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52-558: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (shortened to Glen Canyon NRA or GCNRA ) is a national recreation area and conservation unit of the United States National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell and lower Cataract Canyon in Utah and Arizona , covering 1,254,429 acres (5,076.49 km) of mostly rugged high desert terrain. The recreation area is named for Glen Canyon , which

104-815: A Reclamation state until 1906, when Congress passed a law including it in the provisions of the Reclamation Act. From 1902 to 1907, Reclamation began about 30 projects in Western states. Then, in 1907, the Secretary of the Interior separated the Reclamation Service from the USGS and created an independent bureau within the Department of the Interior. Frederick Haynes Newell was appointed

156-543: A major Reclamation Bureau dam led to subsequent strengthening of its dam-safety program to avoid similar problems. Even so, the failure of Teton Dam, the environmental movement, and the announcement of President Carter 's "hit list" on water projects profoundly affected the direction of Reclamation's programs and activities. Reclamation operates about 180 projects in the 17 western states. The total Reclamation investment for completed project facilities in September 1992

208-424: A minimum size, ability to attract a significant number of visitors from nearby and beyond its state, and filling a regional need with recreation as the dominant purpose. The policy also called for national recreation areas to be established by acts of Congress and for them to be able to be managed by multiple agencies as necessary, including as partnerships with states. The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation (rather than

260-629: A policy that recognized the need for and established criteria for establishing NRAs. The council recommended that NRAs should focus on growing "recreation demand" more than preservation, conservation, or development; have significant natural and recreational quality greater than that of state lands, even if not as unique as other parts of the National Park System; and provide opportunity for recreation consistent with other federal public lands programs. It outlined seven mandatory criteria and six secondary criteria for establishing NRAs, including

312-464: A variety of activities for visitors, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing, swimming, biking, horseback riding, and wildlife viewing, in areas that include multiple-use management for both conservation and limited utilization of natural resources. They have diverse features and contexts, being established around reservoirs, in urban areas, and within forests. Due to their size, diversity of activities, and proximity to population centers, NRAs are among

364-502: A wider range of activities. Through the 1950s, many traditionalists at the NPS saw recreation areas championed by Wirth as distractions with open questions of how to manage and square them with the broader aims of the agency. As increased visitation forced answers to these, Lake Mead served as a model for administration at other recreational units, experiencing changing demands of the public, with more day-use visitors. Wirth advocated for changing

416-758: Is National Park Service. The NPS sites are stand-alone units of the National Park System , while the USFS sites are all part of national forests except Land Between the Lakes . Several of the larger USFS NRAs are managed equivalent to a ranger district , but most are designated areas within one. The Green Mountain National Forest is the only one with two NRAs. The Forest Service manages its NRAs as "showcases" of its management standards so that their programs, services, and facilities should be better than and models for its other recreation sites. The USBR operates dams in

468-635: Is for recreation as well as preservation (whereas a national park may carry more emphasis on natural preservation). As such, the area has been developed for access to Lake Powell via five marinas, four public campgrounds, two small airports, and numerous houseboat rental concessions. The geology of the area is dominated by the Glen Canyon Group , consisting of the Navajo Sandstone , Kayenta Formation , and Wingate Sandstone . The entire stratigraphic section includes rocks dating from

520-722: Is to "manage, develop, and protect water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public". In redirecting its programs and responsibilities, Reclamation substantially reduced its staff levels and budgets but remains a significant federal agency in the West. On October 1, 2017, the Hoover Dam Police Department was closed and the National Park Service took over law enforcement duties for

572-667: The Cretaceous to Pennsylvanian periods. A well-known rock formation named the Double Arch existed over Lake Powell. It collapsed on August 8, 2024. Lake Powell has nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of fish-holding shoreline and provides opportunities to fish for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and striped bass that swim in the waters of the recreation area. Several local marinas and sports outfitters provide houseboats, powerboats, jet skis, kayaks, fishing gear, and related equipment to visitors. With millions of visitors to

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624-792: The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir that flooded a scenic valley in Yosemite National Park , the National Park Service sought to balance its conservation and recreation efforts with dams, and it could provide the expertise for such visitor infrastructure at the Boulder Canyon Project. A proposed 8,000 sq mi (21,000 km ) Virgin National Park in that region promoted by Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur

676-789: The National Park Service Organic Act . A bill to establish it was introduced in Congress in 1933 with mixed support and failed to advance, while Albright reluctantly agreed to support the USBR with visitor services. As part of the New Deal , President Franklin D. Roosevelt strongly promoted tourism to a growing NPS, with increased emphasis on recreation at facilities constructed by the job-creating Civilian Conservation Corps . The Park Service, now under Director Arno B. Cammerer , took advantage of federal funds to claim

