E-Mail Grain by grain, sandbars are ecologically important to the Colorado River system for humans and wildlife, say scientists. How sand, silt and clay move along and become deposited within the river corridor in the Grand Canyon National Park, downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, has become an important question to a number of government agencies as well as to Native American tribes. The answer impacts the entire Colorado River ecosystem and will help scientists better understand how the Colorado River system works. Matt Kaplinski, a senior research associate in Northern Arizona University's School of Earth and Sustainability (SES), is the principal investigator on a project, "Long Term Monitoring of Sediment Resources and Channel Substrates of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park," designed to study how the sandbars in the river may be preserved through conservation management.