If you're planning on rafting through the Grand Canyon for spring break, you might want to check your travel dates with the Department of the Interior -- it could end up being a pretty wild ride. That's because river authorities are planning a man-made flood for sometime in March. The wall of water will be released from the Glen Canyon dam, raising the flow by 41,000 cubic feet per second -- that's 5 times the normal rate -- for 3 days.The idea is to simulate a flood, flushing out non-native fish while reshaping beaches with the abundance of new silt flowing through. Native fish like the humpback chub rely on the beaches for breeding grounds, beaches that have been constantly eroding since the Glen Canyon Dam was built in 1963. It seems counter-intuitive, but the rush of water released from the dam will actually restore beaches, not wash them away.
Environmental groups argue that this kind of flooding exercise should be done regularly to help maintain the beaches. After all, the Grand Canyon was once a warm and muddy stretch of the Colorado River, prone to erratic flooding. Now it's more like a regulated pipeline -- a pipeline that you can raft down.
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