Grand Canyon “flooded”

Monday, 24 Nov, 2004 0

Tourists have been warned to avoid visiting the bottom of the Grand Canyon because of a massive three-day flooding operation designed to save fish and plants in the massive gorge.

According to The Independent newspaper, plant and animal species have been disappearing over the last 40 years since the Glen Canyon dam was built in 1963.

Four out of eight native fish species have become extinct during that period, the newspaper states.

The dam reportedly traps sediment that would have been carried into the canyon by the Colorado river, meaning that “river banks have been eroded and those that remain are choked with non-native vegetation”.

Now, over the next four days, some 800,000 tonnes of sediment are to be stirred up by the man-made flood, which will flow at the scarcely-believable rate of 41,000 cubic feet per second.

A spokesman for the Geological Survey is quoted as saying: “The ecosystem has been compromised by the dam and this is an effort to mimic what nature doesn’t have a chance to do. This is an experiment and if it works out we are likely to consider more releases over the next 18 months. This is just the start.”

Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd



 



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