May 17, 2023
Hello Members
To all of you who have joined or renewed your membership, thank you! Also, we want to acknowledge Chuck Thompson, John McLaughlin, the Arches Foundation and Keel-haulers Canoe Club for their donations.
Board member David Levine is back from Canyon and has started to fulfill store orders that have accumulated during his absence – the water wizard is a popular item. David had a great trip and rode the HFE from Rattlesnake to Deubendorff. (spelling of this rapid varies – like Pierce/Pearce)
Web Page
The last couple of months have been spent organizing and transferring files from the former website to a site called http://oldgcpba.org There you can read articles from the Waitlist, the Info Corner, correspondence and all of the documentation related to the CRMP. Many hours were spent with Indian call centers to get this done. This effort had been on the to-do-list as it was deemed important to preserve the hard work done by previous Board members and to provide a resource documenting the evolution of the CRMP plus the many documents related to the lawsuit. CRMP Appendices H thru M are particularly noteworthy for those interested in a deep dive.
The webpage is nothing fancy as we did not engage a web developer – all the work was done by Board members Blakely LaCroix and myself – the latter, a novice web developer. As an aside, Blakely refused to contact the “idiots” at the call center – “John, you have more patience”
Bylaws
A committee is working on revamping that portion of the Bylaws that pertains to the election of Board Members. It states that a nominating committee is to present to the membership a slate of candidates for each upcoming election. For the past few years, the Board has solicited members to join the Board. We’ve had a small measure of success but not enough to “put forth a slate of candidates” We don’t see that changing. Present Board members have served for many years because we care about access to the Canyon and want to do everything possible to preserve its unique experience. 6800 private boaters enjoy the experience every year.
We’ve had inquiries from folks about joining the Board. “Do we have to travel to Flagstaff for the annual meeting – can’t we use Zoom?” Well, for the Board to be an effective voice for the membership, it is vital to connect face-to-face with fellow Board members, staff from the Park – Superintendent Ed Keable has joined us for the last 2 years, Steve Sullivan from the Permits Office, the 4 private outfitters – what are their challenges? What are the conditions at the ramp? You just cannot get this input via a zoom meeting. So, think about joining the Board. Do you see an area you want to work on, has your interest? Email us at gcpbamail@gmail.org for questions and we’ll get back you. The only prerequisite is that you’re a member.
Facebook Page
Membership is now at 15.8K. Maintaining this page is done as a service to the private boating community. New to boating, old guard, the same questions/comments repeated, etc. We work to keep the page free from hackers who want to post unrelated videos. In the last 2 months, about 1000 have joined with over 336K views. So, interest in private boating/GC is high and folks are very willing to share their experience, a little snarky at times. We monitor the discussions to keep them civil. Plenty of pics of folks riding the HFE!
Navajo Docks
A familiar topic. Quick recap: the Navajo Nation was a granted permission by the Army Corps of Engineers to build docks just downstream from Lee’s Ferry for purpose of conducting commercial operations – ala Quartermaster! The permit lapsed in Oct 2022 and was extended to Oct 2024, i.e. this thing is still in play.
GCPBA had written a letter to the Corps asking to rescind the permit for the following three reasons: 1)The Navajo Nation’s contradictory reasons for building the docks, 2) the permit was granted without a public notice, and 3) land ownership has been dispute for decades. The Corps responded to our letter focusing solely on land ownership. GCPBA requested that a response be given to the first 2 reasons. A response was provided on May 3, 2023. The Navajo Nation’s contradictory reasons for building the docks was not commented on; as far as providing a public notice, the following is quoted from their email: “it was our determination at the time that the proposed work met the requirements of our regulations which allow the issuance of LOP’s without publishing an individual public notice.” Does this wording imply that a review of the permit would now require a public notice?
For those not familiar, the 1975 Grand Canyon Enlargement Act set the Park and Navajo Nation boundary ¼ mile from the river’s edge. The Nation never agreed to this boundary and claims the boundary to be at the middle of the river or edge. However, the Nation did recognize Federal jurisdiction over the Colorado via the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 by filing for a permit.
The Corps, as a result of GCPBA’s follow up, did write a May 2, 2023 letter to the Navajo Nation stating that landownership has to be resolved prior to constructing the docks. The correspondence has been posted on https://newgcpba.org/news/
We’ll keep track of this in the coming months by filing FOIA requests to monitor correspondence.
Lastly, we follow the proceedings of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program, the Adaptive Management Work Group as well as the USBR decision regarding Colorado River cutbacks in the coming months. Enough to keep us busy!
Best Wishes,
John Vrymoed, President
Grand Canyon Private Boaters’ Association