This week, Bitterroot brings you three stories about the West’s defining resource: water. Whether you live in the lush Northwest or the Sonoran Desert, along the Colorado or the Columbia, water management plays a fundamental role in your life. This issue, published in collaboration with New Mexico In Depth and The Colorado Sun, examines three critical trends taking place in the West: water moving from rural to urban areas, stakeholders grappling over free-flowing rivers, and decreasing snowpack.
We hope you enjoy this special issue of Bitterroot magazine.
More Water or More Wild: The Decades-Long Struggle over the Gila River’s Fate (published in partnership with New Mexico In Depth): Before he died in March, M.H. “Dutch” Salmon spent decades protecting a free-flowing Gila River. In this story, Elizabeth Miller details Salmon’s life and his ability to connect with various stakeholders. She also explains how the people he mentored are opposing a diversion that farmers say could breathe life into this part of New Mexico.
As Denver Grows, a Rural Colorado Valley Fields Another Bid for its Water (published in partnership with The Colorado Sun): For nearly 40 years, residents of Colorado’s San Luis Valley have fought proposals to pipe water from the aquifer beneath the valley to the Denver metro area. But a new proposal, Joe Purtell writes, could have more staying power because of the changing economics of water in the fast-growing West.
Climate Change is Ruining Skiing. Aspen is Fighting Back: A good deal of the water you drink is stored as snowpack in the Rockies, Cascades, or Sierra Nevada. That’s not lost on Auden Schendler, who oversees sustainability efforts for Aspen Skiing Company. Writer Sarah Scoles details Schendler’s approach to saving snow — something critical not just for ski resorts, but for water supply across the region.
