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<br />ECOLOGY LAW QUARTERLY
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<br />[Vol. 28:903
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<br />them all, and so did we. He divided and rejoined, he twisted
<br />and tumed, he meandered in awesome jungles, he all but ran
<br />in circles, he dallied with lovely groves . . . the still waters
<br />were of a deep emerald hue. . . a verdant wall of mesquite
<br />and willow separated the channel, from the thomy desert
<br />beyond. At each bend we saw egrets standing in the pools
<br />ahead . . . Fleets of cormorants drove their black prows in
<br />quest of skittering mullets: avocets. willets, and yellowlegs
<br />dozed one-legged on the bars; mallards, widgeons, and teal
<br />sprang skyward... 'Often we came upon a bobcat...
<br />Families of raccoons waded the shallows. . . Coyotes watched
<br />us. . . At every shallow ford were tracks of burro deer. 5
<br />Each year, millions of acre-feet6 of Colorado River water
<br />laden with fertile silts and nutrients flowed into the Delta,
<br />supporting a thriving ecosystem that supported countless
<br />species of birds, animals, and plants, and a prodigious fishery in
<br />the Sea of Cortes.7 In turn, this natural wealth sustained a rich
<br />and diverse indigenous culture based on fishing, harvesting, and
<br />small-scale irrigated farming. 8
<br />Thirteen years after Leopold's visit, Hoover Dam closed its
<br />gates, severely restricting the supply of water to the Delta
<br />region.9 Morelos Dam, completed in 1950, cut the flows further.lO
<br />After the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1964, virtually no
<br />water reached the DeltaYWithout water, periodic flooding, and
<br />silt, the Delta ecosystem was violently transformed. Its extensive
<br />wetlands, which mice covered nearly 1.8 million acres, were
<br />reduced to perhaps 40,000 acres,12 devastating Gulf fisheries,
<br />wildlife populations, and Delta communities. 13
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<br />5. ALDo LEOPOLD, A SAND COUNTI ALMANAc 142-143 (1948).
<br />6. An "acre-foot" is the volume .of water required to cover one acre of land to a
<br />depth of one foot, or 325.851 gallons. We will abbreviate "acre-foot" as "af," and a
<br />million acre feet as "maf." '
<br />7. See generally Micha Kowalewski et al., Dead delta's former productivity: livo
<br />trillion shells at the mouth of the Colorado River, 20 GEOLOGY 1059 (2000); Carlie A.
<br />Rodriguez et al., Macrofaunal and isotopic estimates of the former extent of the
<br />Colorado River estuary. upper Gulf of California, Mexico. 49 J. OF ARID ENV'TS 183
<br />(2001).
<br />8. See generally Jim Carrier, The Colorado: A River Drained Dry, NATIONAL
<br />GEOGRAPHiC, June 1991. at 4.
<br />9. PHILiP L. FRADKIN. A RIvER No MORE: THE COLORADO RIvER AND TIlE WEST 321
<br />(1981).
<br />10. See id.
<br />11. Mark K. Briggs & Steve Comelius, Opportunities for Ecological Improvement
<br />Along the Lower Colorado River and Delta, 18 WETLANDS 513. 515 (1998).
<br />12. See Sue McClurg, Cutting Colorado River Use: The California Plan, WESTERN
<br />WATER, Nov,fDec. 1998, at 12.
<br />13. See Briggs & Comelius, supra note 11. at 515 (1998).
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