Glenn Canyon Dam during the artificial flood of the Grand Canyon in 1996.
Courtesy Mary Orton.

A photograph taken during the flood of a new sandbar created by the artificial flood in
Grand Canyon in 1996. Courtesy Mary Orton.

This flood was designed to help recreate some of the sandbars and beaches that have been eroded by the water releases from the dam. It was an experiment on a gran scale, to see if the dam could be used to mitigate some of the ecological damage that had been wrought by the dam. A lot was learned as a result of the experiment; however, a lot of the positive impact did not last. The Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program continues to look for ways to use the dam (and other means) to - in the words of the Grand Canyon Protection Act -- protect, mitigate adverse impacts to, and improve the values for which the Park was created.