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Alva B. Adams Tunnel

Beneath the glacier-carved peaks and valleys of Rocky Mountain National Park, below the alpine lakes and rushing streams, a concrete-lined tunnel belies the illusion of a pristine wilderness. In 1944, the two ends of the Alva B. Adams Tunnel were…

Bureau of Reclamation in Colorado

The United States Reclamation Service, later renamed the Bureau of Reclamation, was created in 1902 to advance settlement of the West through construction of large dams, reservoirs, canals, and other projects. Since then, the service has played an…

Carter Lake

Carter Lake is a reservoir located in the foothills northwest of Berthoud and southwest of Loveland. Created by three dams, it is approximately three miles long, with twelve miles of shoreline, a maximum depth of 180 feet, and a capacity of 112,228 acre…

Colorado Fisheries

Colorado, home to the headwaters of the Colorado River, the Arkansas River, the Rio Grande, and the South Platte River, offers a diverse palette of fisheries to the angler and nature enthusiast. The most iconic of these fishing opportunities are those…

Colorado Foundation for Water Education

In Colorado, water is a valuable and limited resource, and competition is only becoming more of a challenge. That’s why the Colorado Foundation for Water Education (CFWE), a non-advocacy nonprofit organization, works statewide to promote increased…

Colorado River

The Colorado is the premier river of the American Southwest. Rising in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming, this river and its tributaries provide water and hydroelectric power for nearly 35 million people in the United States and Mexico, as well as…

Colorado River Water Conservation District

The Colorado River Water Conservation District, generally known as “The River District,” is a public agency dedicated to protecting and developing Colorado’s share of the Colorado River.
 
 Origins and Establishment
 
 The River District…

Colorado Water Institute

The Colorado Water Institute (CWI), an affiliate of Colorado State University (CSU) since 1965, exists for the express purpose of focusing the expertise of higher education on evolving water concerns and problems in the Centennial State.
 
…

Colorado–Big Thompson Project

The Colorado–Big Thompson Project (C–BT) is the largest transmountain water diversion in the state of Colorado. Built between 1938 and 1956, the C–BT Project provides supplemental water for municipal, industrial, and irrigation purposes in…

Delph E. Carpenter

Lawyer, state senator, and interstate streams commissioner, Delph E. Carpenter (1877-1951) had lasting impact on Colorado and the western United States through his concept of river compacts. In persuading other states to negotiate the first…

Early Irrigation in Denver

Like most places in the arid American West, Denver could not possibly sustain itself without water from irrigation systems. While easy to overlook, disputes over water rights began with the onset of irrigation and persist to the present day. Today,…

Echo Park Dam Controversy

The controversy over the proposed Echo Park dam in the mid-1950s was a crucial episode in the conservation history of Colorado and the West and proved to be a milestone in American environmental history. Following years of debate, the US Congress decided…

Glaciers

Snow in the high country sometimes accumulates faster than it melts, leading to the formation and continuation of glaciers. Colorado is home to seven glacial regions that reside mainly in central and northern Colorado. Each area sustains unique…

Grand Valley Irrigation

The story of irrigation in Colorado’s Grand Valley speaks volumes about the reciprocal relationship between land and community in the arid American West. Early white colonizers of Colorado’s Western Slope espoused concepts of landscape and water control…

Gunnison River

The Gunnison River is a major tributary of the Colorado River, contributing about one-third of the Colorado’s flow at the Colorado-Utah state line. The basin drained by the Gunnison stretches from alpine meadows and forests along the Continental Divide…

Horsetooth Reservoir

Horsetooth Reservoir is located in the foothills just west of Fort Collins. The Bureau of Reclamation began construction of the reservoir in 1946 as part of the larger Colorado–Big Thompson Project, which provided additional irrigation water for the…

Irrigation in Colorado

The tension between aridity and irrigated agriculture has been a defining characteristic of Colorado for much of its modern history. On average, the state receives less than fifteen inches of annual precipitation, making it the seventh driest state in…

Lewis B. France

Lewis B. France (1833–1907) was a nationally renowned nature writer in the late 1800s and early 1900s, best known for his works on fly-fishing. France represented an emerging trend in the American West—the melding of natural resource utilization, tourism…

San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council

The San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council (SLVEC) helps to safeguard over 3.1 million acres of public lands and natural resources in the six counties comprising the San Luis Valley, noted for their unchanged landscapes, biological richness, early settlement…

Ski Industry

Colorado’s ski industry anchors the state’s thriving tourist economy. Built primarily on national forest lands, the state’s numerous ski resorts attract upwards of 12 million visitors annually, generating billions in revenue. Introduced to the state in…

Snow

Colorado is known for its snow, which sustains the ski industry and supplies much of the water that flows into major rivers of the American West. Snow falls in the winter in all parts of Colorado, and the deepest snowpacks are in the high mountains…

Water in Colorado

Water has profoundly shaped Colorado’s past and will play a vital role in its future. The resource is essential to the state’s agriculture, cities, industries, energy supply, and environment. Furthermore, eighteen other states and parts of Mexico rely on…

Water Law

Known collectively as “The Colorado Doctrine,” the state’s water laws arose primarily from the practice of farmers diverting water from streams through ditches onto irrigable land to grow food for homesteading families, miners, and growing towns. …

Wetlands and Riparian Areas

Wetlands are ecosystems that are at least periodically saturated or inundated by water, creating unique habitats that support a wide variety of plant and animal species. Colorado wetlands include a diverse range of ecosystem types, each with distinctive…