Glen Canyon Dam adaptive management program. - Living Rivers

Downstream: Adaptive Management of Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River Ecosystem
http://www nap.edu/openbook/0309065798/html/108.html, copyright, 2000 The National Academy of Sciences, all rights reserved
108 Downstream: Adaptive Management
regard to river and riparian zones. To the extent that they identify indicators
of ecosystem integrity from their perspectives, building upon the
synthesis reports produced to date, the Center and other scientific
monitoring programs could incorporate these variables and provide useful
information in addition to that available from tribal programs in the Grand
Canyon. Even though tribal concepts of ecosystems may not be the same
as those of currently practiced science, points of productive intersection
can be sought.
Consultation with tribes about their identification of critical
ecosystem variables seems to be an urgent step. Dam operations and
related changes have immediate impacts on those living in and spiritually
associated with the Grand Canyon. Conceptual modeling should certainly
address the interaction of ecosystem components and ecosystem integrity
with respect to tribal social and economic activities and values. If this
important issue has been addressed, it is not apparent in the literature
provided. The key problem with present cultural resource management
objectives in the strategic plan is a lack of integration~integration
between the ethnographic and archaeological programs and between these
programs and the ecosystem management paradigm.
It is a matter of continuing concern that the Havasupai tribe has
not joined the monitoring and research program. The Center has contacted
the tribe and will presumably continue to contact them in order to
will fulfill its trust and scientific responsibilities, but the tribe's decision
not to participate must be respected. Also, as discussed below, effective
participation of the all tribes depends upon the resolution of a number of
key financial and programmatic issues.
The committee is concerned about reduced funding for tribal
participation in the Adaptive Management Program. Tribal participation
did not receive early support in the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies,
but it grew and contributed in important ways in the 1990s and, for reasons
indicated above, should expand rather than contract (NRC, 1996a). As a
federal program, the Adaptive Management Program has trust
responsibilities to the tribes. The Center's Strategic Plan displays
sensitivity to those responsibilities and it correctly focuses on tribal participation
in monitoring and research. Any reallocation of resources that
diminished participation in monitoring and research activities would
aggravate the general trend away from Grand Canyon investigations. This
committee recommends that resources be secured for full tribal participation
in all aspects of monitoring, research, and communication in the