“For more than a decade, the Raise the River coalition, including the National Audubon Society, has worked in collaboration with the United States and Mexico under the framework of Colorado River Treaty agreements (Minutes 319 and 323), to bring back healthy habitats in the Colorado River Delta. Working from my perch at Colorado State University with support from Audubon as well as federal funding, and with partners in Mexico and the United States, I led a series of studies to find out whether those efforts are actually helping birds. The short answer is yes, and in meaningful ways. 

Bird surveys at 230 sites across the delta, carried out from 2002 to 2021, paint an encouraging picture: over those 20 years, researchers counted more than 100,000 individual birds. In areas where native trees and shrubs such as cottonwoods, willows, and mesquites were planted, birds that depend on riverside forests, like Abert’s Towhee, Song Sparrow, and Yellow-breasted Chat, started showing up in greater numbers. Perhaps even more surprising, bird populations in nearby areas that weren’t directly restored also stopped declining, suggesting that restoration can have a ripple effect across the landscape.”

From Audubon.