The Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon - Natural History

Book - The Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, Natural History and Human Change / Steven W. Carothers and Bryan T. Brown Once Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1963, the Colorado River in its passage through the Grand Canyon would never be the same. Now sealed off at both ends, the Colorado has been transformed into a carefully-tended aquarium, its flow of water controlled and monitored. The effect on the Canyon's physical and biological systems has been extraordinary. For the thousands of people who raft down the river each year, the dam has brought the need to account for diurnal rather than seasonal alterations in water flow, as well as the likelihood that changes in debris flow will make rapids increasingly difficult to run. The trapping of silt behind the dam also means that river beaches now wash away without being restored from upstream.The authors warn that these changes may disappoint those who expect the Colorado to represent an untouched wilderness river; yet the new Colorado remains a source of in. See Pictures for Condition