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RESTORATION CHALLENGES AND SUCCESSES IN MEXICO: PLANNING, PARTNERSHIPS, AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT In the last two decades, efforts to understand the impacts of Colorado River water management on the natural habitat in the Colorado River Delta have revealed significant restoration opportunities. Although less than 10% of original wetland area and less than 5% of cottonwood and willow forest remain in the Delta, small-scale restoration projects have been underway since 2002 to protect and enhance riparian and marsh habitat. However, scaling-up restoration efforts and securing water for instream flows in the Delta have proven to be politically challenging due to the Colorado River’s transboundary nature. Restoration...
The Science and Policy of the First Environmental Flows to the Colorado River Delta The first transboundary flow of water for the environment was delivered to the Colorado River Delta in spring of 2014. This engineered mini-spring flood of 130 million cubic meters (105,000 acre-feet) was implemented as part of Minute 319, an addition to the 1944 U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty. Minute 319 is a temporary agreement, expiring in 2017. Teams of scientists from government agencies, universities, and environmental NGOs from both the U.S. and Mexico are measuring the surface flow rates, inundation, ground water recharge, ground water levels and subsurface flows, geomorphic change, recruitment, survival and health of vegetation,...
A LANDSCAPE-SCALE RESTORATION EXPERIMENT: THE 2014 SPRING FLOOD FLOW RELEASE TO THE COLORADO RIVER DELTA, MEXICO The Colorado River delta was once a several-million acre expanse of marsh wetlands, riparian forest, and estuarine habitat located near the river’s mouth in Northwest Mexico (Glenn et al. 2001). However, the diversion of Colorado River water for human use in the arid western U.S. and northwestern Mexico resulted in the gradual drying of the delta with a subsequent loss of over 90% of original habitat (Glenn et al. 2001). Very little water has reached the delta since the era of dam construction on the Colorado River (Nagler et al. 2005), and the highly altered hydrologic regime and influx of invasive...