Colorado River in the Denver Post: “A Crisis From Headwaters to Delta”

Hi Friends of the Colorado River,

The Denver Post has a major story posted today titled, “Colorado River: A Crisis From Headwaters to Delta.” The story is one of many constantly written about the chaos on the Colorado River, and like most, this story is mostly about the crisis being defined as the amount of water that humans may no longer be able to drain and divert out of the river due to climate change and population growth.

The “crisis” is a water supply problem, if you read most of these news stories and accept their frame of storytelling.

The famous conservationist, Aldo Leopold, once wrote: “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.”

In that vein, we are constantly trying to insert NATURE into these stories and into the management policies around the Colorado River. What about the ecological health of the river itself? The health of the fish? The health of the beaches and riparian forest? What about all of the critters that depend on the river for survival?

In 2024 and 2025, the U.S. Dept of Interior will put a new management regime in place for the river, and our voice — speaking for Ecology and Wild Nature — is needed now more than ever. From the proposed dams in Colorado, to the proposed decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam downstream, to the desiccated Colorado River Delta in Mexico, Nature needs a voice at the decision-making table.

With your support we will continue to push the boundaries of who and what are allowed to be stakeholders in this process. Instead of a small number of powerful water brokers making decisions, a much broader constituency that truly reflects the diversity of the American people needs to be included.

With your support, we will continue to push our outspoken, aggressive, and consequential advocacy forward to give Nature a seat at the table.

With your support, the next 18 months might be the time where the “crisis” finally became about how humans have eviscerated the entire Colorado River system, and how it is the time to turn the wheels of justice so that the Natural World starts getting its own type of equity in the process and outcomes.

In the New Year, we will continue to raise a ruckus! And, the more support we have, the louder our voice gets.

Thank you for all of your past support, and thank you for supporting us again!

You can donate online by clicking here.

— Gary Wockner, Director, Save The Colorado