Watering the West Collection

156 rivers begin in Colorado. “The Mother of All Rivers” supplies 17 states and parts of Mexico with life-giving water. Our water begins in the Rockies, flows down rivers, pools in reservoirs, and has been bought, sold, fished, boated, measured and fought over since pioneers and engineers built the first diversions and ditches in the 1800s. Flow through history and down the Cache la Poudre River from Northern Colorado to the Mexican Land Grant where Ben Eaton learned how to bring water from the river to grow crops and cities in The Great American Desert.

They’re growing corn in a desert. Meet a Weld County farmer who sold land and water rights to a suburb of Denver, leases farm ground for an oil well, and donates to the Nature Conservancy. Farmers still own the majority of water in Colorado but this is changing fast. Can we grow people without building more reservoirs? Should scarce water supplies limit growth? Will those backpackers make it across the river?

Climate change threatens western water supplies and the “snowpack reservoir”. Year-long fire seasons threaten watersheds. Growth on the Front Range of Colorado threatens tourism and ranching on the Western Slope as 150 year old tunnels funnel water across the continental divide. But can the divide between East and West, cities and agriculture, business and recreation be bridged? How will Coloradans face a scarce water future together? Join us for Film 3 in the Watering the West Trilogy to envision a hopeful future of innovation and collaboration in the Headwaters State.