the last time I came here I watched 90
miles across and dry forgot the river
channel
but in the spring of 2014
something happened a river of sand
became wet once again and the first time
the Colorado River kissed the sea in
nearly two decades
we can bring a river back to life if we
try thank you very much for coming it’s
a great honor to be here about 20 years
ago I had the the unusual experience to
walk into the building next door and try
to sell him a story which ended up being
my first story with National Geographic
it was a story taking a biplane from
London to Cape Town South Africa we
re-enacted the first African air passage
they did it 1920 we did it in 1998 they
did it in 43 days in 1920 we did it in
58 in 1998 but it gave me a very unusual
perspective not only on Africa and
aviation but on on rivers I got to fly
up the length of the Nile River the
longest in the world so I came home and
started talking with my father actually
who got me pointed in this direction of
looking at the Colorado River a river
that I actually grew up on but I didn’t
really know what that well to be honest
I knew where the Grand Canyon is there
in the middle but I didn’t really know
what happens to the end of the river and
below the Grand Canyon and where does
the river actually go where does it end
and as a native Coloradans who drew up
right there in the Roaring Fork Valley I
thought it would be an interesting story
to follow this river so I came back home
I came back to a field I spent a lot of
time and I’d come every summer back home
and work on a ranch and move sprinklers
like this or flood irrigation systems
and I started wondering about the water
and where this goes and how long I want
to take this water to actually go to the
sea so I followed it I first started up
in the mountains where I live this is
Pyramid Peak 14,000 feet
I’ve actually skied this peak and I
skied it in June when there was nine
feet of snow I took this photo on
Christmas Day two years ago there’s
three inches of snow so we’re facing
some climate
change issues and we’re also seeing some
influence coming in from the West to us
this is Snowmass peak not far from where
i live also 14,000 feet and you see that
brown tint that’s actually dust that’s
been blown in from the West because of
more development basically through road
construction some oil and gas and what
happens is it creates this trans
evaporation process where the particles
in the of the the dust actually retain
the sun’s heat and melt the snow faster
so we’re losing a runoff at a much
faster rate they say we’re losing the
river about 5% of the river due to this
trans evaporation process now the
Colorado is not the largest or the
longest river in the u.s. it’s actually
the seventh but many would argue that
it’s the most loved and litigated this
is near Kremmling Colorado and if you
look in the top of the frame that’s
looking due east I’m looking at the
Continental Divide you look what appears
to be a healthy River but in fact this
river is actually flowing at about 50%
of its traditional capacity there are 22
trans basin diversion projects basically
tunnels that you can’t see that are
going underneath the Continental Divide
on the top of the frame and taking water
to Denver Boulder or Fort Collins
Colorado Springs now what’s interesting
about this is that water goes over there
that’s great they need the water but
that water never returns to the Colorado
River Basin so we’re taking water that
would end up in the Pacific and we’re
taking it putting in Atlantic so we’re
seeing some changes right out of the
gates they did a study on the Colorado
River and just the value it brings for
recreation they came back with a
staggering figure that is twenty six
billion dollars that this river produces
in revenue through fishing rafting
picnicking any form of recreation on the
length of this river that runs 1,500
miles if you put that on a Forbes 500
list would be ahead of Progressive
Insurance and US Airways so a river with
water in it has value most of that water
goes towards agriculture so I focused a
lot on the aerial perspective in part
because I think it gives us a
perspective of where we’ve been and
where we’re going with our landscape but
also because I had this crazy guy on the
right who I could hire at a rather
affordable price my father
so as we follow this river we are going
to come into Utah beautiful landscape
and you can see how this rivers
sculpting through
this is Castle Valley and if you get on
the ground in Canyonlands National Park
area Mesa arch a remarkable landscape
that’s been shaped with the uplift of
the Colorado Plateau and the Colorado
River of course helping carve it out and
create this magnificent architecture you
could do about a 90 degree turn go over
another Ridge and you look over on this
it’s a potash mine we actually need
potash for fertilizer have nothing
against potash but this image I used to
represent industry because industry is
becoming a large straw in the Colorado
River potash may not be that terrible
but oil and gas recently has been
picking up significantly in this part of
the world there was recently a water
option for during drought and all the
farmers went to the water auction to see
if they could get more water through
this drought year and they were outbid
on every single account by oil and gas
companies and one oil and gas will can
