Amanda Rowland, Education Outreach Specialist, Lake Mead NRA

Dialogue_Arc – Tapped Recreation Area

Amanda Rowland, Education Outreach Specialist, Lake Mead NRA

Essential Questions:

How does our world view influence the ability, to meet our needs, while maintaining a finite resource?

Enduring Understanding:

By understanding our relationship to the Colorado River, we can better appreciate/understand what rivers mean to other people, cultures, and values.

Audience: Evening program, adults, seniors, international visitors, families,

PHASE I – Community Building:

Graffiti wall – as people are walking in

In one word please write down, what comes to mind, when you think of “river”.

Welcome to Grand Canyon National Park! My name is, Ranger ______, how many people have seen the Lake Mead or the Hoover Dam during their visit? How many have seen the Colorado River?

The Colorado River is the heart of this landscape that has shaped this area over time. Today’s program will be a little different than what you may have experienced from ranger programs in the past. Today we are going to spend the next 45 minutes delving into the story of the Colorado River. We will learn together from one another and share our personal experiences, not only of the Colorado River, but of rivers in general. We will be exploring through conversation how we influence rivers and they influence us on many different levels.

For us to engage in healthy conversation, I’m going to ask that we keep 4 important things in mind.

1. Share the air – if you have spoken, give other a chance to speak
2. Speak in “I” statements – don’t feel compelled to speak for an entire group
3. Assume best intentions
4. I encourage you to stay open

Exit: Summarize the words.

PHASE II – Sharing Our Own Experiences, Experience Questions:

Popcorn

Where does that word come from? For you?

That word why? What is the “so what” of that word?

CONTENT: Talk about Colorado River, Lake Mead NRA, River System

Use the words from the graffiti to transition the content.

The Colorado River is very much the heart of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. It is the carving force that worked against geologic uplift to open these rock layers and created the Boulder Canyon. It is a source of water and nutrients for the plants and wildlife that call this area home. This area was surveyed and deemed the best area for the Hoover Dam. That dam then created Lake Mead. The Lake Mead National Recreation Area consists of two lakes: Mead and Mohave, 1.5 million acres, and hundreds of shoreline and coves. Today it is a source of joy and recreation for millions of visitors to this area.

But as we know, the river does not begin and end in Lake Mead or Lake Mohave. It is shared by 7 western states and Mexico and is harnessed to provide water for cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson and San Diego as well as water for agriculture in southwestern Arizona and California. All of these uses have value. But after years of prolonged drought, changes in patterns of snowfall we are seeing how the river itself is being strained.

Transition:

This one portion of the Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon, now we will watch a short film on the Colorado River system.

Show the film – Vimeo I am Red

PHASE III – Exploring Beyond Our Experiences:

Film: recap film – a lot of emotions

(As we walk to the picnic area, I would invite you to reflect on….)

What feelings did that film provoke?

Popcorn

In the film there were scenes that showed the mountains, agriculture, cities, to other communities and cultures along the Colorado River, when resources are stretched to the breaking point, what should these priorities be?

·  Looking at this diversity of priorities, everything from x to y, deciding what the actual actions on the ground will be is daunting for resource managers.

·  A river like the Colorado River is managed in segments with a plethora of federal, state, local and tribal agencies sharing a piece of the responsibility.

·  Tribes, the states who receive water from the river, recreationalists, conservationists, hydropower interests, environmentalists, farmers and growers all have strong ideas about how to manage the Colorado River and the Lake Mead lake level.

·  So as a society who decides what the priorities will be?

How do we decide? (priorities)

Who makes the final decision?

How do seasonal changes, (lack of snowfall in the Rocky Mountains) effect who is involved in the decision?

CONTENT: This is an overview of what is happening, including stateholder groups.

PHASE IV – Synthesizing and Bringing Closure to the Dialogue:

Thinking about the word river as we discussed in the beginning based upon our conversation earlier, would you choose a different (descriptive) word now?

It is complex and it is difficult to choose priorities, especially when multiple interests have different values and competing priorities for use. For the segment of the Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon there is an effort under way to draft a management plan that will oversee releases of water from Glen Canyon Dam, which impounds the Colorado River 16 miles upstream of Grand Canyon. There are also conversations with BOR and other stakeholders of Lake Mead and Lake Mohave about the lake levels and the safety in managing them. The National Parks Service has participated in the larger conversation of water use along the Colorado River and what does that mean. How these decisions get made will not be easy, but is necessary for the future of the river.

Recap stakeholders, discussing experience, in the film, “use me wisely and I will sustain you, continue to use me as you have, and I will break”.

Notes:

When you walk away will you get some insight into people’s thinking, human impacts,

What are people thinking about lowering water levels across the southwest, the use of water, what

Also alternative – phase 3 use vote with your feet, is the drought in the Desert Southwest a National issue?, then synthesize.

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