Work under way to save life on Colorado River

Friday, June 18, 1999 | 6:14 a.m.

Major projects are under way to protect plants and animals as Southern Nevada continues gobbling up water and land to accommodate its rapid growth.

By the middle of next year, a draft environmental impact statement will be released to show how 100 species along the Lower Colorado River from the Utah-Arizona border to the Mexican border will be protected.

By 2002 a 50-year preservation plan is expected. Government agencies, Indian tribes, utilities, environmentalists and others hope to begin restoring cottonwood and willow forests, marshes and wetlands to encourage native species such as the razorback sucker and the humpback chub to spawn and thrive along a river crowded by mankind.

Since April 1997 federal, state and local agencies have signed 43 agreements to gather information along the historic flood plain of this section of the Colorado River, where scientists hope to restore habitat.

For example, the Hualapai Indian tribe in Arizona was hired by the Bureau of Reclamation to study how people rafting in areas populated by the Southwest willow flycatcher affect the endangered bird. When the river runs high, rafters can't get into the habitat. But with a drop in the Colorado's level this year, people are rowing right up into the bird's backyard, bureau biologist Michael Walker said.

There are about 100 nesting pairs of willow flycatchers along the portion of the river under study, Walker said.

Water is key to the effort to save habitat, Walker said. The Colorado River's level can be controlled through Hoover and Glen Canyon dams. That is important when scientists try to restore habitat for fish or birds that mate along the shore.

There are three main goals for the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program, said David Curtis of the Bureau of Reclamation.

The goals include include habitat conservation and recovery of threatened species, preserving current water diversions and power production to optimize future needs and complying with both federal and California endangered species requirements while still allowing for some reduction of animals and plants.

The Colorado River supplies drinking water to 23 million people in Nevada, Arizona and California, as well as hydroelectric power from the dams. In addition, the dams create man-made lakes such as Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which offer boating, fishing and swimming. Those human activities can put extra stress on wildlife, Curtis said.

The bureau is the leading federal agency for drawing up the draft environmental impact statement while the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is the leading agency for the state of California.

By 2002 the bureau plans to have 1,400 acres protected as habitat along the lower Colorado.

George Cohn, executive director of the Colorado River Commission of Nevada, is enthusiastic about the conservation program's direction.

"For those people who think the Southwest doesn't have an environmental ethic, Las Vegas is a perfect example of how to do it," Cohn said. "It's not just lip service. People are putting their money and time into it."

Not all those attending a meeting about the plan at the Henderson Convention Center on Thursday night were quite so enthusiastic.

Jessica Hodge of Citizen Alert, a statewide environmental watchdog group, wondered how much more water could sprawling Southwestern cities draw from the river before the diversions destroy the wild places.

"How much more can we divert and take from the system?" Hodge asked.

Clark County has already found out how quickly a native species can impact the environment and growth. When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Mojave Desert tortoise as endangered under an emergency order in 1992, the federal action could have stopped growth in its tracks.

Instead, the county went to work organizing interest groups and individuals to protect about 80 species of plants and animals.

The County Commission adopted a draft habitat conservation plan just this week that will cost more than $2 million a year to protect the plants and animals, but will still accomodate growth. The latest plan strengthens early 1990s protection policies without disrupting development.

The challenge was thinking about it and doing something about it before it becomes a catastrophe, said Alan Pinkerton, the county's assistant planning manager for natural resources.

"How would the community look today if it had started doing this 20 years ago?" Pinkerton said.

What the county is doing on a small scale ties into what the three Southwestern states are doing along the Colorado River, Pinkerton said. But the work to save species and allow growth is complex, expensive and time-consuming.

"Is it easier?" Pinkerton said. "Hell, no.

"Is it more efficient? No."

In the end, however, the benefits from the two preservation efforts may allow people, plants and wildlife to prosper.