Restoring hope amid ecological collapse
With an annual average precipitation of just 10.3 inches, Nevada is the driest state in the nation. That makes it challenging for water managers to monitor, restore and protect the state’s waterways for agricultural and industrial use, while still maintaining enough for recreation and ecological protection. … Over the last century, the Walker River Basin has gone from a healthy ecosystem that supported many agricultural and economic activities to total ecological collapse. “To put it real succinctly, upstream diversion has lowered the flows of the river entering Walker Lake, and as the flows have gone down, the lake level has subsided. The water evaporates out of the lake, but the salt does not evaporate out of the lake, and because of that, the salinity has increased over time,” said Peter Stanton, CEO of the Walker Basin Conservancy, a nonprofit organization working to repair and restore the area. While it sounds dire, Walker Lake is recovering, thanks in large part to the work of Stanton and his team.