my work is really around a campaign
called changed the course which is about
getting the public engaged in fresh
water conservation and beginning to
figure out how we can restore flows
water to depleted rivers and wetlands
and freshwater ecosystems we’re piloting
this in the Colorado River Basin which
is one of the most water stressed river
basins in North America one of the most
exciting moments of my life
professionally has been bringing the
Colorado River back to the sea which
happened for the first time in many many
years last year I first went to the
Delta in 1996 and what you see there
except for a few patches is a very
desiccated place you know and I had read
about the Delta before all the dams and
diversions how it was this incredibly
beautiful lush vibrant alive ecosystem
with all the damming and diverting of
the water upstream that Delta had just
dried up thanks to so much hard work by
conservation groups and officials on
both sides of the border this agreement
was signed a couple years ago saying
we’re going to give some water back to
the Delta and it’s a very small amount
but last spring on March 23rd the gates
at Morelos Dam the last Dam on the
Colorado River went up and for the first
time in many years water began to flow
through the channel of the Colorado
River back toward the sea and just a
tiny bit of water actually reached the
sea but it was such a symbolic very
important event to have a river actually
meet the sea again if a river is born
with the Destiny it’s to reach the sea
and the Colorado hasn’t been able to
realize its destiny in most years for a
long long time it just blew me away
because you would try to find where the
leading edge of the river was going to
be on a given morning and you’d look up
and almost like a mirage you know you
would see the river start to come
towards you and all of a sudden your
feet are getting wet and all of a sudden
the channel is filling and it was just
amazing to see here we are in this town
called san luis rio colorado and there
were little kids swimming and playing
and these kids had never seen the river
that had given their town its name and
then just on the science I just watching
life come back you know you can see
these micro crustacean
called copepods that had been dormant in
the sands of the channel for a decade or
more and then with the water they come
back to life nature is very resilient if
we can add some water back life will
come back to me that’s one of the most
inspiring things about this is that it
looks like we’ve dammed and diverted the
river is no more the Delta has dried up
but in fact if we choose to we can begin
to bring these ecosystems back
called changed the course which is about
getting the public engaged in fresh
water conservation and beginning to
figure out how we can restore flows
water to depleted rivers and wetlands
and freshwater ecosystems we’re piloting
this in the Colorado River Basin which
is one of the most water stressed river
basins in North America one of the most
exciting moments of my life
professionally has been bringing the
Colorado River back to the sea which
happened for the first time in many many
years last year I first went to the
Delta in 1996 and what you see there
except for a few patches is a very
desiccated place you know and I had read
about the Delta before all the dams and
diversions how it was this incredibly
beautiful lush vibrant alive ecosystem
with all the damming and diverting of
the water upstream that Delta had just
dried up thanks to so much hard work by
conservation groups and officials on
both sides of the border this agreement
was signed a couple years ago saying
we’re going to give some water back to
the Delta and it’s a very small amount
but last spring on March 23rd the gates
at Morelos Dam the last Dam on the
Colorado River went up and for the first
time in many years water began to flow
through the channel of the Colorado
River back toward the sea and just a
tiny bit of water actually reached the
sea but it was such a symbolic very
important event to have a river actually
meet the sea again if a river is born
with the Destiny it’s to reach the sea
and the Colorado hasn’t been able to
realize its destiny in most years for a
long long time it just blew me away
because you would try to find where the
leading edge of the river was going to
be on a given morning and you’d look up
and almost like a mirage you know you
would see the river start to come
towards you and all of a sudden your
feet are getting wet and all of a sudden
the channel is filling and it was just
amazing to see here we are in this town
called san luis rio colorado and there
were little kids swimming and playing
and these kids had never seen the river
that had given their town its name and
then just on the science I just watching
life come back you know you can see
these micro crustacean
called copepods that had been dormant in
the sands of the channel for a decade or
more and then with the water they come
back to life nature is very resilient if
we can add some water back life will
come back to me that’s one of the most
inspiring things about this is that it
looks like we’ve dammed and diverted the
river is no more the Delta has dried up
but in fact if we choose to we can begin
to bring these ecosystems back
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