Abstract
Over the past 200 years, the large majority of Colorado's rivers have been altered to make way for development, agriculture, or transportation, or to deliver water to users more efficiently. Rivers have been buried by mining debris or concrete, channelized, levied, wholly diverted, riparian vegetation lost by grazing or land use practices, and thousands of miles of streams have become incised, disconnected from their foodplains. Numerous scientific studies over the past twenty years have documented why degraded rivers are problematic and why healthy functioning river systems connected to their foodplains provide numerous critical services beyond water delivery, including increased protection for Colorado communities through reduced risk of impacts from drought, wildfires and foods, improved water quality by filtering sediments and other pollutants, increased habitat in streams and riparian areas, and increased resiliency for the State's water resources. Fortunately, many case studies are also showing how we can restore our degraded streams to regain these incredible benefits.
Recommended Citation
John Cyran, Hattie Johnson, Jacquelyn Corday & Andrew Teegarden,
Healthy Rivers are Critical forColorado's Water ResourcesResilience: How Colorado Water Law Needs to Evolve to Protect Our Natural Stream Systems,
35
Colo. Env’t L. J.
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/celj/vol35/iss2/2