use one two five million gallons of
water just downstream is one of my
favorite images I took this with my
father we had to actually break into the
airport because to get here at sunrise
the airport opened at sunrise had to
crawl over the fence and let them in but
this is a double Oxbow
naturally-occurring and just downstream
of there you come into what I call the
Seas of the desert this is Lake Powell
the changes dramatically the ecology of
this river they say that it receives up
to 1400 cargo ship containers a day of
silt and sediment that’s basically the
memory of the Colorado Rockies flowing
down and it gets deposited in this
reservoir which affects fish and ecology
downstream and we’re quickly finding out
how much sediment is in there and what’s
happening is the lake is dropping
rapidly
we’re in our second decade of drought
and that white line is the bathtub ring
on Lake Powell it’s about 75 feet lake
palace now 51 percent capacity if you go
there right now it’s dropping one to six
inches a day and that’s the dam Glen
Canyon Dam it produces a hundred and
twenty million dollars in revenue
through its hydroelectric program that
goes back to federal programs for
transmission lines and actually native
fish species programs downstream but
we’re getting to such a point of drought
and water shortage that we’re
approaching
called Deadpool when there isn’t even
enough water to go over through the
turbines and spin those turbines now
just below that dam starts the Grand
Canyon
it’s 277 miles of one of the most
enchanted places on the planet that I’ve
seen it’s like going to another world of
geology and magic and of course it’s not
real anymore to some degree because this
river fluctuates through the habits and
needs of man as we have hydroelectric
demands with air conditioning and
whatnot it’s called as a whole
Grand Canyon is called America’s
ruthless Cathedral there is a proposal
out there right now to build a 1.4
mile-long tramway that will descend
1,300 feet and carry 4,000 people a day
into the Grand Canyon
now those that people don’t like to hike
or boat may think that’s great however
it’s also a sacred confluence right
there believed to be sacred by the Hopi
and the Zuni and some of the Navajo so
it’s creating a big controversy and
we’re going to see that play out in the
next few years this is the hope back
chub they basically been swimming this
river for 6,000 years and now there’s
only about 6,000 of them left because
they like warm water and once we put
that dam in of course it’s cold water
coming up below the dam so they’ve
retreated to this little confluence it’s
it’s milky color because of its high
calcium content there’s four species of
endangered fish left two have already
gone extinct this is naica weak point
and those are the drainer ease of the
pueblans that have been there since 1100
AD and so many of the Native Americans
that live around the Grand Canyon
there’s actually 11 tribes it’s
surrounded Grand Canyon National Park
and they believe that this is where they
came from and where they go this is
their spirit world and just to give you
a little idea behind capturing some of
these images I can see this image about
five years ago when I went down there
another trip but you have to first you
have to get a permit to get down there
you get that then you go down and River
trip then you have to secure a campsite
near the spot because you can’t reserve
those it’s first-come first-serve and
you have to hopefully time your permit
lines up with a full moon then you have
to go up with some some high-powered
spotlights because you can’t go up to
the granary so you got to shine them on
a
very specific tripod and hope it all
lines up and boom that’s what sometimes
one image can take now we may go through
whooping and hollering as tourists into
the Grand Canyon but there are many
people who take it very seriously this
is a Havasupai elder who has come down I
happen to go down there this last spring
and it just coincided with the Hopi Zuni
Navajo and Hualapai spiritual trips it’s
partially flooded by that money coming
upstream from the Glen Canyon Dam so
this is a big deal and of course I asked
him what do you think of all these
people hooting and hollering and having
parties in the Grand Canyon says well
there’s nothing I can do about it but I
just hope you respect it in 1903
President Roosevelt came to the South
Rim of this Canyon it’s on the right
side you can see the South Rim in the
right corner up there and he says leave
it as it is the ages have been at work
on this and man can only Mar it and I
think we’ve done a pretty good job but
the threats are definitely looming in
the distance tomorrow there’s new
development that wants to be built up
all around the Grand Canyon there’s
water challenges there’s this tramway
uranium mines have been trying to get in
there for a while they’ve been fended
off for about 20 years but it’s
something that’s not going to go away
anytime soon if we don’t keep a close
eye on it the river on the other hand we
may have not done the best job of
maintaining it through the canyon now
the water color here is emerald green
looks beautiful but it’s not very
natural and just represents how we’ve
changed the dynamic of this river and of
course that clear waters are routing a
lot of the natural sand and sediment now
this is one of the most storied Rapids
