Grand Canyon River Access
and the Recreational Use Allocation

By Mark Grisham
Mark Grisham is the executive director of the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association, a non-profit trade group that represents each of the licensed river running concessioners that operate in Grand Canyon National Park. This article is reprinted with permission from the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association.


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In the last several years, how the National Park Service (“NPS”) allocates and distributes the available recreational use of the Colorado River corridor within Grand Canyon National Park has become increasingly controversial. Using the existence of a prolonged wait to receive a private river trip permit as a rallying cry, some private boater advocates seek to increase their level of use at the expense of those members of the public who would choose to take a professionally-outfitted trip.

It is important to understand that the wait is to obtain a trip permit that enables control of an entire river trip, not to actually go on a private trip, which are usually last minute affairs for the majority of the participants. It is also important to note that on average forty percent of those who receive a private permit cancel their trip. Currently, professionally-outfitted use accounts for sixty-eight percent of the available recreational use allocation; self-outfitted use accounts for thirty-two percent. The average professionally-outfitted trip is seven days long and the average self-outfitted trip is eighteen days long. Roughly 19,000 people take a professionally-outfitted trip each year, while about 3,500 participate in a self-outfitted trip.

There are legitimate access issues regarding the way the NPS administers the self-outfitted use program that deserve attention, but a fundamental reality will continue for the foreseeable future: demand for Grand Canyon river trips of all types exceeds the available supply. A central question at issue is, therefore, on what basis does the NPS allocate the available recreational use to the various competing user sectors?

In order to quantify and meter use of the Colorado River within the Grand Canyon, since the early 1970’s, the NPS has employed a “user-day” regulatory system. A person on the river for one day is a user-day. There are presently 169,950 user-days available for recreational use along the Colorado River within Grand Canyon National Park. Of this number, 115,500 are allocated to that portion of the general public wishing to accompany a river trip organized and led by one of the Park’s sixteen licensed river concessioners. These concessioners, who operate under contract with the NPS, are each assigned a fixed user-day allocation, and are required to make this use available on a non-discriminatory basis to the general public, in the form of professionally-outfitted river trip packages.

The balance of the recreational river use allocation, 54,450 user-days, are made available directly by the NPS to those wishing to do a “private” or non-commercial river trip, relying on their own skills and equipment in order to navigate the Colorado River’s world-class whitewater.

A HISTORICAL LOOK AT THE ALLOCATION ISSUE
Until the late 1960s, rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon was an experience limited to only a very, very small percentage of the population. Then, in response to increasing visitation, the NPS developed the user-day system as a means of administering and protecting the river. The NPS allocated a certain number of user-days to members of the public choosing to use professional outfitters, and a certain number of user-days to individuals running the river on their own.

As an interim measure, the NPS first allotted 105,000 user-days for professionally outfitted recreational use and 7,600 user-days for self outfitted recreational use. In 1973, the NPS reduced the allocation for professionally outfitted use to 89,000 user-days, but maintained the 1972 interim allocation for private use. Although the NPS then recognized that it could set either a higher or lower carrying capacity, the NPS chose this user-day level because it had “observed its impact on the canyon, and no irreversible damage seem[ed] to have occurred.”

In early 1976, following a three year research program on visitor use and resource impacts, the NPS began to prepare a comprehensive management plan for the river, termed the Colorado River Management Plan (“CRMP”). In the summer of 1976 and the spring of 1977, the NPS’s approach of allocating recreational use via the user-day system was challenged in two lawsuits. Among other relief, the Plaintiffs sought to prevent the NPS from extending or issuing new concession permits, as well as an order directing the NPS to revise the allocation, providing for maximum utilization by private users. In both cases, the court upheld the NPS approach, and on appeal, in a case called "Wilderness Public Rights Fund v. Kleppe," 608 F.2d 1250 (9th Cir. 1979), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit consolidated the two cases and affirmed the lower court judgments.

In 1979, following an extensive public involvement program, the 1979 CRMP and its accompanying Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”), prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, were released for public comment. The 1979 CRMP provided for significant increases in the number of non-commercial participants, number of trips and user-days. The new total use allocation proposed was to be based on the number of trip launches and group sizes, rather than on a fixed user-day cap, as had been the case in the past. This transition was part of the controversial proposal to phase out motorized use that was also including in the draft plan. In addition, the new numbers reflected a lengthening of the summer season from about four to six months. Based upon an estimated average trip length of ten days for commercial trips and sixteen days in the summer season and eighteen days in the winter season for non-commercial trips, the 1979 CRMP suggested an allocation apportioning 115,500 user-days, or sixty eight percent, for members of the public contracting with concessioners and 54,450 user-days, or thirty two percent, for private boaters.
 
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