Take action for the Colorado River

Colorado River, Utah | Fin and Fur Films

The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the American Southwest. But it's in trouble. Too much water is being taken out of the river, and drought is only making it worse. The river is shrinking fast — putting people, wildlife, and entire ecosystems at risk. The good news: It doesn’t have to be this way. In 2026, the rules for how the Colorado River is managed will change. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to fix these outdated policies to prioritize river health and ensure we have the tools to protect the communities and wildlife that depend on a thriving Colorado River.

We cannot let this opportunity slip away. Join us in urging decision-makers to do everything within their power to choose a future where the river flows to the sea, native species thrive, and water is managed wisely for generations to come.

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Brandon

Gebhart

Wyoming Government

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Estevan

Lopez

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Hamby

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Buschatzke

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Gene

Shawcroft

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Entsminger

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Rebecca

Mitchell

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I’m writing to you with urgency to address the most pressing issue facing our community, state, and the Colorado River Basin as a whole. Our economy, environment, wildlife, and the social stability of the American Southwest depend on water security. As your constituent, I urge you to do everything within your power to support policies, subsidies, and incentives that save water at every opportunity and manage for healthier rivers and watersheds. In particular, I urge you to support the updating of the soon-to-expire 2007 Interim Guidelines to prioritize river health and improve ecosystem function so the river can continue to serve as the foundation for thriving rural cultures and economies, while breathing life into the communities, habitats, and landscapes that consider Colorado River Basin home. This is an exciting and unprecedented opportunity to ensure the Colorado River can be better managed for decades to come.
I also urge you to do the following:

- Encourage and incentivize water efficient agricultural practices through grants, tax breaks, and technical assistance. Reform the “use or lose it” water laws to encourage water savings rather than water waste.  
- Encourage reservoir operations that allow for releases to mimic natural river flows and thereby support river health, better fishing, increased recreation, and local economies.  
- Begin or support feasibility studies to remove unnecessary dams and reservoirs from the Colorado River Basin to increase river health and decrease evaporative loss. Discourage the construction of new reservoirs due to evaporation loss and the harmful effects to river health.
- Recognize tribal water rights and inclusion in decision-making. 
- Support the restoration of beavers and their wetlands as a cost effective manner to slow water during floods and spring runoff, create natural firebreaks, fill alluvial aquifers, and create wetter and more resilient watersheds. 
- Support endeavors that enable the Colorado River to continuously flow to the Gulf of California, fulfilling its important role of nourishing the Colorado River Delta, one of the world’s greatest historic wetlands. 
- Support endeavors that promote native fish species such as the cutthroat trout and Colorado pikeminnow. Discourage endeavors that release non-native fish into the system, such as smallmouth bass and rainbow trout.
- Invest in water saving infrastructure and technology such as replacing leaky pipes and installing water efficient sprinkler systems.

The Colorado River Basin is being managed by the 1922 Colorado River Compact and the statutes, court decisions, and agreements that stem from the Compact, which is based on values and infrastructure plans that are over a century old and designed for an amount of water that no longer exists. The designers of the compact and reservoir system that has followed didn’t know that their plan would result in 10-15% of the annual water to be lost from reservoir evaporation, that dams would result in the near extinction of multiple native species, or that their baseline data of water quantity was a dire overestimate. They most certainly didn’t know that average temperatures in the Southwest would rise nearly two degrees… and continue to climb. The “Law of the River” is in need of urgent updating to address the growing challenges ahead as the Southwest becomes hotter, dryer, and more populated.

The same strenuous efforts, national pride, and deep investments that went into the creation of the dams and diversions through the 1900s are now needed to reimagine and replan the future of the Colorado River Basin to be more holistically managed and more water efficient, and to place a greater emphasis on long-term health of the river and its landscapes. Revisions and updates to the soon-to-expire 2007 Interim Guidelines are the first step. To this end, I urge you to support the updated operations to the 2007 Interim Guidelines to the extent they prioritize river health and improve ecosystem function, and take advantage of this historic opportunity to better manage the river for generations to come.

Thank you for your time and your service.

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