Featured Career Opportunity: Janet Quinney Lawson Endowed Chair in Colorado River Studies
We welcome applications from scientists, scholars or policy-makers with a Ph.D. in any relevant biological, physical, or social science or engineering field, or with a J.D. degree, who possess a strong record of funded research or policy experience relevant to the Colorado River Basin. The successful candidate will also serve as Director of the Center for Colorado River Studies and as faculty in the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources (QCNR) at Utah State University.
Projects & Partners
Explores alternative Colorado River water supply and river management strategies to develop new tools and approaches by which the river-ecosystem outcomes of water-supply decisions can be considered.
A new report "Review of Smallmouth Bass Management in the Colorado River ecosystem" explores potential expansion of the abundance and range of smallmouth bass in the Colorado River ecosystem beyond their present distribution.
Informal thoughts from John Fleck, journalist, scientist, and thinker. A former science journalist and Professor of Practice in Water Policy and Governance in the University of New Mexico Department of Economics, Fleck is focused on the problems of the Colorado River as an imperiled water source.
The Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University is a nexus for innovative research, teaching, and outreach that informs management of the Colorado River and other major rivers of the American Southwest. We undertake critical studies that inform how different parts of the Colorado River and its tributaries can be effectively managed, train future researchers and managers who will be responsible for tomorrow's Colorado River, and provide education and training to stakeholders to support informed and focused decision making. Because the water available to restore the Colorado River ecosystem is increasingly limited, we are especially interested in research and outreach to inform the very difficult decisions about priority locations and actions that provide the best opportunity for significant restoration success.
Lael Gilbert
Outreach Coordinator
Phone: (435) 797-8455
Email: lael.gilbert@usu.edu
Jack Schmidt
Program Director
Phone: (435) 797-1791
Email: jack.schmidt@usu.edu
Drawdown of the Colorado River’s reservoirs now slightly exceeds the amount of gain that occurred during the 2024 snowmelt season. For the next four months until snowmelt begins again, the basin’s reservoirs will be drawing from the excess accumulated in ...
The Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCDAMP) currently focuses primarily on downstream resources, particularly in the Grand Canyon, without fully accounting for the diverse environmental and societal values across the entire Colorado River sys...
Suggesting an alternative approach to achieve needed flexibility through adaptive management. The rules of reservoir release be reconsidered every few years. The reconsideration would be based on the status of reservoir storage, ecosystem, river resource,...
