Colorado River Delta Region
Featured Video - Delta Water Trust
March 26 - Actor-director Robert Redford, a longtime environmental activist, is hoping his star power will spread the word about the Colorado River system, which conservationists believe is endangered by decades of development and global warming. Redford has teamed with his son Jamie on a new documentary film about the threat. They sat down with Rob Muir in Washington.
Resources - Delta Water Trust
Colorado River Delta Water Trust Report
Delta Plan of Action
Delta Fact Sheet
Conservation Priorities in the Colorado River Delta
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Where We Work Northwest Mexico Delta Water Trust
The Redford Center made WATERSHED as a demonstration of art in action. The film is being used as a social action tool to help restore the river and its connection to the sea.
Here’s what you can do -- and you can find all of the resources to do so on our website at www.watershedmovie.com
1) Host a screening at your home, school, church, community center or local theater. Talk about the film with your community.
2) Keep up with the film and the action via social media. Like the film on www.Facebook.com/WatershedMovie, follow the film on www.Twitter.com/WatershedMovie, and share with your family and friends.
3) Make a personal water conservation pledge of 5% – symbolic of the small amount of the rivers’ flow required to reconnect the river to its delta. Encourage your friends and community to do the same.
4) Make a donation to the Colorado River Delta Water Trust (click the droplet)
Colorado River Delta Water Trust
In 2008, the Sonoran Institute, Pronatura Noroeste, and the Environmental Defense Fund partnered to create and manage the Colorado River Delta Water Trust, a mechanism by which water can be secured and dedicated in perpetuity to the Delta.
The Colorado River Delta Water Trust is Mexico’s first water trust dedicated to acquiring and leasing water for environmental purposes. This Water Trust will play a key role in helping restore the Colorado River Delta, a globally significant environmental resource that is in the process of being brought back to life by a dynamic partnership involving NGOs, scientists, community leaders, and government officials from the United States and Mexico.
The ultimate restoration goal of this partnership — to protect and enhance tens of thousands of acres of vital riparian, wetland, and estuarine habitat — is now within reach. In this process, we are working to scale-up restoration actions and water acquisition, and looking to increase funds available for improvement of the Colorado River Delta.
Find out more about the Institute’s Delta Legacy program, and our efforts in the Delta.
Stay plugged in to our Save the Delta efforts through our Facebook page
How the Water Trust Works
Pronatura Noroeste, the Sonoran Institute, and Environmental Defense Fund are managing the Colorado River Delta Water Trust in Mexico for the purpose of acquiring water and land for the restoration of the Colorado River Delta. The Trust will take advantage of unique provisions of Mexican water law that allows water to be severed from the lands on which it is used, so it can be used elsewhere within the Mexicali Valley. Unlike the provisions that govern the severing and transfer of water rights in the U.S., Mexican water law allows this activity to occur with minimal formalities.
The Trust is controlled by a technical committee composed of representatives of the founding institutions. The technical committee is charged with directing the appropriate application of water held by the Trust to environmental restoration activities in the Delta.
The Trust is initially seeking approximately $2 million to acquire up to 8,000 acre-feet of water.
To learn more about the Water Trust, read our report.
Donate to the Water Trust Today
You can make a tax-deductible donation to our Water Trust today by clicking on the “water drop” below. Thank you in advance for helping us to give life back to the Colorado River Delta.
News & Updates
The Colorado River Delta Blues
March 25, 2012 - River deltas are among the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth, and for millions of years the delta of the Colorado River was no exception. After a 1,450-mile journey from its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains south into Mexico, the Colorado sustained verdant marshes teeming with life before emptying into the aquatic Eden of the upper Gulf of California. Click here to read the LA Times Article.
Watershed Press Release
March 22, 2012 – On the heels of World Water Day (March 22nd), the Redford Center and Kontent Films are pleased to announce the World Premiere of WATERSHED: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital on March 24, 2012 at the National Museum of American History at 3 pm. The film will be introduced by Robert Redford and will be followed by a panel discussion on the urgency of the problem in the Colorado River Basin and what can be done. Click here to read the release.
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