7424

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7424
• Author: National Research Council
• Title: Editor
• USFW Year: Series
• USFW - Doc Type: 1987
• Copyright Material: YES

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Existing Information Not Used In Planning
One feature of early planning that seemed to be
missing was the recognition and use of existing
research on the Colorado River system. For
example, information was available from parallel
studies at the impoundment in Flaming Gorge and its
tailwater fishery that might have led to early
insight about the conceptual scheme for the river
below Lake Powell. An early review of this and
other information about the river in the Grand
Canyon might have Ied researchers to recognize the
need for early planning and the need to understand
the interaction of ecosystem components. This
might have preempted what turned out to be an
over-reliance on the missions of participating
agencies, their budgets, their available "pool" of
researchers, and so on, as the mechanism of
planning that was apparently used by default.
Future investigations should be preceded by
• a review of existing knowledge in the
planning phase, and preparation of a written report
of the review as documentation
Confusion Between Administrative
and Scientific Oversight
There was no clear separation of administrative
and scientific oversight for the GCES project.
Both functions suffered as a result. For example,
the GCES project manager was also one of the
researchers, the contracts manager, and the report
integrator, and was looked to for general oversight
by many of the participant researchers. Although
the GCES project manager was energetic and
enthusiastic about the tasks, the committee
believes that no one person should have been
assigned such diverse responsibilities for research
and management in such a large environmental study.
Furthermore, no senior scientist or group of
experienced science advisors were involved in the