The City Of Phoenix Arizona Is Made Up Of Multiple Cities

In 1935 the Hoover Dam was completed forming Lake Mead, providing flood control, reservoir storage, power generation and regulates the downstream flow to the Lower Basin States. [footnoteRef:20] In 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam was completed forming Lake Powell, providing the Upper Basin States with enough reserve capacity to allow them to meet their annual obligation of 7.5 Million Acre Feet (MAF) to the Lower Basin States, allowing the Lower Basin States to use the allocation.[footnoteRef:21] As a consequence of the construction of the Hoover Dam and the Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado?s flow often evaporated in Mexican sands close to the Delta.[footnoteRef:22] Around the 1970s, the Cienega de Santa Clara had shrunken by 500 acres. Nevertheless, due to the following wet decades, the Cienega was resuscitated to about 10% of its original acreage in the 80?s and 90?s.[footnoteRef:23] Currently, the Cienega is a 40,000 acre wetland that exists due to the return flows from the Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District near Yuma, Arizona.[footnoteRef:24] This Cienega is the home of less than 100 members of the Cucapa tribe and is the habitat of several endangered fish and birds, including Desert Pupfish and Yuma Clapper Rail.[footnoteRef:25] [19: D.F.

The character Thomas from “ This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona.” is keeping his word by watching over Victor when he most needs it. Thomas is a guy no one really likes and talk to because he is always telling random stories, people see him as a crazy person. In reality Thomas is very humble, because after Victor beating him up for no reason one day, Thomas still decided to help Victor when he was most in need of it.

In the short story This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona written by Alexie Sherman. Alexie wrote about these two Native Americans that live on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Victor had a tough childhood when his father left him around the age of seven and moved to Phoenix Arizona. Thomas’s parents died when he was just a baby and grew up with his grandmother, Thomas was a storyteller and got picked on a lot because of his story telling. Victor lost his job and he also found out that he lost his father due to a heart attack, Victor was told that his father had a savings account and if he wanted anything to go to Phoenix to go gather up his father’s belongings.

Since the settlement of the Lake Tahoe Basin people have deforested mountain sides, and killed almost all natural life within the waters. Just as the Lake Tahoe area has felt the

In his book, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner’s main thesis is to show the inefficiency, greed, and inherent difficulty in the American West’s never-ending struggle to turn its unwelcoming desert into a lush garden. One of his main sub-points is that the West is not meant to support millions of people. It has a wide range of geographic challenges throughout the entire region. Its inconsistency and diversity is a primary cause of its water problems. For example, Reisner notes that the West consists of “plains so arid that they could barely support bunchgrass; deserts that were fiercely hot and fiercely cold; streams that flooded a few weeks each year and went dry the rest; forests with trees so large it might take days to bring one down; . . . hail followed by drought followed by hail;” (23).

The Chihuahuan is the largest desert in North America-from southwestern United States all the way to Central Mexican Highlands. The Chihuahuan desert has something called the big bend region, which consists of important parts of the Rio Grande watershed in the United States and Mexico. This Amazing landscape is threatened by humans. People are living all in the desert and misusing the water supply, messing up the terrain with the overgrazing of cows and goats. The human population there is messing with the beautiful

Arizona farmers are resistant to drip irrigation and prefer flood or rainwater-propelled irrigation, which is used on about 95 percent of Arizona crops. “Farmers have a hard time justifying drip irrigation because water is relatively cheap and drip systems can cost from $500 to $2,000 per acre to install” (U.S. Water News Online). Unfortunately cost is a prohibition not only for farmers but for private residents as well. Many residents have migrated to Arizona due to the region's affordable prices. One of the major problems our towns are facing is the conversion of homes to a more environmentally sound energy models that currently are extremely expensive.

