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Introduction
Documentary
Titles and Descriptions
List
of Participants
Azure Cliffs. Painting by Thomas Moran
Introduction
A provocative six-part series takes listeners on a Colorado River trip
from the mouth of the river to the delta to explore this
vital and vat watershed. The Colorado River, with its massive drainage
system, provides the lifeblood for the American West. While it once
formed a mighty barrier to exploration, today the river is known more
for its tumultuous lawsuits than for its roiling rapids. Yet legalities
tell only part of the story. Despite its nearly invisible presence through
much of the western U.S., the pervasive mystique and massive presence
of the Colorado River nourishes not only our cities and towns, but also
our imaginations.
Each 29-minute radio program
is rich with sound and voices of historians, writers, farmers, environmentalists,
leaders of American Indian tribes, poets, geologists, storytellers,
philosophers, and everyday citizens. The program also includes architects
of western water policy such as former Interior Secretaries Bruce Babbitt
and Stewart Udall, and former Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner, Floyd
Dominy.
Call your local National
Public Radio station and ask for it to be aired in your community. To
hear some of the program go to www.kunm.org and hit NEWS.
Titles
1.
Getting to Know the Flow
2. Law of the River
3.
Upstream Communities: Holding on to the Next Generation
4.
Clashes and Contentions
5.
Downstream Communities: Water Flows Uphill Toward Money
6.
The Colorado River as Our Mutual Future
Documentary
Descriptions
First
Half Hour - Getting to Know the Flow
In this first program, listeners "meet" the
river and discover its intricate ecosystem. The segment profiles the
size, scope, and diversity of the human, plant, and animal populations
that are dependent upon the Colorado River. It describes the breadth
of the riverís watershed, unveils its varied landscapes, and demonstrates
how the river system shapes our sensibilities as well as how our values
reshape the river. Topics include the link between Mormon social organization
and water, the accidental creation of the Salton Sea, compacts that
divide the water flow, and the value of watershed art and celebration.
List of Participants
Listen...
Second
Half Hour - Law of the River
In this episode, the question is asked: How do we think
about and understand the river? Does the river have rights? Or is it
only a commodity to be used and reused? In tracing the ideas that shaped
how we use the river, this half-hour program delves into how we allocated
every drop of the river flow, "plumbed" it, and continue to
live with the legal and historic impacts of this massive water delivery
system. Topics include the 1922 Compact, the mechanisms to manage the
river, and the construction of Hoover, Parker, and Davis dams. List
of Participants
Listen...
Third
Half Hour - Upstream Communities: Holding On To The Next Generation
In the West, people go where water flows. This half hour
is devoted to the human communities that have grown up in the Upper
Basin of the Colorado River. Each of these towns and cities contributes
specific activities and corresponding values to the river system. Ranching,
agriculture, mining, and tourism, like other forms of economic development,
only exist here because the river was there first. Sometimes these human
activities and values are in concert; other times, they clash. Since
in the West we "pump water uphill to money," cities far from
the river are also communities of the Colorado. Through interviews with
public officials, historians, business people and riverside community
residents, listeners discover some human sides of the Colorado River.
Topics include the stories of mountain men and Mormons, the diversions
to Denver, Albuquerque, and Salt Lake City; and the unintended consequences
of Cold War uranium mining on all who live downstream. List
of Participants
Listen...
Fourth
Half Hour - Clashes and Contentions
The fourth installment is a close up of decision-making
processes that have in the past and will continue in the future to affect
regional development and conservation. They are the Echo Park controversy
and the eventual construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, which flooded Glen
Canyon. Why were reservoirs thought to be required along the Colorado,
and what were the conflicts and push-and-pull interests, intentions, and
intrigue that resulted in the genesis of the modern environmental movement?
The story will be told through interviews with people on many sides of
the issues. List of Participants
Listen...
Fifth
Half Hour - Downstream Communities: Water Flows Uphill Toward Money
Program five uses the Central Arizona Project (CAP), a
massive delivery system that delivers river water 336 miles to communities
in eastern Arizona, to weave together the seemingly disparate stories
of coal-fired power on Hopi lands, the Southern Nevada Water Authority,
the relationship of water and electricity, and affirmation of water rights
for Native American communities. List of Participants
Listen...
Sixth
Half Hour - The Colorado River as Our Mutual Future
In this final segment, those people who use the river --
who manage it, fight for it, promote it, work it, and write about it --
have their opportunity to speak for it. As this final program illustrates,
we who live in its watershed, ride its rapids, drink its water, and use
its energy, experience the totality of the Colorado River not only through
out own senses, but also through the eyes and ears of others. Topics include
the recreation and aesthetics of the river, the needs of the Colorado
Delta, and thoughts leading toward a bioregional consciousness to shape
the future of the river. List of Participants
Listen...
