Day 17 in the year 2009, starship Cessna 1XE embarks on an EcoFlight
supporting friends working on a National Geographic Project. This
project is ambitious in scope and prophetic concerning the West's most
precious resource...water. Many conservation minded sponsors such as
the Sonoran Institute are anxiously awaiting the proposed books from
this project outlining the challenges to the main artery of the water
system of the West, a river known as the American Nile-if only because
it is the most litigated and diverted waterway in the world.
Jon
Waterman, award-winning author of nine books, set out to Kayak the
entire Colorado River in summer of 2008 and just recently completed
this historic trip. On the way he passed thirteen dams, countless
diversions, and studied issues such as pine beetle infestation, exotic
fish and plant invasions, endangered species, water shortages, polluted
water, agriculture and metropolitan water needs. He also conducted
countless interviews related to the ongoing drought and changing
climate. The information and insights he is bringing back are much
awaited as we face the concerns and problems of water in the West in
coming decades-predicted to be as great a crisis here as the rising
oceans will be upon the coastal regions.
Pete McBride, award
winning photographer from National Geographic was aboard as we flew our
ship low and slow over many of the features of the waterway called the
mighty Colorado River that runs 1,450 miles, starting at over 10,000
feet from Poudre Pass in Rocky Mountain National Park and exiting our
"planet" just before making it to the Sea of Cortez in the Colorado
Delta. A majestic journey influenced by climate and most of all
humans. Look for these exciting books and associated articles with
images taken from our Ecoflight "star ship." A short television film
about the project will appear on PBS "Wild Chronicles" the week of
April 27, 2009. The rest of Pete and Jon's media will be released in
spring and summer of 2010.
The Captain's Log is located on our website and will be sent to fellow voyagers to fill you in on some of our exciting missions.
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