Environmental Issues: The Colorado River

The State of the River in the Grand Canyon and what Can Be Done

I’m going to start what should be a series on ‘Environmental Issues’. I know it will piss some people off, it might make some happy and it’s a thing I am compelled to write.

I’m going to start pretty darn close to home and try to limit my writing to what I know and have seen myself. That may or may not work out as planned. The Colorado River.

You see, I am one of the 40 million people that rely on the Colorado for personal use water. Bathing, drinking, cooking. The river is under siege and is so balanced on the precipice of catastrophe that it genuinely could go either way.

photo courtesy of the author

The river stretches 1450 miles (2330 km) from it’s rise high up in the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California. It is one of the most highly apportioned rivers in the word (practically every drop is allocated) and for all it’s usage, one of the wildest rivers in North America.

The river can be roughly divided into three segments. Upper, middle and lower. All three segments have relatively unique environmental challenges and successes. For almost it’s entire length the river flows through some of the least populated spaces on earth. The only real city on the entire length is on the lower part where I live in Yuma, Arizona. The reason is simple: The land the river flows through is just plain not very hospitable.

photo courtesy of the author

I’m going to actually start this series in the middle: The Grand Canyon. It is quite probably the most known bit of river in the world. Something over 6 million people visit the National Park each year. It is one of the seven natural wonders of the world for good reason. Mere words or photographs can not describe the place, it needs to be seen and felt.

photo courtesy of the author

The Grand Canyon, for all it’s popularity is a very wild place. According to National Geographic (who tracks such things) more people have stood on the moon than have packed the entire length of the Canyon in one session. That total is now 10 after the first one did so in the 70s. It’s an incredibly brutal journey, takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 miles of actual walking and includes necessary climbing skills. Possibly as many as 200 people have made the trip in segments over the course of time. That is not very many eyeballs in vast sections of the park.

^Source

The Grand Canyon is at risk. In many ways and from many directions. But this will not be a series of ‘slams’ and gloom and doom. There are reasons to worry, and the Canyon desperately needs to be watched over, but there are successes here and I’ll highlight some of them, too. I’m not going to be a spoiler on what’s coming but the above photo might give you a clue. There are others.

I hope to get one post in the series out per week. I very much appreciate your time and consideration for this.

All words in this post are mine. The photographs are either sourced properly or taken by me and used courtesy of the author.

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