The Magazine of The Sierra Club
This Is What the Colorado River Looks Like by the Time It Reaches Mexico
Hint: It's not a pretty picture
The Colorado River Delta, Mexico, 2009 | Photo by Peter McBride
This Is What the Colorado River Looks Like by the Time It Reaches Mexico
Hint: It's not a pretty picture.
The Colorado River Delta in Mexico was once the largest desert estuary in North America. During a 1920s canoe trip to the area, the ecologist Aldo Leopold found waters of "a deep emerald blue," "a verdant wall of mesquite and willow," and thousands of birds, including "fleets of cormorants." Today, unsustainable water withdrawals in the United States have left the riverbed a parched landscape. Most years, the Colorado never reaches the sea.
This article appeared in the July/August 2018 edition with the headline "Not a Drop to Drink."
