Jennifer Pitt

Ecological restoration is an essential strategy for mitigating the current biodiversity crisis, yet restoration actions are costly. We used systematic conservation planning principles to design an approach that prioritizes restoration sites for birds and tested it in a riparian forest restoration program in the Colorado River Delta. Restoration goa...

Historically, the Colorado River Delta was a biologically rich floodplain built on sediments over millions of years as the river slowed before draining into the Gulf of California. Today, after more than a century of dams, diversions, and development, the 3,000-square-mile ecosystem is effectively missing. Thousands of acres of irrigated farmland s...

Environmental flows have become important tools for restoring rivers and associated riparian ecosystems (Arthington, 2012; Glenn et al., 2017). In March 2014, the United States and Mexico initiated a bold effort in restoration, delivering from Morelos Dam a “pulse flow” of water into the Colorado River in its delta for the purpose of learning about...

The Cienega de Santa Clara in the Colorado River Delta, Mexico is a self-designed wetland system fed since 1977 by brackish groundwater diverted from the U.S. to Mexico. The vegetated upper portion of the Cienega provides habitat for endangered Yuma-Clappers rails and other marsh birds and fulfills other ecological functions. Outflow water pools in...

The delta of the Colorado River in Mexico supports about a million hectares of riparian, marsh and estuarine habitats of international importance. Some of these habitats depend on flows of fresh and brackish water from the U.S. and Mexico. Up to now, these flows were the incidental result of water management actions taken to provide water for agric...

The Colorado River basin in the U.S. and Mexico is vital to both the ecology and economy of western North America. The river provides water to over 30 million people and to irrigate between 1.2 and 1.6 million hectares of agricultural land. A vast effort has been conducted to control, store and divert the river flows, and now the total storage capa...

Arid zone rivers have highly variable flow rates, and flood control projects are needed to protect adjacent property from flood damage. On the other hand, riparian corridors provide important wildlife habitat, especially for birds, and riparian vegetation is adapted to the natural variability in flows on these rivers. While environmental and flood...

The ongoing debate over the management, protection, and restoration of the Colorado River Delta near the U.S.-Mexico border can be informed by quantifying the effects of restoring flows to the Delta. The once-vibrant Colorado River Delta was nearly decimated by the construction of dams and diversions in the United States and Mexico. However, flood...

This report provides a comprehensive description of the results from the “Mapping Conservation Priorities in the Colorado River Delta: A State-of-Knowledge Workshop,” held in October 2002. The workshop was designed to produce results that will help guide conservation programs and projects for the next two decades in the Colorado River Delta and Upp...

The Colorado River delta in Mexico merits conservation due to the value of its habitat and wildlife resources. Colorado River water sustains the delta's current extent of 60,000 ha but the instream flow is not protected. Analysis of Colorado River water use by different sectors of the United States and Mexican economies demonstrates that agricultur...

The Colorado River delta historically consisted of riparian, freshwater, brackish, and tidal wetlands that covered 1,930,000 acres and supported a legendary richness of plant, bird, and marine life. Dam construction and water diversions in the United States and Mexico in the twentieth century reduced the Delta to small areas of wetlands and brackis...

Resumen La cuenca del río Colorado en Estados Unidos y México es vital para la ecología y la economía del oeste de Norteamérica. El río provee agua para más de 30 millones de personas y para la irrigación de entre 1.2 y 1.6 millones de hectáreas de terrenos agrícolas. Se han realizado grandes esfuerzos en la cuenca para controlar, almacenar y deriv...