Industry and agriculture threaten rivers in the East while grazing and mining are killing waterways in the West so the Gila was the most endangered in 2019 because of livestock pollution.
Field surveys in 2022 and 2023 documented open gates, downed fences, unauthorized cattle and extensive damage to the Gila River’s riparian vegetation, where up to 92% of the surveyed critical habitat for the cuckoo and flycatcher was significantly damaged by livestock grazing. The Center filed two notices of intent to sue the agencies following the surveys but grazing continued. Unauthorized grazing and its damage to the protected birds’ habitat violates earlier Endangered Species Act approvals for the seven grazing allotments. In the desert Southwest, livestock grazing harms threatened and endangered wildlife and is the primary driver of riparian ecosystem degradation. [Lawsuit Targets Cattle Grazing Damage to Endangered Wildlife Habitat on Arizona’s Gila River]Earlier this year American Rivers released its annual list of most endangered rivers in the United States naming five at-risk western waterways but isn’t every watershed in the Mountain West threatened, if not endangered?
Tribal nations including the Gila River Indian Community will receive part of $233 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act to restore 600,000 acre feet of their allotment of the lower Colorado River stolen through colonization.