Lake Mead is a man-made lake that lies on the Colorado River, about 24 mi from the Las Vegas Strip, southeast of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona. It is the largest reservoir in the United States in terms of water capacity. Formed by the Hoover Dam on September 30, 1935, the reservoir serves water to the states of Arizona and Nevada, as well as some of Mexico, providing sustenance to nearly 20 million people and large areas of farmland. At maximum capacity, Lake Mead is 112 miles long, 532 feet at its greatest depth, has a surface elevation of 1,221.4 feet above sea level and 247 square miles of surface area, contains 26.12 million acre feet of water. The lake has remained below full capacity since 1983 due to increased water demand; as of July 2019, Lake Mead was at 40% of full capacity with 10.4 million acre feet of held water. It has been smaller than Lake Powell since 2013; the lake was named after Elwood Mead, the commissioner of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1924 to 1936, during the planning and construction of the Boulder Canyon Project that created the dam and lake.

Lake Mead was established as the Boulder Dam Recreation Area in 1936 administrated by the National Park Service. The name was changed to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in 1947, Lake Mohave and the Shivwits Plateau were added to its jurisdiction. Both lakes and the surrounding area offer year-round recreation options; the accumulated water from Hoover Dam forced the evacuation of several communities, most notably St. Thomas, whose last resident left the town in 1938; the ruins of St. Thomas are sometimes visible. Lake Mead covered the sites of the Colorado River landings of Callville and Rioville and the river crossing of Bonelli's Ferry, between Arizona and Nevada. At lower water levels, a high-water mark or "bathtub ring" is visible in photos that show the shoreline of Lake Mead; the bathtub ring is white because of the leaching of minerals on submerged surfaces. Nine main access points to the lake are available. On the west are three roads from the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Access from the northwest from Interstate 15 is through the Valley of Fire State Park and the Moapa River Indian Reservation to the Overton Arm of the lake.

The lake is divided into several bodies. The large body closest to the Hoover Dam is Boulder Basin; the narrow channel, once known as Boulder Canyon and is now known as The Narrows, connects Boulder Basin to Virgin Basin to the east. The Virgin River and Muddy River empty into the Overton Arm, connected to the northern part of the Virgin Basin; the next basin to the east is Temple Basin, following, Gregg Basin, connected to the Temple Basin by the Virgin Canyon. When the lake levels are high enough, a section of the lake farther upstream from the Gregg Basin is flooded, which includes Grand Wash Bay, the Pearce Ferry Bay and launch ramp, about 55 miles of the Colorado River within the lower Grand Canyon, extending to the foot of 240 Mile Rapids. In addition, two small basins, the Muddy River Inlet and the Virgin River Basin, are flooded when the lake is high enough where these two rivers flow into the lake; as of February 2015, these basins remain dry. Jagged mountain ranges surround the lake, offering a scenic backdrop at sunset.

Two mountain ranges are within view of the Boulder Basin, the River Mountains, oriented northwest to southeast and the Muddy Mountains, oriented west to northeast. Bonelli Peak lies to the east of the Virgin Basin. Las Vegas Bay is the terminus for the Las Vegas Wash, the sole outflow from the Las Vegas Valley. Lake Mead receives the majority of its water from snow melt in the Colorado and Utah Rocky Mountains. Inflows to the lake are moderated by the upstream Glen Canyon Dam, required to release 8.23 million acre feet of water each year to Lake Mead. Hoover Dam is required to release 9 million acre feet of water each year, with the difference made up by tributaries that join the Colorado below Glen Canyon or flow into Lake Mead. Outflow, which includes evaporation and delivery to Arizona, California and Mexico from Lake Mead are in the range of 9.5 to 9.7 million acre feet, resulting in a net annual deficit of about 1.2 million acre feet. Before the filling of Lake Powell behind Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado River flowed unregulated into Lake Mead, making Mead more vulnerable to drought.

