Hi Friends of the Colorado River!

The chaos swirls and escalates around the Colorado River as the reservoir levels drop. We are staying on top of every twist and turn, arguing whenever possible that everyone involved needs to also focus on the health and ecological sustainability of the rivers themselves, not just the water supply.

First on the political left, we were quoted heavily in this national story in Salon.com titled, “Left Out To Dry: Wildlife Threatened by Colorado River Basin Water Cuts”. And then a few days later on the political right, we were quoted in national Fox News in this story titled, “Green Energy Projects Face Stark Environmental, Local Opposition Nationwide”.

In both stories we have the same story to tell — that flowing rivers are important for human economies and for the non-human life forms that depend on the ecological health of rivers for survival. That our work resonates across the political spectrum signals to us that although the U.S. is gripped in a partisan election battle right now, the general public still strongly believes in environmental protection and that rivers should flow freely.

Further, the floundering Colorado River itself is surely proof-positive that there is no partisan solution to the problem. In fact, red states and blue states, and red governors and blue governors, in the Southwest U.S. are all struggling with the reality of the extreme drought, of the ongoing growth in human populations, and the specter of a warming and drying climate that scientists predict will make everything worse.

Our organization has worked hard to avoid partisan battle-lines, and instead keep our mission and story straight and clear — rivers should flow freely, dams kill rivers, and Nature should have a right to exist.

Second, we continue to stay in the middle of the story about how to deal with the collapsing Colorado River. The federal government has now signaled that it will step in and mandate cuts, which they’ve been refusing to do for the last few years as the system collapsed. However, it’s our opinion that the feds are still heading the wrong direction — they are proposing only modest cuts to water use, and they’re still trying to do everything possible to save Glen Canyon Dam.

We’ve made our point repeatedly, and loud and clear, that the best solution is the “one reservoir solution” which drains the little water left in Lake Powell down into Lake Mead to save Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. If the feds try to save both reservoirs, that action will likely collapse much of the agricultural economy of the entire Southwest U.S. because millions of acres of irrigated farms will have to be dried up.

Glen Canyon Dam is a dumb doomed dam that should have never been built. It’s time to Let Go.

We will continue to work hard to protect the rivers of the Southwest U.S., to fight against proposed new dams, and to give Nature a real voice in decision-making. It’s your support that keeps us working hard.

You can donate online by clicking here.

Thank you for your support!

Gary Wockner, Director, Save The Colorado