Land bared by receded waters sparks Lake Powell debate

Author(s): Joe Baird The Salt Lake Tribune Date: December 8, 2004
Page: B4 Section: Utah

With the waters of Lake Powell receding because of the drought and
its once-submerged canyons re-emerging, has the time come to start
looking at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as more than a
reservoir? A local environmental group says yes.

The Glen Canyon Institute has petitioned the National Park Service to
adopt a new management plan for Lake Powell, arguing that the
reappearance of the canyon after 40 years mandates a reappraisal of
how the agency defines the recreation area.

"Short of several years of [record] runoff, we're never going to see
Lake Powell filled again. The canyons that are emerging will remain
out for quite awhile," Chris Peterson, the Glen Canyon Institute's
executive director, said Tuesday.

"What's really remarkable is how quickly the vegetation and wildlife
are returning," he added. "And there are shifting uses of the
recreation area, with more hikers going into these canyons. So we
think it's incumbent on the National Park Service to manage this
environment differently than it has in the past."

The National Park Service, however, is unconvinced.

Kitty Roberts, superintendent of Glen Canyon National Recreation
Area, was out of the office and unavailable Tuesday for comment. But
in responding to the proposal in a Nov. 8 letter, she rejected calls
for an environmental reassessment at this time.

"We are currently under a management plan that [Roberts] feels is
sufficient, and that we are protecting our resources under the
current plan," said Glen Canyon National Recreation Area spokeswoman
Char Obergh.

The primary reason for the rebuff: Neither the Park Service, nor the
Bureau of Reclamation, which manages Glen Canyon Dam, share the
assessment that Lake Powell is in permanent decline.

"We hope the water level starts coming up next spring," said Bureau
of Reclamation spokesman Barry Wirth. "Right now, the snowpack is 119
percent of normal. Our fervent hope is that the heavy precipitation
and soil moisture we've gotten this fall, coupled with a healthy
snowpack, will result in a Lake Powell that's going up."

According to Wirth, it will take "a decade or more" for Lake Powell
to refill with average precipitation. But he adds that the timetable
would accelerate with a wet pattern.

"If we get the precipitation we had in the 1980s, it will refill in a
handful of years," he predicted.

But even with things as they stand today, the Glen Canyon Institute
-- which has called for the eventual decommissioning of Glen Canyon
Dam -- says that the Park Service should create a plan to:

* Designate and protect "culturally significant" side canyons, in
consultation with American Indian tribes.

* Deal with such potentially high visitation areas as Gregory Natural
Bridge and Cathedral in the Desert.

* Comply with the Clean Water Act, including efforts to clean up
marinas and beaches.

* Uphold the Endangered Species Act by evaluating new habitat for
native fish species in the reemerging riparian environments of Narrow
Canyon and its portion of the Colorado, San Juan and lower Escalante
rivers.

* Identify emerging roads and trails in the emerging areas and
protect sensitive areas from the impact of OHVs (off-highway
vehicles).

"The thing we're really pushing is the Endangered Species Act," said
Peterson. "If you're talking about saving endangered species, then
you have to look at Glen Canyon and the emerging habitat there. They
can't ignore it."