this is called the V wave if you can get
through here and not lose yours you’re
in great shape I went through with my
brother in these boats that some boatman
described as being built of paper mache
and baby bird bones this is the oh crap
face of here we go into the V wave I’m
on the left my brother on the right he’s
got more of an elk crap face this is oh
god we’ve just plant a is just gone
sideways because we’ve just lost an oar
we’re going to plan B this is oh we’re
going to die because we’re going into
the big kahuna wave now with no oars
we’re taking this little tiny flimsy
wooden boat through the middle of this
giant rapid and realize we’re about to
flip
so we thought we were dead but we made
it somehow and of course we smiled to
the end it was the first time I got to
show my brother the Grand Canyon there’s
a highlight for me because this river on
some levels there’s an expression called
River capture where one watershed will
basically out erode another one and
capture its water and take it with you
and essentially what does it happen to
me as I feel like the Colorado River on
some level has captured my curiosity and
and part of my soul so I keep going back
so it’s a real treat to share with my
brother when you leave the Grand Canyon
you come to Lake Mead Hoover Dam you’ve
all heard of this remarkable piece of
engineering that they built in 1935 used
to be the largest dam in the world and
just like upstream but even worse at
this point Lake Mead is now at its
all-time record low 39% Las Vegas which
sits next to Lake Mead and and myself
included when I started this project
many of us point to Las Vegas the Oasis
dream the big problem their water intake
is so close to the water level now and
like me that they’re actually spending a
billion dollars to construct the third
straw they’re basically building a
bathtub drain from under here all the
way back over to Vegas because if the
water gets any closer to the their
intake valve by law they’re not be able
to use it
so we’re fearing some very significant
changes in infrastructure Vegas on this
at the same time which is very
interesting to me when I learned this
they wrote a law of the river in 1922
which basically divvied up the Colorado
River into seven states they cut it up
into different pies and nobody Vegas
didn’t really exist in 1922 so nobody to
expect there to be this booming Oasis
dream so they didn’t give them very much
water so Vegas is now reforged to use
their water very wisely they recycle a
lot of their fountains and pools they do
mandatory pool coverings a lot of the
fountains are grey water they’ve been
taking the smart scaping zero escaping
to another level they realized 70% of
their water from the Colorado River was
going to people’s front lawns so they
started a program where they would
actually pay people $2 a square foot
it’s now a dollar 50 to tear out their
front lawn I took that first picture
at 8:00 in the morning I took that
picture the same day at 11:00 crew came
in whipped out the lawn
gave a guy a check and adios and the
hope of course is that the owaisi’s
dream that many of us may love and joy
will be able to continue on some level
but also the way sees dreamed for
critters like this the Rocky Mountain
toad that had a love affair with my
camera when I was looking for humpback
chub wouldn’t leave me alone they’ll
have water too
the Gila River downstream this was taken
in 1936
one of the last tributaries of the
Colorado that’s today that was taken by
my friend John Waterman who paddled the
length of the Colorado River and then we
come back down into Yuma Arizona right
before the Colorado River crosses over
to the US Mexican border a massive
amount of lettuce production here
agriculture throughout the region and so
if you’re sitting in this room you say
this is interesting Pete in Colorado
rivers beautiful maybe I’ll go raft it
one day but I mean come on I got plenty
of water here in Washington DC wise as
why is this concerned me it actually
concerns all of us on some level because
every piece of lettuce that you buy in a
grocery store in the month of December
and January come from the Colorado River
it’s the only place that supplies the
nation it’s basically the nation’s salad
bowl comes from this part of the world
so we all eat the Colorado River whether
you are aware of it or not I grew up on
a cattle ranch I’m not opposed to the
production of beef if it’s done wisely I
don’t know if this is the wisest method
having feed Lots in the Imperial Valley
where it’s 128 degrees so I think we
need to start moving towards smart
agriculture there’s also some antiquated
laws where if you don’t use your water
you’ll lose it so there’s farmers in
this area that are growing five six
cuttings of alfalfa and I’m actually
shipping it to Asia because they don’t
want to lose their water even though
they don’t need the money so we’re in
some ways we’re actually exporting some
of our water in the form of alfalfa to
Asia and then you come after the last
major dam on the river there’s 12 major
dams on the river this is the Morelos
Dam this is the US Mexican border for 22
miles River becomes the border runs due
south and if you go below the dam
I did with John when he was paddling
just two miles in New Mexico you come to
the end of the river then Franklin said
we learned the value of water when the
well runs dry this is the well running
