After witnessing one wrangle too many between private
and commercial boaters in the Grand Canyon, Tom Martin decided to
take action. This winter he formed the Grand Canyon Private Boaters
Association, a counterpart to the nonprofit group for
professionals, the Grand Canyon River Guides. “The park seems to
know what it wants and Grand Canyon (commercial) guides have a
pretty good idea what they want,” says the association’s vice
president, Terry Hubbard, “but no one is speaking for the private
boaters.” With the revision of the 10-year Grand Canyon River
Management Plan coming up, Martin is focusing on equalizing private
and commercial river use and shortening the time spent waiting to
raft. He notes that of the 800 launches made between April and
October last year, only a quarter were private. In that same
period, about 90 percent of the 21,000 people on the river were
commercial users. With 6,500 people waiting to float the canyon,
Martin knows there’s a constituency for his group. The hard part is
convincing independent-minded river runners to sign up. A $20
yearly membership fee will get you The Waiting List, the group’s
six-page newsletter, and the chance to win a Dagger kayak. Contact
GCPBA at P.O. Box 2133, Flagstaff, AZ, 86003-2133 (520/214-8676) or
by e-mail, gcpba@flagstaff.az.us.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Private boaters unite.
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