Let's restore the Colorado River Delta

The Community Engagement team carried out field trips this spring and summer to priority sites in the Colorado River Delta. One of the spring visits was to the Chaussé Restoration Site, managed by our partners at Restauremos el Colorado. The project is located in the Mexicali Valley, in a forest area that is home to 62 hectares of native trees—cottonwoods, willows, mesquites, and palo verdes—along with native shrubs, beavers, bobcats, reptiles, insects, a great diversity of birds, and a stretch of the Colorado River with permanent water.

The university student group is enrolled in the Bachelor's Degree in English Teaching at the State University of Sonora. During their visit to the Chaussé Restoration Site, they learned about the Colorado River restoration initiative, the importance of native plants, and how to identify signs of wildlife tracks. They also visited the nurseries to learn to identify trees from the Sonoran Desert and the riparian habitat of the Colorado River, and learned about the importance of vermicomposting, a biological method for reusing the organic material generated from tree pruning. These activities foster knowledge and protection of our natural and restored spaces, promote appreciation of wetlands and forests among new generations, and raise awareness about their care.

The team also conducted a field visit to the Hardy River, the only navigable river in Baja California and one of great importance to the Cucapá Indigenous community. El Mayor Cucapá is located at kilometer 56 of the Mexicali–San Felipe Highway, in the municipality of Mexicali. The activity was carried out with a school group from the Colegio de Bachilleres del Estado de Baja California, Ejido Nayarit Campus, located in the Mexicali Valley. During the visit, students had the opportunity to meet members of the Cucapá Indigenous community who work on cleanup activities along the Hardy River. They learned about the fishing carried out on the river and about the main challenges the community faces daily, such as the fishing crisis. Students also had the chance to reforest with cottonwoods—a species once abundant along the riverbank—and took a walk to meet another of the community's work groups.

In an area known as Las Palapas, a traditionally important site, students boarded a boat operated by a community fisher to navigate the Hardy River. They observed birds such as pelicans, cormorants, moorhens, and coots.

The visit concluded at the Cucapá Juan García Aldama Community Museum, where their community host explained the origins of the Cucapá people prior to the construction of the dams on the Colorado River, and the importance of the river to their culture and livelihood, fishing being one of their main activities. She also spoke about the natural surroundings—the Cucapá Mountain Range and Sierra El Mayor—some wildlife species considered sacred by the community, and the challenges they face in sustaining their livelihoods. These activities promote awareness of the Hardy River and of the Indigenous people who depend entirely on the environmental services it provides.

Pronatura Noroeste's Community Engagement team participated in the 2nd Environmental Education Fair at the State University of Sonora in 2026 to commemorate Environmental Education Day. The event aimed to engage the student community and raise awareness about the importance of caring for the environment, visiting restored native forests along the Colorado River, and creating green areas to help counteract climate change in the Colorado River Delta region.

During the event, students adopted native trees such as Mexican palo verde and mesquite. They enthusiastically welcomed each tree, becoming part of the actions promoted in San Luis Río Colorado (SLRC), where citizens are increasingly aware of the importance of contributing to nature’s recovery. With proper care, the adopted trees will grow well in their homes. Because these species are native to the Sonoran Desert region, they require minimal maintenance, although consistent care is essential during the first three months after planting.

The Pronatura Noroeste Community Engagement team explained the benefits of reforesting with native trees. Green areas help mitigate high summer temperatures, and once trees reach a considerable height, they provide shade. Their leaves help capture dust and improve air quality, while their branches provide shelter for wildlife. Their flowers attract pollinators that support plant reproduction and biodiversity conservation. In addition, their roots help recharge the aquifer, and green spaces contribute positively to the mental health and well-being of communities.

In February, during the celebration of World Wetlands Day, the Community Engagement team and interns at Pronatura Noroeste held a workshop on the Colorado River Delta Ecological Restoration Initiative, primarily aimed at elementary schools in San Luis Río Colorado.

The environmental education workshops provide a general overview of the Colorado River binational basin, which includes nine states in Mexico and the United States: seven in the United States—Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and California—and two in Mexico—Sonora and Baja California. This basin supplies water to more than 40 million people, including residents of cities such as San Luis Río Colorado, Mexicali, Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate.

These workshops are important because they help raise awareness among younger generations about the opportunities families have to take better care of water in their homes. They also provide information about the work being done in the region to address water scarcity in the basin and about the development of more than half a million native trees that form restored native forests in the Colorado River Delta, created with the support of volunteers from San Luis Río Colorado and Mexicali.

Your continued support helps scale native reforestation, strengthen water stewardship, and empower the next generation of environmental leaders.