From the Audubon Society:
In the arid West of the United States, water sustains tens of millions of people as well as some of America’s richest diversity of birdlife. Today, the National Audubon Society published Water and Birds in the Arid West: Habitats in Decline, the first comprehensive look at the unprecedented impact of western water loss and climate change on birds. Focusing on the Colorado River basin as well as the network of saline lakes across eight Western states (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming), Audubon determined that a combination of water development, drought and climate change threaten these habitats and put millions of birds at risk: U.S. and global populations of many birds that depend on these habitats for resting, feeding and nesting hang in the balance.
“The most urgent threat facing birds and people in the West is a precipitous decline in water quality and availability,” said Dr. Chad Wilsey, Audubon’s director of bird conservation and main author of the Audubon report. “Both rivers and saline lakes across the West need reliable sources of fresh water to continue sustaining not only a rich diversity of birdlife but also the millions of people across rural and urban areas that depend on these systems.”
The future of seven bird species, including several species protected by the Endangered Species Act—Eared Grebe, Wilson’s Phalarope, American Avocet, American White Pelican, Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Yuma Ridgway’s Rail—is tied to the rivers of the Colorado River basin, western saline lakes and scarce wetlands across the West.