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“To live in the western lands  you need to know how to work water.”         -Justice Gregory Hobbs

This documentary series covers critical water issues facing the American West with an inside view from people who live and work in the water of Poudre Valley, the Grand Valley, the San Luis Valley and along the Colorado River in the headwaters state of Colorado.

Did you miss Watering the West at the Theatre?

To see all 3 films online donate $25 (see button below) and we will send you links to the full series.   Thank you for supporting independent film!

WATERING THE WEST – a Documentary Series

  • FILM 1 – It all Starts Here
  • FILM 2 – “Wanna Buy a Farm?”
  • FILM 3 – Across the Divide

Film One – It All Starts Here
 – 156 rivers begin in Colorado. “The Mother of All Rivers” supplies 17 states and parts of Mexico with life-giving water. Our water begins in the Rockies, flows down rivers, pools in reservoirs, and has been bought, sold, fished, boated, measured and fought over since pioneers and engineers built the first diversions and ditches in the 1800s. Flow through history and down the Cache la Poudre River from Northern Colorado to the Mexican Land Grant where Ben Eaton learned how to bring water from the river to grow crops and cities in The Great American Desert.

Film 2 – “Wanna Buy a Farm?” 
 – They’re growing corn in a desert. Meet a Weld County farmer who sold land and water rights to a suburb of Denver, leases farm ground for an oil well, and donates to the Nature Conservancy. Farmers still own the majority of water in Colorado but this is changing fast. Can we grow people without building more reservoirs? Should scarce water supplies limit growth? Will those backpackers make it across the river? Continue the journey in Film 2 of Watering the West.

Film 3 – Across the Divide – Climate change threatens western water supplies and the “snowpack reservoir”. Year-long fire seasons threaten watersheds. Growth on the Front Range of Colorado threatens tourism and ranching on the Western Slope as 150 year old tunnels funnel water across the continental divide. But can the divide between East and West, cities and agriculture, business and recreation be bridged? How will Coloradans face a scarce water future together? Join us for Film 3 in the Watering the West Trilogy to envision a hopeful future of innovation and collaboration in the Headwaters State.

 WATERING the WEST YouTube Channel!

SIGN UP – Watering the West Mailing List





“To live in the western lands  you need to know how to work water.”         -Justice Gregory Hobbs

This documentary series covers critical water issues facing the American West with an inside view from people who live and work in the water of Poudre Valley, the Grand Valley, the San Luis Valley and along the Colorado River in the headwaters state of Colorado.

Did you miss Watering the West at the Theatre?

To see all 3 films online donate $25 (see button below) and we will send you links to the full series.   Thank you for supporting independent film!

WATERING THE WEST – a Documentary Series

  • FILM 1 – It all Starts Here
  • FILM 2 – “Wanna Buy a Farm?”
  • FILM 3 – Across the Divide

Film One – It All Starts Here
 – 156 rivers begin in Colorado. “The Mother of All Rivers” supplies 17 states and parts of Mexico with life-giving water. Our water begins in the Rockies, flows down rivers, pools in reservoirs, and has been bought, sold, fished, boated, measured and fought over since pioneers and engineers built the first diversions and ditches in the 1800s. Flow through history and down the Cache la Poudre River from Northern Colorado to the Mexican Land Grant where Ben Eaton learned how to bring water from the river to grow crops and cities in The Great American Desert.

Film 2 – “Wanna Buy a Farm?” 
 – They’re growing corn in a desert. Meet a Weld County farmer who sold land and water rights to a suburb of Denver, leases farm ground for an oil well, and donates to the Nature Conservancy. Farmers still own the majority of water in Colorado but this is changing fast. Can we grow people without building more reservoirs? Should scarce water supplies limit growth? Will those backpackers make it across the river? Continue the journey in Film 2 of Watering the West.

Film 3 – Across the Divide – Climate change threatens western water supplies and the “snowpack reservoir”. Year-long fire seasons threaten watersheds. Growth on the Front Range of Colorado threatens tourism and ranching on the Western Slope as 150 year old tunnels funnel water across the continental divide. But can the divide between East and West, cities and agriculture, business and recreation be bridged? How will Coloradans face a scarce water future together? Join us for Film 3 in the Watering the West Trilogy to envision a hopeful future of innovation and collaboration in the Headwaters State.

 WATERING the WEST YouTube Channel!

SIGN UP – Watering the West Mailing List





About the Series

 

Watering the West: A Documentary Trilogy enlightens audiences about water issues in the American West: past, present, and future, including where the water comes from, where it goes and how it gets there, the unique nature of western water law and its origins, and how growing populations and a changing climate will impact a diverse group of water users that rely on the rivers that deliver the mountain snow melt that makes the American West habitable. Through personal stories from city planners, farmers and ranchers, recreators and ecologists, beer brewers and the oil and gas industry, we will explore trans mountain and local diversions; storage projects and farms; water court and water auctions, a Day in the Life of a Ditch Rider; backcountry Wild and Scene River explorations; and the listening sessions, council meetings and forums where opinions divide neighbors, towns, and industry leaders. Watering the West will also introduce us to the people and programs that aim for listening, connection, and cooperation, to those who seek to replace divisiveness with collaboration as the American West moves into a future of increasingly scarce water supplies. From past to present with a 1986 re-enactment of a water broker purchasing a farm with water rights to secure water for the City of Thornton to a song which teaches the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation, WATERING the WEST educates, entertains and presents a case for cooperation around one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Some of the Watering the West Characters:
Retired Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs; Chairman of the Board, Greeley Water & Sewer, Harold Evans; CSU Doctor of Fluvial Geomorphology, Ellen Wohl; CSU Doctor of Atmospheric Science, Scott Denning; Director of City of Fort Collins Natural Areas, John Stokes; Sustainability Coordinator, New Belgium Brewing Company, Katie Wallace; Developer, Dino D’Trulio; Northern Water Conservation District, Brian Werner; Western Slope 4th generation rancher, Chris Sammons; Ranchers, Ladder Ranch, Pat and Sharon O’Toole; 1980s Thornton City Council Member, Richard Reeser; Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association, Shirley Romero Otero; General Manager at New Cache la Poudre Irrigating Company, Dale Trowbridge; Water Broker, Bruce Johnson; Ditch Riders, Ed Wendell & John Moen; Poudre River Water Commissioner, Mark Simpson; Director, Colorado Forest Restoration Institute at Colorado State University, Tony Cheng; Professor of Snow Hydrology, Dr. Steven Fassnacht; AND SO MANY MORE.