Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8 IntegratedRestorationand
AdaptiveManagement
oftheLasVegasWash *
CONTENTS
Introduction............................................................................................................ 117
The Place................................................................................................................ 118
Protection Efforts ................................................................................................... 120
Environmental Problems........................................................................................ 121
Restoration Efforts ................................................................................................. 122
Adaptive Management ........................................................................................... 123
Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 124
Acknowledgment ................................................................................................... 124
References.............................................................................................................. 124
INTRODUCTION
After more than three decades of advocacy, what had long been a severely degraded
landscape, the Las Vegas Wash, has been changed into something truly extraordi-
nary: the Clark County Wetlands Park (see also chapter 3). The process and the ensur-
ing products of this particular project represent the most successful and impressive
restoration of a desert wetland that has been accomplished, a signature undertaking
that offers lessons for not only the situation of the Iraqi marshlands, but also publicly
supported environmental restoration projects of any type, anywhere in the world.
Before the Las Vegas Wash is examined in detail, it is important to review some
of the most important things about any kind of successfully implemented ecosystem
restoration project. Paramount is that all factions, personnel, and stakeholders move
from their isolated spheres and their idiosyncratic agendas to a state of more interde-
pendence with one another. Interdependence by its very nature can be very wrought
with opportunity but also, it must be admitted, wrought with some forces of failure.
But Vicki Scharnhorst (2004) believes this is the best strategy to adopt to what will
* Adapted by Robert L. France from Scharnhorst, V. 2004. Restoration of the Las Vegas Wash and other
desert wetlands. Paper presented at the Mesopotamian Marshes and Modern Development: Practical
Approaches for Sustaining Restored Ecological and Cultural Landscapes conference, Cambridge,
MA, October.
117
 
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