Eden in the desert
From the LA Times, a story in miniature of what the State of California hopes to do for the entire Salton Sea — and done by one determined woman.
“Part of Salton Sea’s desolate shore made into a lush oasis”
[Debi] Livesay is no scientist. She’s a former journalist with a gift for big ideas, a talent for securing grants and total self confidence.
As the Salton Sea dwindles, pesticide-laced sediments have blown over the reservation, exposing thousands of tribal members and other nearby residents to toxic chemicals. In 2001, Livesay, the tribe’s head of water resources, was charged with finding a solution.
“We can’t afford to have the Salton Sea dry out or people couldn’t live here anymore,” she said. “It would be 200 times bigger than Owens Lake. All you need is an inch of water to keep the dust settled. So I said, ‘Let’s make a wetland.’”
It wasn’t easy by any means, and despite the great success there are still challenges, especially from illegal hunters who prowl the outskirts of the new wetlands, killing birds indiscriminately and leaving their bodies. Not to mention the dumping that has been going on for decades, leaving the Torres Martinez reservation “one of the most polluted in the West.”
Even so, as the toxic cleanup continues, Livesay is navigating the jurisdictional issues to get poachers arrested…and amazing things are happening out there in the desert.
She cut the engine.
“Wait until you go around the corner,” she said. “You have never seen anything like it.”
A few feet away, birds were thick as mosquitoes. They floated in dark, choppy water and buzzed about like feathery missiles.
“You have birds here that shouldn’t be here, birds from Canada all the way down to Central America,” she said. “People come from all over the world to see this sight. There is no other place like it. And that’s why we have to preserve it.”