Glen Canyon Can Live Again

 by Pamela Hyde

It must have seemed to Ed Abbey, in 1968, that Glen Canyon was lost forever. The gates at Glen Canyon Dam had shut five years earlier, and water backing up behind the dam was drowning the canyon. So easy to destroy, so hard to restore.

Abbey recognized something very important, though. Glen Canyon was a living thing. More than just rock and water, Glen Canyon was a vibrant, thriving, living system. An integral part of the Colorado River system. And the Colorado River holds within it the power to begin healing Glen Canyon, if given the opportunity.

The question is, will it be given the opportunity?

One word that I have never been fond of is "can’t". Those who have been bold enough to tell me what I "can’t" do in life, have either been taught that they were wrong or have been entertained by watching me try to prove them wrong. If we are fatalistic and accept what we have, what we are given, and what we are told, how do we make our world better?

Since the proposal to decommission Glen Canyon Dam, drain Lake Powell, and restore Glen Canyon was first put forth, there have been those who have said, "Glen Canyon Dam is there to stay—you can’t change that." "Why not?" is my reaction. The dam obviously won’t last forever. The erosive power of moving water is well recognized. And if the concrete of the dam, and the sandstone walls into which it was built, can withstand the erosive energy of the floods that will come down the river in the next several centuries, the sediment deposited in the reservoir will eventually fill it and render it useless anyway. So why assume the dam is there to stay? Why not take the opportunity right now to assess the true value of Glen Canyon Dam, and decommission it if does not provide a net benefit to us and our environment?

But what about Ed Abbey’s assertion that Glen Canyon is irreplaceable, and can never be recovered through any human agency? Has the fact that Glen Canyon has been submerged for thirty-six years mean that it has been lost forever? Are we being naive to think that it can be restored?

The answer is no, we are not. We know that riparian ecosystems in southwestern desert environments have an amazing capacity to heal themselves and regenerate if given the opportunity. We know that the processes that gave the walls of Glen Canyon their color will occur again when the lake is drained. Our studies indicate that much of the sediment that has accumulated in the reservoir will be moved out through the river system as the lake is drained. If habitats for wildlife can be regenerated, the wildlife that can move in from Cataract Canyon, above, or the Grand Canyon, below, will return. Exotic plant and animal species may also make their way into Glen Canyon, so some human management of the system may be required to complement the natural processes. But Glen Canyon is a living thing. Given the opportunity, it will thrive again.

We should be careful to keep our expectations realistic when we talk about restoration, however. The Colorado River system is a dynamic system, characterized by disturbance. In other words, the only thing predictable about the Colorado River system is that it changes. Floods, droughts, flash floods from tributaries—all these things are naturally part of the river system. If by restoring Glen Canyon we expect to return it to a snapshot in time, we may be setting ourselves up for disappointment. And worse, we miss the point of restoration.

Think about it. What is it that we hope to bring back? A free flowing river. A beautiful canyon. A certain wild, calm beauty. Those attributes which made Glen Canyon special. How can we hope to do that? By returning the natural processes to Glen Canyon and the Colorado River. We ourselves will not restore Glen Canyon—we will allow Glen Canyon to restore itself.

I like to think that this is what Ed Abbey meant when he said that Glen Canyon can never be recovered through any human agency. Although as humans we are accomplished at destroying ecosystems, we do not have the capacity to recreate them on our own. The best we can do is give natural systems the freedom to repair themselves.

I was born in 1963, the year that the gates were closed at Glen Canyon Dam. Maybe this dam made sense to some who came before me. Maybe they were willing to lose Glen Canyon. But that doesn’t mean I have to live with their choices. Neither do you. I came to Glen Canyon Institute when I realized that, although I was doing all I could to make the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River better with what I was given—Glen Canyon Dam—it was not enough. I began to ask myself, "What if we gave the river the freedom to heal itself?" I realized it was time to re-think Glen Canyon Dam.

So if people tell you that we can’t drain Lake Powell, ask them why not. Challenge their thinking. Ask them questions. See if you can get them to recognize that they are accepting what they have been told. Encourage them to inquire for themselves.

An older Ed Abbey had a slightly different message around 1980, in his essay "In the Canyon":

Next: Glen Canyon Dam. Take care of it. How? We can leave that to the engineers. They built it, they can unbuild it. Fantasy, you say. Perhaps. But if we don’t do it, Nature will.

Glen Canyon can live again. One way or another, it will. Count on it.