Evolution of Grand Canyon Science: Mike Yard 1

And one of those events was, uh, Mike's and my interest is there with the science work, and, uh, then as things have it, Lake Powell keeps filling up.

And then next thing you know, there's a crisis at the dam.

It's 1983.

And there's this tremendous threat on the actual structure of Glen Canyon Dam in 1983.

That creates chaos.

They have to dump a bunch of water, totally ignoring the environmental impacts previous to that, because they never saw this one coming.

They had a full lake, and they had to dump a bunch of water, and they couldn't dump as much out with a full pond as was coming in.

And so they were actually putting boards up on the top of the dam to get a few more feet before they started losing their whole dam.

Well, anyway, after that fact, there was a lot of pressure and criticism of the bureau's management, of course, and there were heads that rolled within the, the agency.

The pressure in my eyes, uh, Mike and Steve, and you can put into this, was that they had to do something for the lower basin to show them that they are Paying attention to the impacts of their release values from Glen Canyon Dam all the way down through.

And, uh, [clears throat] Steve helped me, uh, in, in regards to helping me take a look at what go- what would it take for me to put in for government contracts, because he had the sense that there'd probably be opportunities for logistical contracts through the government.

And lo and behold, these g- uh, the Bureau of Reclamation flew a contract through the Arizona Game and Fish, and then I brought Mike in and Tom Moody in as partners.

And so we put in for it, and damned if we didn't win it, thanks to the tutoring of Steve Carruthers, because that's what his expertise was all about is, is how to go get grants, how to go get contracts, how to write things.

He really educated me, and all of us, uh, in, in that regard.

Well, we won the contract.

Fred Burke didn't like that, and he dubbed me the renegade outfitter, and he, he, uh, protested it.

It, since it was through the Arizona Game and Fish so that the bureau didn't have conflict of interest, they s- put it through the state agency.

Long story short, he protested it.

It went across the desk of the governor, which was Bruce Babbitt, and, uh, they gave it to us again.

And so he protested it again a second time, really, uh, annoyed that a non-outfitter would get work down in Grand Canyon, and he made it very clear.

Well, we won it again, and finally they had to give it to us, and Fred had to shut up.

And we ended up with this 12-trip contract through the Arizona Game and Fish.

Well, a long story short on that, we ended up doing 98 trips.

HSA, uh, Mike Yard, Brian Dierker, Tom Moody being the principals, with everybody that you know was involved, driving boats for us, helping us get ready for contract work.

I mean, it's, it's a long, sordid story, um, the heyday of our beginnings.