Start praying for rain.

The American West will face a dire emergency in the next few years if the current drought continues. This is a very well written, fairly balanced article that describes how the drought is causing political schisms in the management of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and its focal point, Lake Powell.

Lake Powell is disappearing at an alarming rate. The ongoing drought in western states is slowly taking back the canyons that the lake covered at fill-level. Some people want to drain the lake; other people want it to remain. It is a heated issue here in the four corners region. With the lake now at 42% of its fill level, with two more years of this drought, the electric turbines will not have enough water passing through to create electricity. If that occurs, the primary reason for making the dam in the first place will be a moot point.

On a recent road trip, we drove past Hite Marina. There was no lake. The view that met us was the mighty Colorado River. Hite's boat ramp was extremely high and dry. It was thrilling in that the last time I drove past Hite, the lake was still very much there. I couldn't believe the changes that had occurred in just over five years.

Most people thought the drought would be over by now; however, it's turning into a crisis of biblical proportion in the west. The City of Las Vegas is offering tax breaks to home-owners that tear out their grass and install xeriscaping (a landscaping style that uses water-friendly native plants, like yucca and cactus). Large casinos on the strip, however, are still using up water like it's going out of style. Let's say the MGM is sold out; imagine how much water 5,000+ toilets flushing uses. And that's just one hotel. More and more people are moving to Las Vegas every month; Phoenix has seen phenomenal growth in the last decade, and LA just doesn't stop. They ALL depend on the Colorado River. What mayhem could be served up in the next few years if the drought continues?

Moving to the southwest from Kansas, I had no idea water was such a big deal. Well, it is. Imagine moving to place where there is a moratorium on water meters. Unless you buy property with a city water meter, you aren't getting one if you plan to build. This is a reality in my town. Imagine living in a town where the water used is brought in by large trucks every hour, from the next town to the south. This is how I lived when I worked at Grand Canyon.

If the drought continues, I predict the Colorado River Compact will have to be amended. A great book that clearly explains all the water issues in the west is Marc Reisner's "Cadillac Desert." PBS made a mini-docu-series out of the book that was just as interesting.

Glen Canyon Institute wants to drain Lake Powell and let nature restore Glen Canyon. There is another splinter group that would just like the lake to remain at 50% of fill-level. This would actually help conserve the lake's water that evaporates at a stunning 800,000 acre-feet a day at full capacity (after all, the area is a desert), and it would uncover some of the upper canyons that have been under water since 1980. This would also open up more hiking and kayaking/river running recreation, and still allow the dam to create electricity. I'm not sure how the management of Glen Canyon/Lake Powell will be handled in the coming years, but the reality of the situation is this: a few thousand recreational hikers who want to drain the lake are up against hundreds of thousands of boaters and jet skiers, the town of Page, Arizona, and some 400,000 electricity customers, not to mention the Bureau of Reclamation.

In two years' time, perhaps the drought will settle this issue once and for all.

Gear-A-Palooza

I went up to Salt Lake City for the Outdoor Retailer convention. It is Utah's largest convention, reportedly bringing $32 million dollars into the state every year. The show is put on twice a year, during summer and winter. Quite simply, it is aisles and aisles of backpacks, shoes, socks, clothes, climbing gear, water bottles, and whatever else outdoor people may use when enjoying the great outdoors. A noticeably large number of people at the show are Oriental folks, repping their sewing facilities and their fabrics. I would guess that most of the camping gear in any store these days was sewn/made in China, Vietnam, and Korea. If it wasn't, then the fabric was woven there, the plastic buckles were made there, or any other component was from somewhere on the other side of the world.

The Outdoor Industry Association threatened to pull the show from SLC, blackmailing the state of Utah to have a more "environmentally-friendly" policy toward their state. They were kind of upset by the backroom deal between then-Governor Leavitt and Gale Norton regarding the roll-back of wilderness in Utah. The state begged forgiveness, and offered OIA a deal that included a promise to expand the Salt Palace Convention Center, which will cost over $50 million dollars to complete. So for the next five years, Outdoor Retailer will remain in Utah.

Walking around the show, I had some real issues with the blatant consumerism, and the corporate slobs that now own most of these companies: The North Face, Patagonia (which now makes mostly mall clothes), and on. It's not like the Outdoor Industry itself is any friend to the environment. Most of the items are made from...what else?...petroleum products. Not only that, I would assume that all the garbage created during the four full days in SLC would easily fill a layer in a landfill: hundreds of thousands of beer bottles, paper plates, plastic cups, beer cans, you name it. These outdoor industry folks like to party and they go through a lot of beer. Every time I go to this thing, I come home with easily between 30 and 50 pounds of slick, printed paper catalogs (so much for saving trees).

As we drove home, down I-15 past the largest strip mine I have EVER seen (the hideous tailing slopes went on for MILES...I hear you can see the pit from outer space), I felt crummy. Not just because I was hung over from too much free beer at the industry happy hour the night before, but because the only winner in the whole Utah vs. Outdoor Industry is the outdoor gear consumer. The state makes promises it probably won't keep, the Outdoor Industry uses cheap outsourced labor, plastics, and other petroleum products, and the person that ends up buying their new tent/pack/whatever at REI/Galyan's/Bass Pro Shops gets what they want: the newest, coolest thingy since Nike shoes. I think maybe that consumers really don't care, even if they are members of the Sierra Club or any other advocacy group. They want their stuff. And that is ultimately what left me feeling so empty. It is a badge of coolness to have the newest tent, pack, water bottle...it's a status symbol here in the world of being outside, probably similar to having a Blackberry in a city, I guess. If you have it, you've made it. YOU'RE COOL.

Post Script:
Special props to the Teva Shoe Company for creating a convention floor compound so walled up and intimidating that you can't even see their products. Not only that, you cannot go in to the Teva fort to even see anything without an appointment. And if you can't buy at least thousands of dollars in product, you don't get an appointment. Mountain Hardware, too, had one of these "snob forts." I guess they are hoping that the old "If-they-can't-get-it-they'll-want-it-more" psychology works...for most people, I think it does. It's a running joke at the convention now...hey, we have something to strive for in the outdoor industry: an appointment with Teva! Someone forgot to tell them that they are only sandals, and they are now running into fierce competition from Chaco...who DOES have an open floor booth. Do I want an appointment to see shoes that I don't even know if I like? No. This snobbery is rampant with many companies at Outdoor Retailer. Maybe that's another reason I felt crummy; I just don't rate with these big companies. I don't sell enough. I'm not Wal-Mart or Dick's Sporting Goods. I'm just a regular Jill that owns a small shop.