The wetlands of Xianghai National Nature Reserve are recovering from several years of serious drought. During the summer of 2004, water was released from the Cha’ersen Resevoir to help begin the ecological recovery process. During recent months, the Reserve has seen additional improvement. Typically, snowmelt is diverted into Xianghai reservoir by a dyke which cuts off water from the wetlands. In an effort to improve the increasingly serious drying situation at Xianghai, reserve staff successfully persuaded the related government departments responsible for water management in Xianghai to permit much of the snowmelt flow into the wetlands and Reserve in this spring. The result has been an increase of 15 million cubic meters of water from the upper reaches of the Huolin River restoring Xianghai wetlands, in the week following 1 April 2005. This temporary agreement is part of the SCWP’s on-going work towards establishing strong, regular coordination mechanisms among nature reserves and various government departments for water management.