This page features photos of the Laguna Grande Restoration Area in Baja California, Mexico.
The Laguna Grande Restoration Area is a 1,200-acre plot of land located on the Colorado River’s riparian corridor. Upstream dams, diversions, and water users have drained the Colorado River, causing it to dry up before reaching the Gulf of California and resulting in dramatic losses of native riparian vegetation and wildlife.
In 2006, the Sonoran Institute and partner organization Pronatura Noroeste began restoring riparian habitat within the area. Two years later, the groups officially secured the 1,200-acre plot through a land concession agreement with the Mexican government with the intent to turn the entire area into a nature preserve for community use and wildlife habitat. Today, the restoration area is the largest stretch of native riparian habitat found along the Colorado River in Mexico.
In April 2018, the Sonoran Institute Laguna Grande Interpretive Center was opened to share the progress of conservation efforts in the Colorado River Delta with the public.
Learn more:
- Caitlin Ochs, “’This is climate change barging through the front door’: Water scarcity is forcing changes in how the Colorado River is shared,” BuzzFeed News, December 31, 2021.
- Luke Runyon, “Even in an epically dry year, water flows into parched Colorado River Delta,” KUNC, July 30, 2021.
| Date | October 2018 |
| Location | Laguna Grande Restoration Area, Mexico (map) |
| Credit | Ted Wood/The Water Desk |
| Rights | Free to reuse under Creative Commons license. |
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