dry and this is what it looked like when
I was paddling through what is this
stuff all I know is I’m not that excited
to get into this water so this is what’s
become of a mighty Colorado yeah so we
packed up our boats 90 miles shy of the
sea and started walking there were many
times where I wondered why the hell I
was carrying a boat on my back the
Colorado river’s run to the Sea of
Cortez for six million years not a
single drop of it has run naturally to
the sea since 1998 it was one of the
largest desert estuaries in North
America this is the western flank of it
over on the Baja side three thousand
square miles
Jaguars Cottonwood forests took me two
days to find this image that’s what
we’ve changed it to some people say well
who cares about the Delta you know who
why should we put water down there but
I’m pretty much guarantee of this guy
cares 20,000 cocoapod Indians used to
live in the Delta this was their
traditional fishing grounds this guy
learned to fish here it’s dried up in
his lifetime and I’m pretty sure if this
happened to my river in my backyard I’d
probably feel similar but feel
frustrated just to give you an idea of
where that is exactly this little red
circle is the center that’s the Delta
and work that little Frappuccino pit I
was paddling it is on the kind of the
middle bottom third of that circle so I
think of these rivers off in his
arteries they help connect communities
they actually help connect wildlife they
support our agriculture that keep
salinity in our in our water table at
bay potentially you know they connect
our human spirit on some level so I
think that Colorado today is a very
powerful metaphor on so many levels
because it shows us what happens when we
ask too much of a limited resource it
disappears I ended here in the Delta
this last spring there was an
experimental pulse flow thanks to the
hard work of very very many from a vast
group of people and this is what became
of the river this was actually less than
1% of the rivers annual flow
it was Mexico’s water it was part of a
new agreement called minute three one
nine very interesting because they
Mexico basically had an earthquake that
fractured its irrigation system they
said we need some help we can’t store
water anywhere it’s time to work
together for a change so they went to
the US and this is two miles and this is
about where that Frappuccino pit was
beautiful scene of people coming out
from all over Mexico not only restoring
the vegetation but the spirit of the
river anyway Mexico said we need help
neo said all right so they came back to
the table and said RA we’re going to
renegotiate Mexico’s water they do get
an allocation but now they’re going to
make sure the Mexico’s allegation is
shares in surplus and shortage and that
they’ll dedicate some water to the Delta
so this was that water dedicated it was
released for eight weeks to see how it
did to try to spawn some of the
seedlings cottonwoods and willows and it
was pretty remarkable
we took paddle boards and canoes all the
way across it in 1922 Aldo Leopold took
a canoe across the Delta and he wrote
the river was nowhere and everywhere for
he could not for he could not decide
which of a hundred green lagoons take to
the sea beautiful line that I’ve used
over and over at water talks about the
Colorado River and I never ever thought
that I would actually see this and
paddle across the green lagoon in the
Delta so it’s very encouraging to see
that we can make a change
go over that this is an improvement I
swear you’re moving this is called
moving an itch our bushwhacking serene
in a trickle of water like a paddleboard
is an upgrade trust me we doing here the
last time I came here I walked 90 miles
across a dry forgotten river channel my
backyard river Colorado
I’ve been chasing its flow for years
most people think of it as that loved
architect of the Grand Canyon
carrying the memory of the Rocky
Mountains near my home in Colorado but
it is different down here at the end our
steel plumbing on this southwest
lifeline have sucked it dry so we can
eat baby spinach in January but in the
spring of 2014
something happened two countries decided
to work together to restore a delta the
hands of many lifted the gates on the
morales dam and released a temporary
pulse of water less than 1% of the
rivers flow mexico’s allocated agua into
the delta to see what would happen a
river of sand became wet once again
and a Fiesta ignited downstream
locals celebrated the return of their
Rio
the native species exploded the seeds
the river party only lasted a few weeks
though part a we did what any river
lovers with you we floated it by canoe
paddle board and eventually slotted by
foot crossing the shallows and I believe
this in Colorado market down because
generally yes Rio Colorado pretty
friggin nice River right now it looks
amazing
usually this part of the river is
completely dried sand noise and it’s
been many years like that on May 7th
after nine thirteen hour-long paddling
days sometime I can barely stand across
90 miles of the Delta and reach the sea
who’s the first and only paddle board
crossing of the new Delta and the first
time the Colorado River kissed the sea
nearly two decades
on many levels it was a preposterous
journey foolish even wrongheaded also
beautiful and symbolic that with a
relative trickle we can bring a river
back to life if we try
you
