought of as The Place No One Knew, the legendary canyon immortalized by Eliot Porter’s beautiful photographs and thought to be lost forever under the stagnant slack waters of Lake Powell reservoir. It was my hope to start an international movement to find better solutions for water storage and restore Glen Canyon to the magical place I had known in childhood.

Today, only 10 years later, Glen Canyon Institute has come up among the ranks of individuals and organizations across the country that are re-examining dams and advocating for the restoration of free flowing rivers and lost ecosystems. Glen Canyon Institute has become the catalyst working to initiate dialogue and debate that will lead toward solutions for a sustainable water supply for future generations in the west. We have shown that it is time to pay attention to the needs of the entire Colorado River watershed to ensure that sustainability. Through the vision of a handful of individuals unwilling to accept the loss of Glen Canyon, the hope for restoration is spreading throughout the country and across the world.

The return to drier conditions, along with a steadily increasing population in the west, has shown us not only that Glen Canyon Dam is destructive and counterproductive, but that there are better solutions that will provide water to the west and allow natural ecosystem restoration along the Colorado River.

This issue is complex, and the players involved diverse, but Glen Canyon Institute is dedicated to bringing all factors together to find the best solution that will allow Glen Canyon to be restored with the river flowing through the heart of the Colorado Plateau once again, while ensuring all water deliveries to the western states. We have recently established the Coalition for Glen Canyon, bringing businesses and organizations together to work toward new solutions. Through public outreach and collaboration, we hope to establish Glen Canyon National Park, ensuring protections that will allow this priceless national treasure to be restored and preserved for future generations to know and cherish.

Our role at Glen Canyon Institute continues to be one of initiating dialogue and debate that will lead toward solutions for a sustainable water supply for future generations in the west, while ensuring Glen Canyon is protected as one of our greatest national treasures. Glen Canyon Institute Science Director and former Chief of the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies for the Bureau of Reclamation, Dave Wegner, has stated “We now have a window of opportunity when we can restore Glen Canyon and maintain the ecological integrity of the Colorado River through Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon.” As we act within this window of opportunity, we will push for creative problem solving and a healthier vision for the future. It is time to recognize the reality of less water than is currently allocated and to manage the Colorado River as an interdependent and connected system.

Our National Park proposal highlights solutions for western water delivery and protection of Glen Canyon and the Colorado River. We will continue to push the debate, introduce innovative solutions, and promote real and positive messages for our current water problems to serve the Colorado River and Glen Canyon ecosystems, as well as the human communities depending on them.

I hope that you will join us as we continue to fight to restore a healthy Colorado River through Glen Canyon. I look forward to working together on what David Brower called “The greatest restoration project in our nation’s history.”

For Glen Canyon,

Richard Ingebretsen
President
Glen Canyon Institute