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resident Spaniards (Crowe and Brinkeroff 1976). The first Anglo-Americans to reach the lower Colorado River were the fur trappers, who illegally used the river after the territory was added to Mexico in 1823. The Mexican-American War resulted in the acquisition of the lower Colorado River region by the United States Government in 1848. The Gadsden Purchase, in 1852-1854, added to the United States the territory south of the Gila River and completed the present-day international boundary with Mexico. The next 20 years brought various members of the U.S. "Army of the West" to visit and describe the Colorado River. Several of these explorers greatly contributed to our historical knowledge of both plant and animal life, including Bartlett (1854), Emory (1848; Calvin 1951), Whipple (1856; Foreman 1941), and Ives (1861). People were drawn to the river with the discovery of placer gold in 1862. The resultant increase in steamboat traffic placed great demands on cot- tonwood and willow trees for fuel. Steamboat use flourished until about 1890, after which the demand for wood decreased. By this time, almost all mature cottonwoods along the lower Colorado River had been eliminated, but large-scale natural regeneration of these groves continued after each annual flood. John Wesley Powell was the first Anglo-American to describe both the natural beauty and potential for development of the Colorado River basin to the American public. Powell's role in history is quite ironic in that he was both a forerun- ner for the environmental movement as well as for the forces for water development. Powel Its expedition through the Grand Canyon in 1869, along with his other explorations in the West, made him uniquely qualified to set policy for the future develop- ment of the region. He understood the natural limits to development and proceeded with a conservative plan to methodically determine reservoir sites based on the system's capacity. Un- fortunately, Powell's approach came at odds with the Western political es- tablishment that wanted development based on projected needs, which far outdistanced projected supply. Powell resigned as Director of the U.S. Geo- logical Survey and his duties for directing water development were housed soon afterwards in the new Reclamation Service, which was more susceptible to influence from Western politicians (Stegner 1953; Fradkin 1981; Reisner 1986). By the early 1900's, agricultural activities were booming along the lower Colorado River and in Imperial Valley, CA. However, annual flooding events, especially the disastrous floods of 1905 and 1907 that filled the Salton Sea, devastated farming efforts. The Reclamation Act was passed by Congress in 1902. The 1905 floods further generated public pres- sure on the Federal Government to control the river for human use. Water users wanted the Reclamation Service (presently the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) to assume responsibility for developing the river for power generation, water storage, and flood control. All of these needs could be met by a single solution: damming the Colorado River. Laguna Dam, constructed in 1907, was the first water-management struc- ture. When another large flood oc- curred in 1922, Colorado River users and their representatives pressured Washington decisionmakers into author- izing Hoover Dam. When Hoover Dam was completed in 1935, the stage was set for other river management activities. A series of lesser dams followed, with 16