miles across and dry forgot the river
channel
but in the spring of 2014
something happened a river of sand
became wet once again and the first time
the Colorado River kissed the sea in
nearly two decades
we can bring a river back to life if we
try thank you very much for coming it’s
a great honor to be here about 20 years
ago I had the the unusual experience to
walk into the building next door and try
to sell him a story which ended up being
my first story with National Geographic
it was a story taking a biplane from
London to Cape Town South Africa we
re-enacted the first African air passage
they did it 1920 we did it in 1998 they
did it in 43 days in 1920 we did it in
58 in 1998 but it gave me a very unusual
perspective not only on Africa and
aviation but on on rivers I got to fly
up the length of the Nile River the
longest in the world so I came home and
started talking with my father actually
who got me pointed in this direction of
looking at the Colorado River a river
that I actually grew up on but I didn’t
really know what that well to be honest
I knew where the Grand Canyon is there
in the middle but I didn’t really know
what happens to the end of the river and
below the Grand Canyon and where does
the river actually go where does it end
and as a native Coloradans who drew up
right there in the Roaring Fork Valley I
thought it would be an interesting story
to follow this river so I came back home
I came back to a field I spent a lot of
time and I’d come every summer back home
and work on a ranch and move sprinklers
like this or flood irrigation systems
and I started wondering about the water
and where this goes and how long I want
to take this water to actually go to the
sea so I followed it I first started up
in the mountains where I live this is
Pyramid Peak 14,000 feet
I’ve actually skied this peak and I
skied it in June when there was nine
feet of snow I took this photo on
Christmas Day two years ago there’s
three inches of snow so we’re facing
some climate
change issues and we’re also seeing some
influence coming in from the West to us
this is Snowmass peak not far from where
i live also 14,000 feet and you see that
brown tint that’s actually dust that’s
been blown in from the West because of
more development basically through road
construction some oil and gas and what
happens is it creates this trans
evaporation process where the particles
in the of the the dust actually retain
the sun’s heat and melt the snow faster
so we’re losing a runoff at a much
faster rate they say we’re losing the
river about 5% of the river due to this
trans evaporation process now the
Colorado is not the largest or the
longest river in the u.s. it’s actually
the seventh but many would argue that
it’s the most loved and litigated this
is near Kremmling Colorado and if you
look in the top of the frame that’s
looking due east I’m looking at the
Continental Divide you look what appears
to be a healthy River but in fact this
river is actually flowing at about 50%
of its traditional capacity there are 22
trans basin diversion projects basically
tunnels that you can’t see that are
going underneath the Continental Divide
on the top of the frame and taking water
to Denver Boulder or Fort Collins
Colorado Springs now what’s interesting
about this is that water goes over there
that’s great they need the water but
that water never returns to the Colorado
River Basin so we’re taking water that
would end up in the Pacific and we’re
taking it putting in Atlantic so we’re
seeing some changes right out of the
gates they did a study on the Colorado
River and just the value it brings for
recreation they came back with a
staggering figure that is twenty six
billion dollars that this river produces
in revenue through fishing rafting
picnicking any form of recreation on the
length of this river that runs 1,500
miles if you put that on a Forbes 500
list would be ahead of Progressive
Insurance and US Airways so a river with
water in it has value most of that water
goes towards agriculture so I focused a
lot on the aerial perspective in part
because I think it gives us a
perspective of where we’ve been and
where we’re going with our landscape but
also because I had this crazy guy on the
right who I could hire at a rather
affordable price my father
so as we follow this river we are going
to come into Utah beautiful landscape
and you can see how this rivers
sculpting through
this is Castle Valley and if you get on
the ground in Canyonlands National Park
area Mesa arch a remarkable landscape
that’s been shaped with the uplift of
the Colorado Plateau and the Colorado
River of course helping carve it out and
create this magnificent architecture you
could do about a 90 degree turn go over
another Ridge and you look over on this
it’s a potash mine we actually need
potash for fertilizer have nothing
against potash but this image I used to
represent industry because industry is
becoming a large straw in the Colorado
River potash may not be that terrible
but oil and gas recently has been
picking up significantly in this part of
the world there was recently a water
option for during drought and all the
farmers went to the water auction to see
if they could get more water through
this drought year and they were outbid
on every single account by oil and gas
companies and one oil and gas will can
use one two five million gallons of