List
of Radio Documentary Interviewees - by Location
ARIZONA
Kathleen Blair, Refuge Ecologist, US Fish and Wildlife, Bill Williams
National Wildlife Refuge
Steve Cornelius, Biologist, Project Director, Sonoran Institute, Tucson
Mitch Ellis, Refuge Manager, US Fish and Wildlife, Imperial Wildlife
Refuge, Yuma
Amelia Flores, librarian, Colorado River Indian Tribe, Parker
Katie Lee, folksinger, writer, Jerome
Gary Hansen, Water Resources Director, Colorado River Indian Tribe,
Parker
Pamela Hyde, Director, Southwest Rivers, Flagstaff
Joaquin Murietta, Ecologist, Sonoran Institute, Tucson
Gary Nabhan, Ethnobotanist, Director, NAU Center for Sustainable Environments,
Flagstaff
Jim Nafsy, Engineer, Metropolitan Water District, Parker
Carlos Nagel, Cultural Exchange Service, Tucson
Don Pope, Director, Yuma Irrigation District, Yuma
Bill Swan, water law attorney, Scottsdale
Vernon Masayesva, Director, Black Mesa Defense, Former Chairman, Hopi
Tribal Council, New Oraibi, Hopi Nation
CALIFORNIA
Norris Hundley, jr., historian, writer, Santa Barbara
Luna Leopold, hydrologist, writer, Berkeley
Martin Litton, river runner, photographer, Portola Valley
Rudy Maldonado, President, Board of Directors, District 6, Imperial
Irrigation District, Calexico
Dave Robertson, bioregionalist, Professor, UC Davis, Davis
Gary Snyder, poet, environmental philosopher, Professor, UC Davis, Davis
Dennis Underwood, Metropolitan Water District, Los Angeles
COLORADO
Chips Barry, Director, Denver Water Board, Denver
John Echohawk, Director, Native American Rights Fund, Boulder
Patty Limerick, historian, writer, Director, Center for the American
West, University of Colorado, Boulder
Ed Marston, publisher, High Country News, Paonia
Charles Wilkinson, attorney, writer, Law Professor, University of Colorado,
Boulder
Ann Zwinger, writer, naturalist, Colorado Springs
NEVADA
Gary Bryant, Deputy Area Manager, Hoover Dam, Boulder City
Lorri Gray, Deputy Regional Director, BOR, Lower Colorado Region
Dennis McBride, oral historian, Boulder City
Patricia Mulroy, Director, Southern Nevada Water Authority, Las Vegas
NEW MEXICO
Larry Baker, Director, Salmon Ruins, Farmington
William DeBuys, writer, Santa Fe
Ronnie Egan, river runner, Santa Fe
Robert Krakow, Director, Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, Farmington
Amie Lope, accompanied survey of Navajo homeland below Navajo Lake,
Bloomfield
Chuy Martinez, Mexican labor rights activist, corridista, Albuquerque
Leo and Sarah Natani, Navajo, Table Mesa
Dale Pontius, attorney, writer, western water rights specialist, US
Department of the Interior, Santa Fe
Melissa Savage, Biogeographer Emeritus, UCLA, Santa Fe
Stewart Udall, Former Secretary of the Interior, historian, Santa Fe
UTAH
Joe Bennion, artist, river runner, Fairview
Hal Cannon, folklorist, radio producer, historian
Rick Gold, Deputy Regional Director, Bureau of Reclamation, Upper Colorado
Region, Salt Lake City
William Heddon, scientist, specialist in mine tailings, Moab
David Orr, Living Rivers, Moab
T.R. Ritchie, folksinger, Moab
Cosy Sheridan, folksinger, Moab
Joel Tuhy, The Nature Conservancy, Moab
Dick Vaughn, river runner, outfitter, Moab
John Weisheit, Living Rivers, Moab
WYOMING
Eldon Allison, Rangeland Manager, BLM, Pinedale John Beach, Storyteller,
Rock Springs
Donna Connor, "Lore Mistress," Rawlins
Dee Donahue, attorney, writer, Laramie
Jeff Fassett, former Wyoming State Engineer, Cheyenne
Charlie Love, Professor of Archaeology and Geology, Western Wyoming
Community College, Rock Springs
Anne MacKinnon, attorney, Casper
Patrick O'Toole, Rancher, politician, Baggs
C.L. Rawlins, Ecologist, writer, Laramie
Monty Skinner, outfitter, Pinedale
Rose Skinner, Mayor, Pinedale
Craig Thompson, Professor of engineering and Earth Science, Western
Wyoming Community College, Rock Springs
OTHER U.S. STATES
Bruce Babbitt, attorney, former Secretary of the Interior, Washington,
D.C.
Floyd Dominy, former Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation, Winchester,
VA
MEXICO
Baja California
Jesus Mosqueda, Campo Mosqueda on Rio Hardy
Sonora
Elena Chavarria, Director, Pronatura, Guaymas
From previous
recordings:
Ed Abbey, writer,
environmentalist
David Brower, former
director, Sierra Club
List of
Radio Documentary Interviewees - by Program
Program
One: Getting to Know the Flow
Vernon Masayesva
Gary Nabhan
Patty Limerick
Hal Cannon
Charlie Love
William DeBuys
William Swan
Stewart Udall
Norris Hundley
Floyd Dominy
Patricia Mulroy
Gary Snyder
Program
Two: The Law of the River
William DeBuys
Dennis MacBride
Stewart Udall
Floyd Dominy
Patricia Mulroy
William Swan
Bruce Babbitt
Hal Cannon
Norris Hundley
Jim Nafsey
Gary Bryant
Patty Limerick
Lorri Gray
