John Fielder, the man who loved natural beauty

If you’ve ever bought a calendar or coffee table book featuring the grandeur of Colorado’s 14’ers, the stunning color photographs…
John Fielder, credit Gary Wockner/Save the Colorado
MoreA dogged reporter covers our roiling world

Usually seen with a camera slung around his neck, Allen Best edits a one-man online journalism shop he calls Big…
Allen Best at work
MoreBoondoggle on the Colorado River

You’d think the Earth shook recently when the three states of California, Arizona and Nevada announced they’d reached a deal…
Glen Canyon Dam, Courtesy Bureau of Reclamation
MoreA Colorado reservoir gets ready for an epic snowmelt

Reservoir manager Ken Beck says wryly that he has lots of water coming his way, “and I need a hole…
Ken Beck at the Pine River Irrigation headquarters
MoreAtmospheric rivers endanger the West

Moab, Utah, gets just eight inches of rain per year, yet rainwater flooded John Weisheit’s basement last summer. Extremes are…
Glen Canyon Dam under construction 1960-63, courtesy USBR
MoreComing soon, the Apocalypse, maybe

Just about every video game, young adult novel and buzz-worthy streaming series agree that we need to prepare for a…
Photo by Intricate Explorer, Via Unsplash
MoreBusiness as usual for the Colorado River

It seemed inevitable that the dwindling Colorado River would be divvied up by the federal Bureau of Reclamation. On June…
Winterhaven, CA, Imperial Dam, where 90% of the Colorado River is desilted and sent to numerous irrigation districts in CA and AZ. Courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation
MoreThe Colorado River comes alive even as it ebbs

The Colorado River is revealing its secrets. For decades a World War II landing craft lay submerged 200 feet beneath…
MoreDitches are a vanishing paradise

Annette Choszczyk lives in rural western Colorado these days, but when she was a kid, the Highline Canal in Denver…
Photo of North Fork Valley, Co, courtesy of Kenita Burns Moore
MoreThe Colorado River Compact Hasn’t Aged Well

The Colorado River Compact turns 100 this year, but any celebration is damped down by the drying-up of the big…
The public launch ramp at Antelope Point, late March, 2021
MoreDon’t blame the Upper Basin states

But the Bureau of Reclamation has regularly and faithfully released to the Lower Basin, from Powell Reservoir, the Colorado River Compact and Mexican Treaty allotments –- 8.23 million acre-feet only dropping a little below those allotments half a dozen times since Powell began to fill in the 1960s.
Bryan Egner US Dept. of energy Glen Canyon Dam 2018
MoreImagine a great river, flowing free

Some environmental groups and water honchos have sponsored a “Rewilding of Glen Canyon” contest, with the winner getting $4,000 “and…
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