Colorado Rivers Update: In 2024, the Cache la Poudre River is in the Crosshairs of Destruction. We will help!

Hi Friends of the Colorado River,

In 2024, we are going to start teaming up with more organizations in more places to bring our unique brand of river protection — outspoken, aggressive, and litigious — to fight bad dam, diversion, and pipeline projects.

First and foremost, we are teaming up with our sister organization — “Save The Poudre” — that has been fighting proposed massive new dams and pipelines on the “Poudre River” for the last 20 years. The Poudre River, which starts at the continental divide in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado (photo left) and then flows down Poudre Canyon and through Fort Collins, is all plumbed together with the Colorado River. For example:

• The big proposed massive dam — the “Northern Integrated Supply Project” (NISP) — that Save The Poudre has been fighting for 20 years would be built by “Northern Water” which is the same govt agency that built and operates the so-called “Colorado-Big Thompson Project” which is the biggest transmountain diversion of water out of the Colorado River in the Rocky Mountains.
• The proposed “Thornton Pipeline” on the Poudre River would be built by the City of Thornton, CO, which partly owns the “Grand Ditch” which is the first transmountain diversion of water out of the Colorado River headwaters (and into the Poudre River) in Rocky Mountain National Park.
• The City of Fort Collins is trying to build a large new dam on the North Fork of the Poudre River, while at the same time getting about 1/2 of its water out of the Colorado River through the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.
• And finally, the City of Greeley is also trying to divert more water out of the Poudre River into a large aquifer storage project while also getting about 1/2 of its water out of the Colorado River through the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.

All four of these projects are coming to a head in 2024 and are, or likely will be, in various permit processes or in state or federal court. By joining arms with all of our river-protection colleagues in Fort Collins, we are a bigger, louder, and stronger voice together that can hopefully bring consequential change to the future of the Poudre River and then use that example to protect rivers across the Colorado River basin.

So, stay tuned to hear a lot more about the Cache la Poudre River of northern Colorado over the next year, and know that we are expanding our work to fill a niche wherever its needed. In 2024, the Cache la Poudre River is in the crosshairs of destruction, and it’s time for ‘all hands on deck’ to try and save it.

Stay tuned, and know that it’s your support that keeps us working hard!

You can donate online by clicking here.

Thank you!