water just downstream is one of my
favorite images I took this with my
father we had to actually break into the
airport because to get here at sunrise
the airport opened at sunrise had to
crawl over the fence and let them in but
this is a double Oxbow
naturally-occurring and just downstream
of there you come into what I call the
Seas of the desert this is Lake Powell
the changes dramatically the ecology of
this river they say that it receives up
to 1400 cargo ship containers a day of
silt and sediment that’s basically the
memory of the Colorado Rockies flowing
down and it gets deposited in this
reservoir which affects fish and ecology
downstream and we’re quickly finding out
how much sediment is in there and what’s
happening is the lake is dropping
rapidly
we’re in our second decade of drought
and that white line is the bathtub ring
on Lake Powell it’s about 75 feet lake
palace now 51 percent capacity if you go
there right now it’s dropping one to six
inches a day and that’s the dam Glen
Canyon Dam it produces a hundred and
twenty million dollars in revenue
through its hydroelectric program that
goes back to federal programs for
transmission lines and actually native
fish species programs downstream but
we’re getting to such a point of drought
and water shortage that we’re
approaching
called Deadpool when there isn’t even
enough water to go over through the
turbines and spin those turbines now
just below that dam starts the Grand
Canyon
it’s 277 miles of one of the most
enchanted places on the planet that I’ve
seen it’s like going to another world of
geology and magic and of course it’s not
real anymore to some degree because this
river fluctuates through the habits and
needs of man as we have hydroelectric
demands with air conditioning and
whatnot it’s called as a whole
Grand Canyon is called America’s
ruthless Cathedral there is a proposal
out there right now to build a 1.4
mile-long tramway that will descend
1,300 feet and carry 4,000 people a day
into the Grand Canyon
now those that people don’t like to hike
or boat may think that’s great however
it’s also a sacred confluence right
there believed to be sacred by the Hopi
and the Zuni and some of the Navajo so
it’s creating a big controversy and
we’re going to see that play out in the
next few years this is the hope back
chub they basically been swimming this
river for 6,000 years and now there’s
only about 6,000 of them left because
they like warm water and once we put
that dam in of course it’s cold water
coming up below the dam so they’ve
retreated to this little confluence it’s
it’s milky color because of its high
calcium content there’s four species of
endangered fish left two have already
gone extinct this is naica weak point
and those are the drainer ease of the
pueblans that have been there since 1100
AD and so many of the Native Americans
that live around the Grand Canyon
there’s actually 11 tribes it’s
surrounded Grand Canyon National Park
and they believe that this is where they
came from and where they go this is
their spirit world and just to give you
a little idea behind capturing some of
these images I can see this image about
five years ago when I went down there
another trip but you have to first you
have to get a permit to get down there
you get that then you go down and River
trip then you have to secure a campsite
near the spot because you can’t reserve
those it’s first-come first-serve and
you have to hopefully time your permit
lines up with a full moon then you have
to go up with some some high-powered
spotlights because you can’t go up to
the granary so you got to shine them on
a
very specific tripod and hope it all
lines up and boom that’s what sometimes
one image can take now we may go through
whooping and hollering as tourists into
the Grand Canyon but there are many
people who take it very seriously this
is a Havasupai elder who has come down I
happen to go down there this last spring
and it just coincided with the Hopi Zuni
Navajo and Hualapai spiritual trips it’s
partially flooded by that money coming
upstream from the Glen Canyon Dam so
this is a big deal and of course I asked
him what do you think of all these
people hooting and hollering and having
parties in the Grand Canyon says well
there’s nothing I can do about it but I
just hope you respect it in 1903
President Roosevelt came to the South
Rim of this Canyon it’s on the right
side you can see the South Rim in the
right corner up there and he says leave
it as it is the ages have been at work
on this and man can only Mar it and I
think we’ve done a pretty good job but
the threats are definitely looming in
the distance tomorrow there’s new
development that wants to be built up
all around the Grand Canyon there’s
water challenges there’s this tramway
uranium mines have been trying to get in
there for a while they’ve been fended
off for about 20 years but it’s
something that’s not going to go away
anytime soon if we don’t keep a close
eye on it the river on the other hand we
may have not done the best job of
maintaining it through the canyon now
the water color here is emerald green
looks beautiful but it’s not very
natural and just represents how we’ve
changed the dynamic of this river and of
course that clear waters are routing a
lot of the natural sand and sediment now
this is one of the most storied Rapids
this is called the V wave if you can get
