Why
pay attention to
the end of the line?
Ejido
Pachuca, Mexico. The Colorado River is finally swallowed by the
sands.
Courtesy of the photographer, Jim Richardson
When
Aldo Leopold explored the vast delta in the early 1900s he wrote,
ìFor the last word in procrastination, go travel with a river
reluctant to lose his freedom in the sea.î But upon construction
of 20 dams and 80 diversions upstream, river flows to the delta
have been reduced nearly 75 percent during the 20th century.
Consequently there is less silt, fewer nutrients, higher salinity,
and higher concentrations of pollutants. Today less than five
percent of the historic ecosystem remains. Still, the delta
is the largest remaining wetland system in the American southwest.
Daughters
and Sons of Ejido Johnson, Cienega de Santa Clara. Photograph by
Josh Schachter. Courtesy of Sonoran Institute.
|
What is
one nationís responsibility to its neighbors?
José
Campoy making presentation at El Golfo de Santa Clara. Campoy is
director of the Reserva de La Biosfera Del Alto Golfo de California
y Delta Del Rio and works to protect endangered species and fishing
communities of the delta.
The
historic Colorado Delta was a 3,000 mile ecosystem, home to the Cocapa,
the ìpeople of the river,î and other bands of Indians including the
Hwanyak and Mat Skrui that cultivated saltgrass (a wild grain), corns,
beans, and squash.
A
canoeing trip at Ciénega de Santa Clara, 2000. Courtesy
of Sonoran Institute.
If
we have exhausted the water supply via river rights before the
riverís end, are we obligated to forego uses upstream to enable
the river to reach the sea?
Two
nations share the Colorado, which continues to be the lifeline
for small but important fishing communities. They also share the
fate of endangered species in the delta such as the desert pupfish,
the Yuma clapper rail, the bobcat, vaquita, porpoise, totoaba,
and great blue heron. The delta is at the center of intense political,
economic, and legal tug-of-wars that will determine the nature,
water, culture, and livelihood of its future.
|