728-606: The Navajo Nation on the southeast. The southwestern end of Glen Canyon NRA in Arizona can be accessed via U.S. Route 89 and State Route 98 . State Route 95 and State Route 276 lead to the northeastern end of the recreation area in Utah. Glen Canyon NRA was established in 1972 "to provide for public use and enjoyment and to preserve the area's scientific, historic, and scenic features." The stated purpose of Glen Canyon NRA

780-563: The Reclamation Act , Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock established the U.S. Reclamation Service within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The new Reclamation Service studied potential water development projects in each western state with federal lands. Revenue from sale of federal lands was the initial source of the program's funding. Because Texas had no federal lands, it did not become

832-560: The United States Forest Service and other agencies, being more efficient for management. USFS took over Shasta Lake Recreation Area in Shasta National Forest in 1948 as its first. The Forest Service had traditionally focused on forestry for timber and custodial management, and the 1950s saw debate among the agencies, extraction interests, and conservationists as demand for recreation increased

884-612: The 1940s, under the leadership of associate director Conrad L. Wirth , the NPS prepared a National Recreation Plan and conducted a number of studies with the USBR and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) assessing the natural impact, recreational opportunities, and significance of proposed reservoirs. In 1947 the Boulder Dam Recreation Area was renamed Lake Mead National Recreation Area and expanded to include Lake Mohave above

936-492: The 1960s and earlier drew to an end. Reclamation wrote that "The arid West essentially has been reclaimed. The major rivers have been harnessed and facilities are in place or are being completed to meet the most pressing current water demands and those of the immediate future". Emphasis in Reclamation programs shifted from construction to operation and maintenance of existing facilities. Reclamation's redefined official mission

988-495: The Boulder Dam Recreation Area, and the NPS quickly built significant infrastructure for sightseeing visitors and contracted with concessionaires. This was a major compromise and precedent that expanded the Park Service's mission beyond the strict conservation of national parks and monuments to include broader outdoor recreation that coexists with other land uses. The Park, Parkway, and Recreation Area Study Act of 1936 had

1040-526: The Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam Police Department existed for more than 80 years. Reclamation commissioners that have had a strong impact and molding of the Bureau have included Elwood Mead , Michael W. Straus , and Floyd Dominy , with the latter two being public-power boosters who ran the Bureau during its heyday. Mead guided the bureau during the development, planning, and construction of the Hoover Dam,

1092-555: The Lake Mead's designation to "national recreation park," which would emphasize its importance with autonomy from the USBR. His Mission 66 vision provided capital investment for construction of visitor services and infrastructure across the park system. In 1963, the Recreation Advisory Council, created by executive order of President John F. Kennedy and composed of five major government officials, issued

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1144-417: The NPS analyze the needs for outdoor recreation and collaborate with state and local governments, officially expanding its mission beyond national parks. With skepticism remaining among agency veterans, planning at the area still emphasized scenery and preservation. The Act's mandates and provision for interagency cooperation however resulted in more versatile land acquisition as the NPS defined its mission. In

1196-443: The NPS's 18 sites, 12 are based around large reservoirs emphasizing water recreation, 5 are near urban areas and include both historic preservation and outdoor recreation, and the last is at a river where a reservoir was planned but not built. Of the USFS's 22 sites, 5 are at or near reservoirs, and the rest are other exemplary recreation sites within national forests. The 40 NRAs are located in 26 states; California and Washington have

1248-570: The NPS) was charged with studying proposals and referring them to the council for recommendation. This process gave flexibility to the NPS and USFS to develop their own guidelines for unmet future recreational needs. In response Congress made Lake Mead National Recreation Area the first such area to be established by statute in October 1964, finally resolving the complicated co-management of USBR land as sole NPS jurisdiction. It eventually codified most of

1300-486: The NRAs but are classified by the NPS with the national rivers and are not listed here. The USFS has four additional designated "recreation areas" that have similar management practices but are not listed here. The USFS and BLM do not collect visitor data for most sites, marked with an asterisk. 551,000 (USFS) Download coordinates as: United States Bureau of Reclamation On June 17, 1902, in accordance with

1352-624: The USBR's new Davis Dam . This interagency partnership was successful in creating many recreation areas at reservoirs: nine more were created by agreement with USBR and two more with other dam agencies in the next two decades under the leadership of Wirth as director. However, it contributed to the controversial proposals of Echo Park Dam and Bridge Canyon Dam in existing NPS areas that were canceled after considerable opposition from environmentalists. These new sites were mainly designated as just "recreation areas" since they did not necessarily have national significance. Several would be transferred to