From 1953 to 1956, the water level fell from 1,200 to 1,085 feet. During the filling of Lake Powell from 1963 to 1965, the water level fell from 1,205 to 1,090 feet. Multiple wet years from the 1970s to the 1990s filled both lakes to capacity, reaching a record high of 1,225 feet in the summer of 1983. In these decades prior to 2000, Glen Canyon Dam released more than the required 8.23 million acre feet to Lake Mead each year. This allowed Lake Mead to maintain a high water level despite releasing more water than it is contracted for. However, since 2000, the Colorado River has experienced persistent drought, with average or above-average conditions occurring in only five years in the first 16 years of the 21st century. Although Glen Canyon was able to meet its required minimum release until 2014, the water level in Lake Mead has declined; the decreasing water level is du

Malwattage Celestine Violet Savitri Gunatilleke is professor emeritus at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka's Central Province. She has had a long career in forest ecology and has been a leader in quantitative ecology and education. Most of her research has focused in the Sinharaja rain forest in Sri Lanka, she considers her main contribution to forest ecology to be spreading the idea that successful forest conservation depends on local conservationists. In line with this, she is proud of her students and their accomplishments in the field of conservation. Malwattage Celestine Violet Savitri Gunatilleke was born July 30, 1945 in Bandarawela, Uva Province, Sri Lanka to M. Joseph Peeris and Ruth Peeris, she is the eldest of 6 girls. She received primary education at Little Flower Convent in Bandarawela, an agricultural city in the Badulla District from 1949 to 1953. From 1954 to 1964, she attended secondary school, corresponding to middle and high school, at St. Bridget's Convent in Colombo, the largest city and commercial capital of the island.

In 1965, she began attending the University of Ceylon in Colombo, the only university in Sri Lanka at the time. In 1967 she transferred to the Peradeniya location. By 1969, Gunatilleke graduated First Class Honours with a Special Degree in Botany, she was the second person to qualify for the first woman. She earned a subsidiary degree in Chemistry. Shortly after graduation, in 1970, she began teaching as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Botany at the University of Ceylon in Peradeniya. Gunatilleke was planning on teaching plant pathology, the study of organisms and environmental conditions that cause disease in plants. However, upon receiving the position, the head of the Botany Department, Professor Abeywickrama, told her the department had a plant pathologist and she would be teaching Forest Ecology, shifting the direction of her academic career. In 1971, Gunatilleke was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship and moved to the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, United Kingdom for postgraduate education where she earned her master's degree in general ecology and a Ph.

D. in Tropical Forest Ecology and Conservation. While in Peradeniya, she had been inspired by a presentation from Peter Ashton, a prominent tropical forest expert, on “Sri Lanka’s lowland forests” to study forests and land use issues, she was impressed not only with his knowledge of the tree family he was in Sri Lanka to study, but his knowledge of the island's geography and waterways. She wrote to several plant ecologists including Peter Ashton. Again, Abeywickrama would have an influential role in guiding her path. Gunatilleke did choose to study with Ashton for her Ph. D, her thesis, “Ecology of the Endemic Tree Species of Sri Lanka in Relation to their Conservation” is considered a landmark project in quantitative ecological research. The study revealed that a great proportion of endemic tree species were confined to Sri Lanka's lowland rain forests and highlighted the need to conserve them; this research required one year of field work in 6 lowland primary forests in Sri Lanka: Kottawa and Gilimale, Daragoda and Barigoda, Ritigala.

Although she pursued education outside of Sri Lanka, Gunatilleke planned on spending her career in her home country. Her father's encouragement to "return to the island to serve motherland" played a role in her commitment of to not letting knowledge leave her country, she has stated one of her proudest accomplishments is avoiding the "brain drain". Since 1977, Gunatilleke's main research focused in the Sinharaja rain forest; this forest is located in southwest Sri Lanka and the country's last area of primary tropical rain forest large enough to be sustainable. More than 60% of the tree species are endemic, as are many wildlife birds. In this forest, she investigated the value of tree species diversity, her work contributed to declaring the Sinharaja rain forest a World Heritage Site in October 21, 1988. This was important as the area was still being logged by the State Timber Corporation in the 1970s at the time of her research, her research included recommendations on how to improve conservation in the Sinharaja.

