The 2024 Runoff Season Comes to an End – How Did We Do?
Despite the modest runoff of 2024, water managers were able to increase reservoir storage, because they had done such a good job of limiting consumptive uses following the 2023 runoff season.
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.
About
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.
Contact Us
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
Recent News
End of Season Wrap-Up – Holding on to What We’ve Got
Opportunities to rebuild basin-wide reservoir storage have been rare in the 21st century, and there have been many years in which there is significant risk of basin-wide reservoir storage depletion. the natural flow of the Colorado River at Lees Ferry in ...
A New White Paper from CRRG: Imagining the River We Deserve
"The longer-term challenge is to develop post-2026 rules that not only pull back the reservoirs from the brink of dead pool ... but that also restore a healthy, equitable, and sustainable river system. That’s the heavy lift ... That time has arrived,