** In Arizona, water management falls short
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Monday, December 9, 2019
San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, City of Sierra Vista ([link removed])

In Arizona, development, in addition to drought and climate change, threatens ([link removed]) fragile water resources. The San Pedro River in the southeastern part of the state is an imperative part of the area's ecosystem and home to a wide variety of wildlife. However, flaws in the way water is managed have led to the river's decline. Although the river is fed primarily by groundwater, Arizona's laws do not require ([link removed]) considering the river when building new wells. As a result, wells in the area have doubled since 1987 to nearly 9,000, causing decreased river levels and intermittent flows.

Arizona's primary source of water, the Colorado River, has experienced similar problems throughout the past decades. Even without the exacerbating effects of drought and climate change, water managers acknowledge that increasing demand alone would be a significant problem ([link removed]) for the Colorado River. Overuse has caused reservoirs to drop, but users continue to demand as much as ever. Eric Kuhn and John Fleck point out that ([link removed]) "the original founding documents of the river’s management were seen to create a promise of water, and few were willing to question whether the Colorado River could deliver." Now, that question is imperative to ensure that water is available into the future.
Quick hits


** Big money is building a new kind of national park in the Great Plains
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National Public Radio ([link removed])


** One of Arizona's most precious rivers threatened by hundreds of new wells
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Arizona Republic ([link removed])


** How ignoring inconvenient science drained the Colorado River
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Tuscon Weekly ([link removed])


** A Colorado valley built a post-coal economy—now the BLM is pushing drilling
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Bitterroot Magazine ([link removed])


** Natural gas replaces coal as top emitter in U.S.
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E&E News ([link removed])


** NEPA transformed federal land management—and has fallen short
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High Country News ([link removed])


** National Park Service wants to expand access to closed-off lands
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Backpacker Magazine ([link removed])


** Opinion: The border wall is rising up across our national parks
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New York Times ([link removed])
Quote of the day
If national parks are 'America’s best idea,' then building walls across them surely counts among our very worst. There is, quite simply, no way to safeguard borderland wilderness while building a wall across it.”
—Francisco Cantú, New York Times ([link removed])
Picture this


** @Interior ([link removed])
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A sunrise that dreams are made of
@CraterLakeNPS ([link removed]) . Photo courtesy of Nathan Hall #FindYourPark ([link removed]) #Oregon ([link removed])

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