For one project, they looked at conditions required for growth to enable nearby villagers to grow tree species in the buffer zone around the protected area so they could continue to use forest resources. Another component focused on planting canopy species in the degraded peripheral areas of the forest to help encourage recruitment of species outside of the preserve; the third main component of their research looked into reconnecting fragmented patches to increase their chance of survival. She has conducted research in Kanneliye Rainforest Reserve, Peak Wilderness Sanctuary, the Knuckles Forest Reserve; as a professor, she was uniquely influential. She had finished her undergraduate studies without visiting a forest and was still a novice with identifying plants in the field when she started her Ph. D. so she wanted to give her students a chance to visit the “outdoor laboratories” Sri Lanka has to offer. She convinced the University of Peradeniya of the importance of field classes and encouraged the school to devote resources to including field work into curriculums.

Additionally and her colleagues established an arboretum and herbarium for students so specimens from around the island would be available for them to study. She was involved with exchange programs with other universities, she was an adviser for students visiting Sri Lanka on exchange programs with Harvard University, Yale University, Ab

Sir Harford Jones-Brydges, 1st Baronet, DL, born Harford Jones, was a British diplomat and author. Born on 12 January 1764, Sir Harford Jones-Brydges was the son of Harford Jones of Presteign, Radnorshire by Winifred, daughter of Richard Hooper of the Whittern, Herefordshire. Early in life he entered the service of the East India Company, acquiring great proficiency in the oriental languages, he was appointed the Company's first Resident and Consul in Baghdad. In 1798, fearing that Napoleon's expedition to Egypt might present a threat to British interests in India, the Company's Directors accepted a suggestion to establish a Residency in Baghdad; the Residency in Baghdad was intended to provide direct access to the Ottoman Vali there, rather than through an agent of the Company Resident in Basra. Harford Jones had been the Company's Assistant Resident in Basra since 1784, seems to have lobbied for establishing the post in Baghdad. However, various circumstances rendered him ineffective, except in arranging for the Company's overland mail to use a more secure and less expensive route through Baghdad instead of across the desert from Aleppo.

He left Baghdad in 1806. Subsequently, he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the court of Persia, where he remained four years from 1807 to 1811. On 9 October 1807 he was created a baronet. On his return from Persia he was disappointed with the prospects of promotion in the East India Company, resigned. In a royal sign manual dated 4 May 1826, in commemoration of his descent through his maternal grandmother from the family of Brydges of Old Colwall, Herefordshire, he assumed the additional name of Brydges, he died at his seat at Boultibrook, Presteigne on 17 March 1847. Through his marriage with Sarah, eldest daughter of the knight Sir Henry Gott of Newland Park, Buckinghamshire he had one son and two daughters. Throughout life he a deep interest in the welfare both of the natives of India. In 1833 he published The Dynasty of the Kajars, translated from the original Persian manuscript, in the following year An Account of His Majesty's Mission to the Court of Persia in the years 1807–11, to, added a brief history of the Wahauby, in 1838 his Letter on the Present State of British Interests and Affairs in Persia, addressed to the Marquis of Wellesley.

In 1843 he pleaded the cause of the ameers of Sind in a letter to the court of directors of the East India Company, denouncing the latter's policy of annexation and conquest. He served as High Sheriff of Radnorshire for 1816. Politically he was a Whig, took an active interest in the election contests of Radnorshire, where he founded a political association known as the Grey Coat Club. On 15 June 1831 he received the honorary degree of D. C. L. from the University of Oxford. In 1832 he was sworn a privy councillor, in 1841 was appointed deputy-lieutenant of the county of Hereford; this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Brydges, Harford Jones". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900