At the End of the Line: Restoring Yuma East Wetlands, Arizona

摘要

The lower Colorado River once supported more than 400,000 haof native riparian, wetland aquatic,and intertidal habitat from whatis now Hoover Dam to the Sea ofCortez. This included vast cotton-wood and willow gallery forests, mes-quite bosques, wetlands, intertidal saltflats, lakes, and channels that stretchedas wide as 24 km across during floodstage. The Colorado River salmon,river otters, the Yuma puma, eagles,and an abundance of birds that elderssay used to "darken the sky" thrived inthis ecosystem. The Mojave, Cheme-huevi, and Cocopah peoples' liveli-hoods were derived from the river, andtribal elders speak of the river creatingits own climate due to the enormity ofthe forests and wetlands it supported.