source for all pictureshttp://www.fed.maricopa.gov/Projects/PPM/environmental.aspx
The purpose of this assignment was to provide and understanding of a risk, how to assess if at a specific site and what the numerical estimates of the risk represent. Knowing my background with the diversity of plant material and environmental issues that effect wildlife habitats, biological necessity, and cultural resources, I wanted to understand the El Rio Research Project and processes. This assignment to you as a reader may be a superficial risk compared to many other catastrophic disaster such as exploring rail cars, Katrina or even a volcano eruption in Yellowstone Park.
The purpose of this assignment was to provide and understanding of a risk, how to assess if at a specific site and what the numerical estimates of the risk represent. Knowing my background with the diversity of plant material and environmental issues that effect wildlife habitats, biological necessity, and cultural resources, I wanted to understand the El Rio Research Project and processes. This assignment to you as a reader may be a superficial risk compared to many other catastrophic disaster such as exploring rail cars, Katrina or even a volcano eruption in Yellowstone Park.
El Rio project is sponsor by the Flood Control District of Maricopa in August of 2002. This project is a joint efforts between the District, the City of Avondale, Town of Buckeye, and the City of Goodyear. Other partnerships with the Board of Supervisors and has gained a great deal of support from federal and state agencies and focused on gaining the support of area residents. Therefore, the project team has identified their assessment team.
The study area consist of 17.5 miles of the Gila River from Aqua Fria River westward to the SR 85 bridge. Flood Control District is concerned with excessive growth of salt cedar vegetation in the Gila River bottom. Salt cedar is a non-native 
plant that can be considered as an noxious weed that grows in dense stands, which can block the flow of water in the river channel creating a greater chance of the river overflowing and flooding nearby land, businesses and residential properties. One of the challenges is that salt cedar is hard to remove or destroy because of the density of vegetation and the well established root system and with the high content of salt in the water this let's the plant grow back fairly quickly.
Replanting the site with native plant vegetation may be the way of stopping the salt cedar from growing back.
The purpose of the El Rio project is to determine a cost effective method to replace the salt cedar with native vegetation historic grown on the river bed such as velvet mesquite, ironwoods, blue palo verde and Fremont cottonwoods, that would allow the Gila River to flow freely with a lower risk of flooding. The other concern is the plant densities with the revegetation a river bed how many different ranges will be set up for the number per acres is needed to keep the salt cedar under control. The other items that will be address in this project are maintaining sediment balance, removal of non-native species and reintroduction of riparian habitat, providing a reliable water source, ecosystem restoration, and preventing unauthorized land uses such as illegal dumping and destructive off-road activities. The results of this study could help future clean up projects along the Gila River and other waterways.
After reading the information onhttp://www.blogger.com/www.fed.maricopa.gov/Projects/PPM/environmental.aspx I was wondering if the research part of the project was complete. The last date I could find was March of 2005. The District was acknowledging an alternatives formulation phase. If you want more information contact the Flood Control District of Maricopa County 2801 W. Durango Street Phoenix, Arizona 85009 (602) 506-1501
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