Colorado River Environmental Damage

at the southeast corner of california along the arizona border a small podiums around was a kind of very of than conventional weapons but philip alston middleton and fisheries biologist jill milosevic says calls to parents who feel spiritual of the marcoses first time for example in tripoli is possible to take a loss and it says this is a good way for the california department of fish and game to get a handle on the number and kinds of fish in the colorado river and sure enough it's not long before he and colleague chris harris shop a two foot long six counties our memory but maybe when oregon for all that that's what people cared for large mouth bass

needed to the mississippi not the colorado river within the hour milosevic and here is also spoof of a blue pill or reading your incentive and a large part of that they don't know any indigenous fish harris says that's because the only native left in this part of the river the razorbacks out their lives on the bottom and is in danger ninety five percent or more of the biomass all the lights with and more colorado river's non native fish that typically prey on the three remaining vision that all the life stages most of the non natives were introduced more than a century ago because they were popular with fishermen and they've benefited from changes people upgrade to the river that colorado needs to be a dynamic and often turbulent river it raced across the landscape ripping up the earth and frequently overflowing its banks as a result it was a muddy river named colorado because of the red brown color today backed up behind a series of dams the river looks lazy and it's artificial lakes are clear july

there's no longer a lot of sediment moving through the system and this has allowed the proliferation of the non native the site predator fish that were introduced in the system they fade by seeing their prey swimming by harris's program manager of california's colorado river board a coalition of water power and wildlife agencies the river board is proposing to raise half a million razorbacks suckers and another native fish called ponytail in hatcheries and pour them into the river it's one part of a six hundred and twenty million dollar plan called the lower colorado river multi species conservation program or msc p the naacp is an effort by california arizona nevada indian tribes and the federal government to protect endangered species over the next fifty years environmental groups say they're glad to see the lower colorado river finally get attention they don't think the program goes far enough karen gillan is with defenders of wildlife what we have in the e m s e p is very little work towards recovery is feces and

much more simple mitigation of impacts that we've already had and continue to have on these fish and wildlife feces there are i think right now approximately twenty five or so non native fish and there's no attempts in the msc p really to deal with how we manage those non native fish the california colorado river board says the msc p by itself isn't supposed to fully recover endangered fish that he can do a lot to help them the program also seeks to help twenty six other species that are rare or of special concern here to settle a national wildlife refuge on the arizona side a delicate hint do you do low fines over silhouetted black mountains just before sunrise joe hall with the us bureau of reclamation uses a crochet needle to disentangle an iridescent blue bird from a fine mesh net thank you the blue

throws around one of its leading ladies is that illuminating than it helps violent fight and frantic movement shoop shoop shoop the bureau is studying the abundance and kinds of birds in this forest of cottonwoods and willow trees they planted ten acres four years ago and irrigate them in a manner that simulates flooding biologist john sweats as cottonwoods along the river have suffered from a drop in the water table and a lack of floods what they require is bare minerals oil saturated their minerals oil so when their seed vault lands on the top of it they're able to put their roots down in that wet soil disturbance that's what the maltese the zoo's conservation program seeks to restore cottonwoods and willows and other trees to more than seven thousand acres sweat said that should help endangered

birds like the southwestern willow flycatcher unlike prevent other animals from becoming endangered native habitat restoration of the river for many years yeah mississippi is their chance to be evidence of large scale operations but when and how much of the multi species conservation program goes forward is unclear it faces some big hurdles like who will foot the six hundred and twenty million dollar bill the states want the federal government to pay half of that and other details haven't been decided yet from the colorado river bill says that feel a nine point three see she usually are