1404-635: The United States Bureau of Reclamation. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 16, 2017. Burman is the first woman to ever lead the Bureau of Reclamation. David Murillo was serving as the acting commissioner of the bureau. Burman resigned on January 20 after the inauguration of the Biden Administration . The current Commissioner is Camille Calimlim Touton , the first Filipino American to head

1456-609: The United States' first multiple-purpose dam. John W. Keys , the 16th Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation who served from July 2001 to April 2006, was killed two years after his retirement on May 30, 2008, when the airplane he was piloting crashed in Canyonlands National Park , Utah . On June 26, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Brenda Burman to serve as the Commissioner of

1508-513: The West, with eleven NRAs built around them, while the USACE primarily operates dams in the East, with reservoirs or areas near four part of NRAs; three more are based around reservoirs operated by other agencies. As the primary focus of land management is recreation (rather than conservation), limited land use such as grazing, logging, and mineral leasing is permitted only if it does not interfere with

1560-557: The agency was renamed the "Bureau of Reclamation". In 1924, however, in the face of increasing settler unrest and financial woes, the "Fact Finder's Report" spotlighted major problematic issues; the Fact Finders Act in late 1924 sought to resolve some of these problems. In 1928 Congress authorized the Boulder Canyon ( Hoover Dam ) Project, and large appropriations began, for the first time, to flow to Reclamation from

1612-491: The creation of Cuyahoga Valley NRA south of Cleveland and Santa Monica Mountains NRA west of Los Angeles. The former was redesignated a national park in 2000. Chattahoochee River NRA north of Atlanta was created in 1978 and Boston Harbor Islands NRA in 1996. The Santa Monica Mountains and Boston Harbor Islands are partnerships with state parks and local agencies. Mount Hood is the newest NRA, designated in 2009. The Land and Water Conservation Fund provided funding for

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1664-420: The creation of Grand Canyon National Monument (II) for the pristine upstream eastern section; it would later be incorporated into the park. Cramton proposed that the western section, which had less spectacular scenery, the dam and reservoir, livestock grazing, and mining, but nationally important recreational importance, be designated as the "Boulder Canyon National Reservation", consistent with terminology used in

1716-615: The dominant resource objective, but with multiple intensive uses allowed. But because most units contained a combination of natural, historic, and recreational lands, the General Authorities Act of 1970 made all areas equal within the National Park System ; separate policy manuals for each were replaced in 1975 with one that would tailor policies in each park respective to the purpose of zones within. In 1972 Congress established two NRAs in urban areas as

1768-477: The existing recreation areas under the new national designation ( Lake Roosevelt and Curecanti NRAs are the only NPS areas that have not been permanently established by Congress or the president ). Lake Mead is still the largest NRA and is the most visited among those at reservoirs. The first new NRA under USFS administration was Spruce Knob–Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area , established in 1965. Congress initially authorized Delaware Water Gap NRA in 1965 with

1820-995: The expectation that the Tocks Island Reservoir would serve the New York and Philadelphia areas as the first NRA east of the Mississippi River, but local and environmental opposition led to the dam's cancellation. The NRA remains as the forested area intended to be flooded by the Delaware River . Mount Rogers NRA was also delayed and downsized, losing a planned reservoir and ski area. A 1968 NPS publication outlined policies for administration of recreational areas, which were distinct from its natural and historical areas. This included not only NRAs but also national lakeshores and seashores , national parkways , and some national scenic riverways; at that time there were 22 such areas, and recreation would be

1872-711: The first director of the new bureau. Beginning with the third person to take over the direction of Reclamation in 1923, David W. Davis, the title was changed from Director to Commissioner. In the early years, many projects encountered problems: lands or soils included in projects were unsuitable for irrigation ; land speculation sometimes resulted in poor settlement patterns; proposed repayment schedules could not be met by irrigators who had high land-preparation and facilities-construction costs; settlers were inexperienced in irrigation farming; waterlogging of irrigable lands required expensive drainage projects; and projects were built in areas which could only grow low-value crops. In 1923

1924-606: The first urban national parks: Golden Gate NRA in the San Francisco area and Gateway NRA in New York City, both with beaches, historic military sites, and natural conservation areas. Spearheaded by Director George Hartzog , this controversially expanded the Park Service's responsibilities into local urban recreation (in addition to the National Capital Parks ), and after he left, the NPS opposed

1976-465: The general funds of the United States. The authorization came only after a hard-fought debate about the pros and cons of public power versus private power. The heyday of Reclamation construction of water facilities occurred during the Depression and the 35 years after World War II . From 1941 to 1947, Civilian Public Service labor was used to carry on projects otherwise interrupted by

2028-487: The most visited units of the National Park System, with six among the thirty most visited sites. The first NRA was Lake Mead National Recreation Area , which was created by a 1936 agreement between the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), which had built Hoover Dam , and the National Park Service (NPS), which had experience in managing visitors in the outdoors. Because the reservoir had disturbed