through here and not lose yours you’re
in great shape I went through with my
brother in these boats that some boatman
described as being built of paper mache
and baby bird bones this is the oh crap
face of here we go into the V wave I’m
on the left my brother on the right he’s
got more of an elk crap face this is oh
god we’ve just plant a is just gone
sideways because we’ve just lost an oar
we’re going to plan B this is oh we’re
going to die because we’re going into
the big kahuna wave now with no oars
we’re taking this little tiny flimsy
wooden boat through the middle of this
giant rapid and realize we’re about to
flip
so we thought we were dead but we made
it somehow and of course we smiled to
the end it was the first time I got to
show my brother the Grand Canyon there’s
a highlight for me because this river on
some levels there’s an expression called
River capture where one watershed will
basically out erode another one and
capture its water and take it with you
and essentially what does it happen to
me as I feel like the Colorado River on
some level has captured my curiosity and
and part of my soul so I keep going back
so it’s a real treat to share with my
brother when you leave the Grand Canyon
you come to Lake Mead Hoover Dam you’ve
all heard of this remarkable piece of
engineering that they built in 1935 used
to be the largest dam in the world and
just like upstream but even worse at
this point Lake Mead is now at its
all-time record low 39% Las Vegas which
sits next to Lake Mead and and myself
included when I started this project
many of us point to Las Vegas the Oasis
dream the big problem their water intake
is so close to the water level now and
like me that they’re actually spending a
billion dollars to construct the third
straw they’re basically building a
bathtub drain from under here all the
way back over to Vegas because if the
water gets any closer to the their
intake valve by law they’re not be able
to use it
so we’re fearing some very significant
changes in infrastructure Vegas on this
at the same time which is very
interesting to me when I learned this
they wrote a law of the river in 1922
which basically divvied up the Colorado
River into seven states they cut it up
into different pies and nobody Vegas
didn’t really exist in 1922 so nobody to
expect there to be this booming Oasis
dream so they didn’t give them very much
water so Vegas is now reforged to use
their water very wisely they recycle a
lot of their fountains and pools they do
mandatory pool coverings a lot of the
fountains are grey water they’ve been
taking the smart scaping zero escaping
to another level they realized 70% of
their water from the Colorado River was
going to people’s front lawns so they
started a program where they would
actually pay people $2 a square foot
it’s now a dollar 50 to tear out their
front lawn I took that first picture
at 8:00 in the morning I took that
picture the same day at 11:00 crew came
in whipped out the lawn
gave a guy a check and adios and the
hope of course is that the owaisi’s
dream that many of us may love and joy
will be able to continue on some level
but also the way sees dreamed for
critters like this the Rocky Mountain
toad that had a love affair with my
camera when I was looking for humpback
chub wouldn’t leave me alone they’ll
have water too
the Gila River downstream this was taken
in 1936
one of the last tributaries of the
Colorado that’s today that was taken by
my friend John Waterman who paddled the
length of the Colorado River and then we
come back down into Yuma Arizona right
before the Colorado River crosses over
to the US Mexican border a massive
amount of lettuce production here
agriculture throughout the region and so
if you’re sitting in this room you say
this is interesting Pete in Colorado
rivers beautiful maybe I’ll go raft it
one day but I mean come on I got plenty
of water here in Washington DC wise as
why is this concerned me it actually
concerns all of us on some level because
every piece of lettuce that you buy in a
grocery store in the month of December
and January come from the Colorado River
it’s the only place that supplies the
nation it’s basically the nation’s salad
bowl comes from this part of the world
so we all eat the Colorado River whether
you are aware of it or not I grew up on
a cattle ranch I’m not opposed to the
production of beef if it’s done wisely I
don’t know if this is the wisest method
having feed Lots in the Imperial Valley
where it’s 128 degrees so I think we
need to start moving towards smart
agriculture there’s also some antiquated
laws where if you don’t use your water
you’ll lose it so there’s farmers in
this area that are growing five six
cuttings of alfalfa and I’m actually
shipping it to Asia because they don’t
want to lose their water even though
they don’t need the money so we’re in
some ways we’re actually exporting some
of our water in the form of alfalfa to
Asia and then you come after the last
major dam on the river there’s 12 major
dams on the river this is the Morelos
Dam this is the US Mexican border for 22
miles River becomes the border runs due
south and if you go below the dam
I did with John when he was paddling
just two miles in New Mexico you come to
the end of the river then Franklin said
we learned the value of water when the
well runs dry this is the well running
dry and this is what it looked like when
