Commentary: Defunding science for the Colorado River has consequences

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Looking south beyond the Colorado River, is the northern most boundary of the proposed Bears Ears region in southeastern Utah, which is subject to a possible National Monument designation by President Obama under the Antiquities Act for protection. EcoFlight recently flew journalists, tribal people and activists over the northern portion of the proposed 1.9 million acre site in an effort to push for permanent protection from impacts caused by resource extraction and high-impact public use. I once held a Colorado Pikeminnow in my hands. It was freshly caught by biologists who were searching for this species of fish in the silt-laden Colorado River. Water dripped off the fish’s silver scales as it moved back and forth in my hands, trying to free itself. I stared down at it, remembering that less than a hundred years ago this fish species had been six feet in length with a powerful body that propelled it hundreds of miles down the Colorado River to the Gulf of California and, incredibly, back again. The squirming fish in my hands was less than a foot long, but that it was here, in southern Utah's Cataract Canyon, despite tremendous ecological changes to the Colorado River over the last hundred years, was no less incredible.

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