Sherman J. Alexie, is a short story written in the first person focusing on two Native American Men who grew up together on a Reservation for Native Americans but have been estranged from each other since they were teenagers. Victor who is the narrator of this story is a young man who lost faith in his culture and its traditions, while Thomas our second main character is a deeply rooted traditional storyteller. In the beginning of the story Victor, our Native American narrator learns the death of his father. Jobless and penniless, his only wish is to go to Phoenix, Arizona and bring back his father’s ashes and belongings to the reservation in Spokane. The death of Victor’s father leads him and Thomas to a journey filled with childhood

Thomas on the other hand was ok with knowing Victor would not talk to him again after their trip to Phoenix. “I know you ain’t going to treat me any better than you did before. I know your friends would give you too much shit about it.” (Alexie P. 518) He asked of Victor one favor only, he said, “Just one time when I’m telling a story somewhere, why don’t you stop and listen? Just once!” (Alexie P. 519)

“This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”: The Road to a New Beginning

Environmentalism has always been two sided. Nature versus urban. locals versus national. Frequently, large tracts of public and federal land are bought and developed by industry. Pristine wilderness turned to bustling epicenters of human activity, all in the name of progress and economic growth. This tale of preserving natural wilderness is one that begins with John Muir, an advocate against the taming of Yosemite national park and the Hetch-Hetchy reservoir, while the head of the US Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, insisted on the reservoir to supply the city of San Francisco with water. This timeless epic of conservation or preservation brings us to the Jumbo Valley, a vast expanse of uninhabited, pristine wilderness home to diverse

As a historically semi-arid environment, California has also suffered heavily from several environmental impacts as a result of the current drought conditions. The first of these is on its forests. The US Forest Service estimates that 12 million trees have died in the past year due to drought; this combined with the drying of forest floor material greatly increases the flammability of the landscape. The result of this is the numerous devastating wildfires that have swept through the state throughout 2015, costing not only wildlife and habitat but also human property (CBS News, 2015) (Lustgarten, et al., 2015) (Google, 2015). Aside from wildfires, the drought and associated loss of habitat is said to be having a negative effect on both flora and fauna due to their contribution to the spread of West Nile Virus, whilst also threatening populations of geese, ducks, salmon and Joshua trees (Lustgarten, et al., 2015) (Beaudry, 2015). Finally, with groundwater contributing up to 50% of stream flow in drought, there is a worry that over usage near the coast could result in irreversible salinization through the drawing in of salt water (USGS, 2016) (Kasler & Reese, 2015).

As lack of water and a particularly dry climate out competes shrubs, trees, and grasslands across Colorado, erosion rates increase reducing the infiltration of moisture into the soil. Causation is believed to have come from heavy livestock grazing, fire suppression, and the introduction of exotic annual plants. Habitat problems for animals and communities that rely on ranching and hunting have been directly affected by these desertification effects. Desertification has had large ecological impacts on the state of Colorado. Vegetation and ecosystems are among the most crucially impacted by the effects of desertification. While Colorado continues its dry drought like climate, restoration of soil becomes one of the major solutions to fight off desertification. Because of the overuse of our land in past generations, we are continuing to see the harmful effects due to desertification. The overall impact on humans produced by desertification is best noticed by a diminishing food production as well as a wealth of water sources becoming dry. People in affected areas are likely to experience poor water quality, dust storms, and pollution. More importantly, as soil loses its nutrients, it no longer becomes farmable; thus, impacting local businesses, livestock, and the many people in that community. If desertification continues in Colorado, an increase of lost farmlands and livestock will pose an economic decease within agriculture markets, farmers will be forced to move to find better

“Change in the timing and amount of stream flows and spring and seep discharges will affect a wide range of wildlife species, livestock, and wild horses and burros. Water availability from these sources could dry up earlier in the summer as a result of the early melt of the snowpack causing increased competition for water and forage across the landscape. Pipelines and troughs installed by BLM and livestock permits that provide water for livestock, wild horses, and wildlife species over tens of millions of acres may have a reduced capacity to meet these needs” (Pellant). “The Great Basin Desert is home to more than 77,000 mountainous acres of land, 5 distinctive habitats, 71 different kinds of mammals, 18 types of reptiles, and 800 different plant species” (Grange). With all this changing it will be difficult for the desert’s water to meet animal and nature’s needs for life. One animal this has an effect on is the Bull Trout an endangered fish and facing extinction in this desert

The book “This Is What It Mean to Say Phoenix, Arizona” by Sherman Alexie illustrate friendship and care with both friends then she goes deep into Native American belief and culture. The way she show it in the book is Thomas show that he still cared for Victor though of what his father was going through in life and still wanted to keep a stronger friendship bond. The relationship between Thomas Builds-the Fire and Victor is intriguing. The trait that Thomas has of constantly story-telling is how history is passed on in many cultures, especially in the Native American culture. Even though their relationship changed over the years, he is still the one that Victor takes with him to Phoenix. I think the fact that Thomas had the money to go was