I was paddling through what is this
stuff all I know is I’m not that excited
to get into this water so this is what’s
become of a mighty Colorado yeah so we
packed up our boats 90 miles shy of the
sea and started walking there were many
times where I wondered why the hell I
was carrying a boat on my back the
Colorado river’s run to the Sea of
Cortez for six million years not a
single drop of it has run naturally to
the sea since 1998 it was one of the
largest desert estuaries in North
America this is the western flank of it
over on the Baja side three thousand
square miles
Jaguars Cottonwood forests took me two
days to find this image that’s what
we’ve changed it to some people say well
who cares about the Delta you know who
why should we put water down there but
I’m pretty much guarantee of this guy
cares 20,000 cocoapod Indians used to
live in the Delta this was their
traditional fishing grounds this guy
learned to fish here it’s dried up in
his lifetime and I’m pretty sure if this
happened to my river in my backyard I’d
probably feel similar but feel
frustrated just to give you an idea of
where that is exactly this little red
circle is the center that’s the Delta
and work that little Frappuccino pit I
was paddling it is on the kind of the
middle bottom third of that circle so I
think of these rivers off in his
arteries they help connect communities
they actually help connect wildlife they
support our agriculture that keep
salinity in our in our water table at
bay potentially you know they connect
our human spirit on some level so I
think that Colorado today is a very
powerful metaphor on so many levels
because it shows us what happens when we
ask too much of a limited resource it
disappears I ended here in the Delta
this last spring there was an
experimental pulse flow thanks to the
hard work of very very many from a vast
group of people and this is what became
of the river this was actually less than
1% of the rivers annual flow
it was Mexico’s water it was part of a
new agreement called minute three one
nine very interesting because they
Mexico basically had an earthquake that
fractured its irrigation system they
said we need some help we can’t store
water anywhere it’s time to work
together for a change so they went to
the US and this is two miles and this is
about where that Frappuccino pit was
beautiful scene of people coming out
from all over Mexico not only restoring
the vegetation but the spirit of the
river anyway Mexico said we need help
neo said all right so they came back to
the table and said RA we’re going to
renegotiate Mexico’s water they do get
an allocation but now they’re going to
make sure the Mexico’s allegation is
shares in surplus and shortage and that
they’ll dedicate some water to the Delta
so this was that water dedicated it was
released for eight weeks to see how it
did to try to spawn some of the
seedlings cottonwoods and willows and it
was pretty remarkable
we took paddle boards and canoes all the
way across it in 1922 Aldo Leopold took
a canoe across the Delta and he wrote
the river was nowhere and everywhere for
he could not for he could not decide
which of a hundred green lagoons take to
the sea beautiful line that I’ve used
over and over at water talks about the
Colorado River and I never ever thought
that I would actually see this and
paddle across the green lagoon in the
Delta so it’s very encouraging to see
that we can make a change
go over that this is an improvement I
swear you’re moving this is called
moving an itch our bushwhacking serene
in a trickle of water like a paddleboard
is an upgrade trust me we doing here the
last time I came here I walked 90 miles
across a dry forgotten river channel my
backyard river Colorado
I’ve been chasing its flow for years
most people think of it as that loved
architect of the Grand Canyon
carrying the memory of the Rocky
Mountains near my home in Colorado but
it is different down here at the end our
steel plumbing on this southwest
lifeline have sucked it dry so we can
eat baby spinach in January but in the
spring of 2014
something happened two countries decided
to work together to restore a delta the
hands of many lifted the gates on the
morales dam and released a temporary
pulse of water less than 1% of the
rivers flow mexico’s allocated agua into
the delta to see what would happen a
river of sand became wet once again
and a Fiesta ignited downstream
locals celebrated the return of their
Rio
the native species exploded the seeds
the river party only lasted a few weeks
though part a we did what any river
lovers with you we floated it by canoe
paddle board and eventually slotted by
foot crossing the shallows and I believe
this in Colorado market down because
generally yes Rio Colorado pretty
friggin nice River right now it looks
amazing
usually this part of the river is
completely dried sand noise and it’s
been many years like that on May 7th
after nine thirteen hour-long paddling
days sometime I can barely stand across
90 miles of the Delta and reach the sea
who’s the first and only paddle board
crossing of the new Delta and the first
time the Colorado River kissed the sea
nearly two decades
on many levels it was a preposterous
journey foolish even wrongheaded also
beautiful and symbolic that with a
relative trickle we can bring a river
back to life if we try
you
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