Adaptive Management in Grand Canyon: Towards a More Sustainable Approach

Abstract

Glen Canyon Dam has had a dramatic impact on the American West. Originally constructed to provide a steady water supply and cheap hydropower to downstream consumers, dam managers have recently been forced to balance newfound environmental, recreational, and tribal concerns alongside more traditional water delivery and power generation interests. Like all natural resource allocation questions on public lands, decision making in Grand Canyon is constrained by the public interest. In a place as sacred and iconic as Grand Canyon where interests are diverse and complex, finding the proper balance among competing interests is no easy task. To help ensure that Glen Canyon Dam is operated in a manner consistent with both federal mandates and the public interest, Glen Canyon Dam operators have increasingly relied on recommendations from an arguably unrepresentative group of interested stakeholders as a proxy for the public interest. The result has been management decisions that have historically favored hydropower and water delivery interests at the expense of important environmental, cultural, recreational, and aesthetic resources. Input from a stakeholder group can be a valuable resource, but only if the group is truly representative, in relevant proportions, to the interests at stake. As currently configured, the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Working Group fails to adequately represent all interests affected by Glen Canyon Dam operations. Through an expanded stakeholder group, however, important environmental, recreational, and cultural resources of Grand Canyon can be afforded the protection deserving of a place that is a crown jewel of our national park system, the lifeblood of millions of westerners, and the most sacred of places for many western Tribes.