INDEPENDENCE, Calif -- Hundreds of spectators led by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are expected to gather today to watch the 62-mile-long Lower Owens River ripple anew with its first surge of High Sierra water in nearly a century.
The largest river habitat restoration effort ever attempted in the West (my em) will launch with Villaraigosa's push of a button, opening a steel gate at a dam that has been diverting the Lower Owens' water into the Los Angeles Aqueduct since 1913.
If all goes according to plan, within five years nature will transform the revived river's lazy loops into a lush serpentine oasis of willows and cottonwood trees, wetlands for waterfowl and shorebirds and warm water fisheries for bass, catfish, frogs and crayfish.
Please read the rest and watch the videos.
Suggested reading :
Rivers in the Desert by Margaret Leslie Davis
Water and the California Dream by David Carle
As Mark Twain once said, and California has taken to heart, "Whisky's fer drinkin'. Water's fer fightin' over."
Update:
Passerby left us this comment:
Man, we caught so many trout out of the Owens River one day that we nearly got nauseous cleaning 'em all in the bathtub of our hotel...
Rainbows and browns till our arms were tired. Never seen anything like it.
Not sure those hotel maids ever saw anything like that, either.
Next time, PB, check for this feature, common amongst the better accommodations in the area:
Just look for a lotta cats hangin' around!
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