“And deep in the Grickle-grass, some people say, if you look deep enough you can still see, today, where the Lorax once stood just as long as it could before somebody lifted the Lorax away.”

Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel’s classic and poetic tale, “The Lorax” chronicled the plight of the environment and its eventual decay due to modern urbanization. The Once-ler, a greedy character representing big industry with little ecological concerns, ignores the Lorax’s warning of impending environmental doom as he turns truffula trees into thneeds—”for a thneed after all is a thing that everyone needs!”

Dr. Seuss wrote this parable of modern industry’s destruction to nature more than 30 years ago. What the Lorax needed is similar to what has been put in place today along the Arizona-California-Nevada border—a plan called the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program.

Since 1996, the federal Bureau of Reclamation along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has joined with other federal, water, power and wildlife agencies in Arizona, California and Nevada, to develop a long-term endangered species compliance and conservation program along a portion of the Lower Colorado River that borders all three states. Native American tribes, as well as environmental and recreational interests, have also been actively involved.

“The program is a long-term 50-year plan created to conserve at least 26 (sensitive) species and protect the wildlife habitat along the Lower Colorado from Lake Mead to the southern international boundary of Mexico,” said Bureau spokesperson Lorri Gray, who managed the program before being named Regional Director in Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Region.

Williams Preserve, Calif.

The Bureau of Reclamation manages the program. Its responsibility includes developing the native habitats for the protected species, and for the biological research and monitoring of the environmental conditions on the Lower Colorado River.

The multi-species program creates 8,132 acres of new habitats, including the establishment of mesquite woodlands and cottonwood-willow riparian zones for birds and animals, along with the formation of marsh and backwater areas to augment the existing population of endangered razorback sucker and bonytail fish.

Metropolitan is one of 11 California water and power users that are involved in the MSCP and together provide one-quarter of the program’s $626 million cost, said Joe Vanderhorst, senior deputy general counsel for Metropolitan Water District.
Metropolitan was instrumental in working with water and power agencies and the Bureau to develop the multi-species effort. Nearly 10 years of planning, scientific research and public involvement culminated in the approval of the program in April 2005, he said.

Still in its early stages, the conservation plan is currently focused on efforts to build hatcheries to raise native fish and in researching the various native vegetation appropriate for the area.

The program’s primary goal is to restore thousands of acres of riparian habitat that is able to support new breeding centers for species such as the southwestern willow flycatcher, western yellow-billed cuckoo and other riparian-associated wildlife.

“This multi-species program provides endangered species coverage for our Colorado River operations and is therefore very important to us,” said MWD’s Roger Patterson, Assistant General Manager/Strategic Water Initiatives.
Currently, 55 acres of backwater pond areas are being created, a little north of Yuma, Ariz., for the endangered razorback sucker, a native fish of the lower Colorado.

Another project under way is the Palo Verde Ecological Reserve near Blythe, Calif., which will provide 1,100 acres of habitat to restore a variety of cottonwood-willow and/or honey mesquite habitat in partial fulfillment of the MSCP’s 50-year goal, according to Gray, the Bureau spokesperson.

Metropolitan is assisting Reclamation in identifying potential sites in California for the planting of native habitat, with each site carefully selected to ensure the program’s success, Patterson said.

The early years will be used to establish a detailed scientific component for monitoring and researching the new habitats so scientists can better understand the biological needs of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles as well as invertebrates and plants in the area.

	Cibola Preserve Ranger

The Palo Verde reserve is creating a plant nursery to grow saplings of native trees and shrubs that will be transplanted to habitat sites throughout the Lower Colorado River floodplain.

Slated for completion in 2014, the Palo Verde project will create four basic habitat types—backwater, marsh, cottonwood-willow and honey mesquite.

“This is a habitat-based program,” said Gray. “These habitats not only provide protection for the 26 species [covered under the MSCP], but we are confident that it will also take action to prevent other species from becoming threatened or endangered.”

For the Seuss’ Once-ler, it was too late. The Lorax was ignored, as were his environmental pleas. The tale ends with the Once-ler giving a young boy the last truffula seed to plant and care for in the hopes that the environment could be restored and the Lorax would return.

The same is not true in the areas along the Lower Colorado River. Environmental concerns are being paid heed and preventative action is being taken before it’s too late—perhaps even making a Lorax proud.