Colorado River Slideshow

The 1,440-mile-long Colorado River passes through parts of seven states, several Indian reservations and into Mexico. Since the river was first tapped by humans 1,500 years ago, the water has been claimed, reclaimed, divided and subdivided many times.

Today, there are many demands for Colorado River water: Agriculture and Livestock, Municipal and Industrial, Recreation, Fish/Wildlife and Habitat, Hydroelectricity, Tribes and Mexico.

More water is exported from the Colorado River’s 250,000 square-mile basin than from any other river basin in the world. Every drop of its average 5 trillion gallons of water is used each year. In fact, the river often runs dry before it reaches its final destination at the Sea of Cortez in Mexico because of use by the United States and Mexico. There’s no doubt: All the competing demands for the water make it one of the most controlled and controversial rivers in the United States.

Watch the Colorado River slideshow, which is full of useful information and photographs, maps and web links to help you explore Colorado River topics further.

California Watersheds: Our Vital Link Slideshow                               

Watersheds are all around us. You’re sitting or standing in one right now.

A watershed is more than just a piece of land that water flows through. It is a place where people and animals live, and plants and trees grow. All life is dependent on a healthy watershed. Without watersheds, we wouldn’t have water for farms, cities, wildlife, recreation – everything!

The slideshow is packed full of useful information and photographs, maps and web links to help you explore each topic further.

What you will learn:

• How watersheds function and how their overall health impacts all life around it
• What issues threaten watersheds: Land-based pollutants, recreation, development, water quality, high-intensity fire and unhealthy forests
• What’s being done through watershed management to ensure watershed health is maintained and improved
• Where individual projects all over California are making a real difference
• How you can locate the watershed in your area and get involved.

State Water Project Slideshow

This full-color slideshow, entitled “The State Water Project: Connecting California’s Water,” pays tribute to California’s State Water Project (SWP), celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2010.

The slideshow highlights the historical value of the SWP to the daily lives of Californians. In total, the SWP provides drinking water for 25 million people and irrigation water for more than 750,000 farmland acres. In 2001, the American Society of Civil Engineers selected the SWP as one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century.

“We are glad to provide a colorful, comprehensive slideshow to educate people about the importance of the SWP, which has been called the life force of the state,\” said Rita Schmidt Sudman, executive director of the Water Education Foundation. “Fifty years later, water continues to be a controversial subject. Yet as the father of the SWP : Gov. Pat Brown : once said that water with problems is better than no water and all the same problems.

The slideshow is packed full of historical photographs and images of the facilities that comprise the entire system. Web links are included throughout each section to help readers explore each subject further.

Copies of the slideshow are available on CD through the Water Education Foundation in PDF format for $25 each. Please contact the Foundation at (916) 444-6240 to order your copy today.