The Glen Canyon Institute feels especially loved this month as we continue to receive membership renewals in the mail. We again send out a thank you to all of you who sent in your membership donations! If you haven't sent in your renewal yet, it's not too late!

We have several exiting announcements to make in this newsletter. First, keep an eye out for the latest edition of Hidden Passage in the next week or so. It just arrived hot off the presses this week. It is filled with artistic and informative articles written by board member David Wegner, UNLV History professor Hal Rothman, author Nancy Jaques, and David Haskell to name a few. Hal Rothman advocates a fresh look at the Law of the River and Dave Wegner backs him up with a call to study the Colorado River System as a whole. Dave also reminds us of the main points of the original reports given by Major Wesley Powell and their relevance to today's management problems. Nancy gives us a spectacular account of the Paul Winter Concert at Cathedral in the Desert and David writes about creating a sustainable future for the Colorado River. There is also the second part of Katie Lee's essay "Split Bar" from her new book due out this spring. We hope you enjoy it!

As we mentioned in last month's newsletter. The Glen Canyon Institute along with our good friends Katie Lee and David Wegner, will be sponsoring "Ed Abbey Speaks" at Ken Sleight's Pack Creek Ranch in Moab. This will be an evening event on Saturday May 1st beginning at 7:00 pm. We will be entertained with stories and readings from those who knew and loved Ed including Doug Peacock, Dave Peterson, Dave Foreman, Jack Loeffler, Ken Sanders, Clarke Abbey and others. The campfire will be roaring right along with our laughter! The tickets for this memorable event will be $25.00. We will provide a variety of snacks and beverages so grab some dinner in town before you head out to the ranch, or come out early and bring it with you. As far as accommodations go, Pack Creek Ranch does have a very limited number of rooms available for guests to book on their own. The ranch is only 12 miles from Moab hotels. There are also campgrounds around town and the wide-open desert for those of you interested in the true Ed Abbey experience. Also, on our website, under events, you can find information about surrounding accomodations in and around Moab. If you are planning on being in the area on Saturday before the event, there will be an open discussion at 4:00 pm at Pack Creek Ranch about the critical nature of the upcoming election year and what the environmental community must do begin moving forward again!

We are continuing to expand and update our website. If you haven't seen the new format please take a look at www.glencanyon.org. We have created a photo gallery for members and friends to share their pictures of pre-reservoir Glen Canyon. If you or anyone you know has pictures they would like to share, especially of the pre-Powell Hite area , please let us know. You can e mail us your pictures at info@glencanyon.org. We are also looking for any moving pictures of pre-Powell Glen Canyon and recent video of the restoring canyons for an interactive educational CD we are working on.

We are working on getting funding to create this CD as a creative new way of educating people about the need to restore Glen and Grand Canyons. The CD will be distributed nationwide to environmental programs, non-profit groups, and highschools. We feel that this in addition to our in-person presentations will get the message out about Glen Canyon build grassroots support. To accomplish this, we are looking for volunteers skilled in web design programs such as flash, dreamweaver etc. Please e mail myself or Chris at info@glencanyon.org. Any advice or expertise will be welcomed!

There is a great article about the reemerging Glen Canyon in Earth Island Journal this month by Mikhail Davis, one of GCI's esteemed board members. The link is below. The only other relevant press article was a Salt Lake Tribune article about SOCATWA, the biggest organization to take people down Glen Canyon before Lake Powell. The link is also below. That's all for this month. Take care of each other.

For the River,

Megan Anderson
Outreach and Development Director

p.s- On February 7 Lake Powell dropped to elevation 3590.44, its lowest level since 6/12/70, over a third of a century ago. Prior to that the reservoir was still above its low point of 1973, "only" 30 years ago. The Bureau of Reclamation's expected low point for 2004 will be somewhere around 3584, a level not seen since the first days of June 1970. However, current rates indicate a water level lower than the Bureau's prediction. Get down there and check out what is coming out of the water!

p.p.s.- On that note, there are still some slots available on the GCAT guided trips into the restoring side-canyons of the Glen. Check our website for more info.

Newslinks:

Glen Canyon Emerges: Just released today in Earth Island Journal, this article written by Mikhail Davis

http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/new_articles.cfm?articleID=860&journalID=7

Church group pioneered modern rafting in Glen Canyon: On February 7th, the Salt Lake Tribune's Tom Wharton released a story about SOCOTWA, the organization that pioneered modern rafting in pre-Powell Glen Canyon.
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Feb/02072004/utah/136623.asp