2080-474: The most, each with four. NRAs of the USFS have a total area of 3,261,818 acres (13,200 km ), and those of the NPS total 3,714,735 acres (15,033 km ). The BLM's one NRA is approximately 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km ). The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was planning the construction of Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) on the Colorado River in the late 1920s and saw the potential for recreation at

2132-478: The natural state of the environment, a new designation was devised that allowed for more intensive land use while maintaining the NPS's role in conservation and historic preservation. The system of NRAs grew as the USBR constructed more dams near urban areas where there was a need for outdoor recreation. NRAs are managed by the NPS, the United States Forest Service (USFS), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Of

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2184-479: The need for multiple-use planning. The Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 for the first time established recreation as well as wildlife as an equal priority for the Forest Service with range, timber, and watershed oversight. The Park Service took a utilitarian approach to its recreation areas, acknowledging their less-than-national significance and focused on providing useful facilities and allowing

2236-429: The public lands. A 1932 study by Yellowstone National Park superintendent Roger Toll evaluated the region and recognized some sites of interest but again dismissed it as inconsistent with national parks' and monuments' standards and purpose of preservation. Separately that year the secretary's advisor Louis C. Cramton led further studies of the area between the dam site and Grand Canyon National Park and recommended

2288-479: The purchase of land at several NRAs. Three federal agencies manage the 40 NRAs. The National Park Service, in the Department of the Interior , manages 18, the U.S. Forest Service , in the Department of Agriculture , manages 22, and the Bureau of Land Management , in the Department of the Interior, manages one. One NRA, Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity , comprises three units, two of which are Forest Service and one

2340-571: The recreation area each year, it is inevitable that vandals will deface the rock faces of the canyon. Glen Canyon NRA has implemented a voluntourism program wherein volunteers sign up for a five-day houseboat trip during which they help remove graffiti from the canyon walls. National recreation area A national recreation area ( NRA ) is a protected area in the United States established by an Act of Congress to preserve enhanced recreational opportunities in places with significant natural and scenic resources. There are 40 NRAs, which emphasize

2392-577: The recreational use of the land. The establishing legislation of each NRA usually specifies multiple purposes of the designation. Hunting is by default banned in areas of the National Park Service unless explicitly permitted by law; 15 of 18 NRAs of the NPS allow hunting – and it is generally permitted in National Forest lands – in accordance with local rules. The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area share many features with

2444-553: The reservoir area and highlight natural features and development needs. Despite the lack of legislation establishing the reservation, the USBR's inability to manage the influx of tourists at the newly finished Lake Mead led Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes to direct for negotiation of a memorandum of agreement that gave the NPS responsibility for the reserved lands and surface of the lake, but not Boulder Dam itself, maintaining mining and grazing so long as they did not disrupt recreation. Ickes signed it on October 13, 1936, establishing

2496-455: The scenic area in Nevada and Arizona around the future Lake Mead , to then be the world's largest reservoir. The car was expanding access to travel in the growing Southwest and the USBR wanted to bring about the outdoor activities that would be enabled by its enormous project, but it lacked the experience and desire to provide facilities and services for recreation. Following the controversy of

2548-451: The war effort. The last major authorization for construction projects occurred in the late 1960s, while a parallel evolution and development of the American environmental movement began to result in strong opposition to water development projects. Even the 1976 failure of Teton Dam as it filled for the first time did not diminish Reclamation's strong international reputation in water development circles. However, this first and only failure of

2600-648: Was about $ 11 billion. Reclamation projects provide agricultural, household, and industrial water to about one‑third of the population of the American West. About 5% of the land area of the West is irrigated, and Reclamation provides water to about one-fifth of that area, some 9,120,000 acres (37,000 km ) in 1992. Reclamation is a major American generator of electricity . As of 2007 , Reclamation had 58 power plants on‑line and generated 125,000 GJ of electricity. From 1988 to 1994, Reclamation underwent major reorganization as construction on projects authorized in

2652-467: Was flooded by the Glen Canyon Dam , completed in 1966, and is now mostly submerged beneath the waters of Lake Powell. Glen Canyon NRA borders Capitol Reef National Park and Canyonlands National Park on the north, Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument on the west, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and the northeasternmost reaches of Grand Canyon National Park on the southwest, and

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2704-488: Was praised for its scenic and historic resources but rejected in 1930 by NPS Director Horace M. Albright due to a reservoir's inherent lack of a natural landscape expected for a national park . The political leaders at the Department of the Interior nevertheless wanted to manage the significant lands for tourism and recreation. Farming interests in the Arizona Strip area also wanted to keep their grazing access to

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