Volume 3 No. 1
On behalf of the board and staff of Glen Canyon Institute, I want to wish each of you a happy and healthy new year!
I hope the holiday season has been safe and enjoyable for each of you. As we kick off the new year, I wanted to thank everyone who supported the institute in 2003. In response to our year-end membership renewal drive, we've received overwhelming financial support from many of you that will allow GCI to continue its important work in 2004. If you haven't had a chance to send in your membership renewal, it's not too late! Just give us a call at 801.363.4450 or send a check to: 450 S. 900 E. #160, SLC, UT 84102. We love our members.
In the December edition of the Lowdown, we mentioned that we were working on putting together a guide and outfitter service to take some of you folks down into the reemerging canyons of the Glen. We are excited to announce the advent of the long-awaited Glen Canyon Adventure Tours (GCAT). GCAT is a natural history and education-based guide service developed as a part of the Glen Canyon Institute. GCAT trained guides will lead hiking and backpacking trips into the restoring side-canyons of Glen Canyon. GCI members will receive a discount on rates for these special trips. We will be offering a few trips this spring, with more to follow in late summer and fall. For more information, please visit: www.glencanyon.org/gcat. If you are interested, please respond quickly to book your trip, space for these exciting adventures is limited!
photo courtesy of Betty Moore
The latest word on the effort to rename Lake Powell is that the Board of Geographic Names is getting close to making a decision. To date, more than 25% of the public input has been FOR changing the name to Glen Canyon Reservoir. (We have found evidence from the government that Glen Canyon Reservoir was used as the name of the reservoir through 1970.) This is really a wonderful turnout. If the ratio can be increased to around 50% by flooding (pardon the pun) the Board of Geographic Names with public support for changing the name, our efforts won't go unnoticed. See the Action Alert below for more information.
Glen Canyon Institute, in cooperation with Katie Lee and
Dave Wegner, will be sponsoring a very exciting event this spring. "Ed
Abbey Speaks" will take place at Ken Sleight's Pack Creek Ranch near
Moab on April 30 & May 1, 2004. Friends of Ed's, such as Dave Foreman,
Jack Loeffler, Ken Sleight, John Nichols, and more, will gather round
the campfire and tell stories that celebrate the life of Cactus Ed. There
is also a scheduled discussion with experts in the field about conservation
issues in 2004. Information about the event will soon be posted on the
web and the February edition of the Lowdown will registration information.
It's going to be a blast, so put it on your calendar.
The movement to restore Glen Canyon has gotten a fair amount of positive
press over the last month. High Country News just released its December
22nd edition with a big cover story that features GCI president Rich Ingebretsen
and myself. There was also a cover article questioning the need for big
dams in the January/February edition of Via, AAA's Traveler's Companion.
Links for both are below, as well as a couple articles from the LA Times.
Share them with anyone who may be interested.
For the River
Christopher Peterson
Executive Director
ACTION ALERT
Coalition to Rename Lake Powell -
Thanks to the work of the Coalition to Rename Lake Powell, one of every
four public comments supports renaming Lake Powell.Your voice is needed
to increase the ratio to ½ and this is the time to express your
opinion on the name change. Below you will find a recommendation template.
Simply paste this into an e mail or a word document and send it to :
U.S. Board on Geographic Names
U.S. Geological Survey
523 National Center
Reston, VA 20192
Telephone: (703) 648-4544
Fax: (703) 648-4549
E-Mail: bgnexec@usgs.gov
The decision will be brought to the Board for a vote as soon as they have completed the research they feel they need to make a decision. So the time to act is now. According to our solicitation letter "the most important criterion to the Board will be local, regional, and national acceptance of the change". These are small steps in helping people realize that the reservoir is a creation of man and only short term. The Coalition to Rename Lake Powell has found numerous Department of the Interior documents that reference "Glen Canyon Reservoir"; including one from Floyd Dominy and Walter Hickel (Secretary of the Interior) during the Carter Administration
Recommendation Template:
Attn: U.S. Board on Geographic Names
I am writing this in support of the proposal to officially change the name of the reservoir in Arizona and Utah, currently named Lake Powell, to Glen Canyon Reservoir. I believe this is a necessary change due to the existence of another body of water within the Colorado River system named Lake Powell, which was given that name prior to 1959. I also believe it is necessary out of respect for the adventurer and river runner John Wesley Powell. I can only imagine his un-acceptance of a reservoir named in his honor. Please take this recommendation into consideration when you vote on this issue. Thank you.
A concerned citizen,
(your name)
*******************
WATER LEVEL STATUS
Glen Canyon Reservoir levels continue to drop: During December, Glen Canyon Reservoir continued to drop in elevation with water levels over 100 feet below full pool. Total volume of the reservoir is now less than 47% and continuing to drop. Mead dropped to its lowers level ever over the last 40 years. In spite of the heavy snows over the holidays, the anticipated runoff this spring will likely by below normal.
http://www.usbr.gov/uc/water/crsp/crsp_40_gc.html
News Links:
Being Green in the Land of the Saints: On December 22, High Country News released its latest issue. Mormons are often stereotyped as conservative anti-environmentalists, but Utah activists Richard Ingebretsen and Chris Peterson of the Glen Canyon Institute want to convince fellow believers that it's OK to be green. Viewing the article requires free temporary registration and login, here's the link:
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=14450
Dam Nation: The latest edition of AAA's magazine Via asks:Is it time for Western dams to come down? Here are the pros and cons plus a list of must-see dams. The article includes a special section on Glen Canyon Dam. Here's the link:
http://www.viamagazine.com/top_stories/articles/dam_nation04.asp
Drought Has West in Chokehold On December 22nd, the Los Angeles
Times published an article addressing the concerns the drought has raised
in the Colorado
River Basin:
... Lake Powell, the massive impoundment of the Colorado River behind
Glen
Canyon Dam in Arizona, has dropped below the halfway mark for the first
time since it ...
The Outing of a Big-Time Poser Lake Another great article in the Los
Angeles Times about the effort to rename Lake Powell:
... The proposal to rename the Lake in the name of linguistic purity masks
a deeper motive - to remove Glen Canyon Dam and eliminate Lake Powell
from the face of the earth ...
http://www.latimes.com/features/outdoors/la-os-wildwest6jan06,1,1347897.column?coll=la-home-outdoors