American Whitewater floated a plan last year to expand protections for recreational river flows in Colorado. Maybe, the nonprofit protector of rivers thought, communities should not need to build whitewater parks to secure rights for recreational flows. “It definitely, you know, got some ears perked,” said Hattie Johnson, American Whitewater’s southern Rockies stewardship director. Colorado […]
Colorado River District
Opinion: The Windy Gap settlement is a win for the Western Slope and its waters
The history of Western Colorado’s water is told in stories of hard-fought wins and losses, of lawsuits and government petitions, of tough negotiations and collaboration. In Grand County, the history of Western Slope water — and Front Range demand for that water — is more visible than in other areas west of the Continental Divide. […]
Opinion: On this one thing, 9 Colorado water managers agree
We may not always agree on the particulars of water policy and water use in the Centennial State, but we all recognize the importance of the Colorado River to our statewide economy and our Colorado way of life. The Colorado River is arguably the single most important natural resource to the State of Colorado. It […]
As pandemic hammers its finances, Vail pulls out of state cloud seeding program
Vail Resorts Inc., one of the largest financial contributors to Colorado’s cloud seeding program, has dropped out this year, leaving a major hole in the program’s budget. Cloud seeding is a practice in which silver iodide pellets are sprayed into storm clouds in an effort to trigger more snowfall and ultimately, in the spring, more […]
Glenwood Springs needs $10.5 million — right now — to prepare for watershed impacts of Grizzly Creek Fire
GLENWOOD CANYON — Standing mere feet from where a human-caused spark on Interstate 70 above the Colorado River ignited the now 32,000-acre Grizzly Creek fire, Jonathan Godes painted a nightmare scenario that could have been. Glenwood Springs’ mayor said if that spark had been 5 miles downstream and exploded into a wildfire the size of […]
Proposal to shrink Holy Cross Wilderness, increase water storage draws hundreds of comments
Forty years after the Holy Cross Wilderness Area was created, an early effort to explore tapping its water supplies has generated more than 500 comments to the U.S. Forest Service. Aurora and Colorado Springs, which own and operate the only reservoir in the area, Homestake I, hope to demonstrate that they can divert more water from […]