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Boaters, Scientists, and Water Managers Reflect on 2017 Lower Dolores River Spill

About 24,000 people boated the Lower Dolores River this summer, according to estimates from the Bureau of Land Management. At a public meeting Wednesday night, leaders from Dolores River Boating Advocates, American Whitewater, and The Nature Conservancy told the Dolores Water Conservancy District they appreciated this season’s regular communication with boaters and other stakeholders about releases from McPhee Dam. However, some said they would have preferred more advance notice on the late summer releases. DWCD managers and Greg Smith of the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center said they hope to refine snowmelt-monitoring technology to reduce uncertainty in future seasons. But boater and irrigator Lisa Allee reminded them that a changing climate will make seasonal predictions more difficult, and that they should prioritize river health into the future.

Austin Cope is a former Morning Edition host for KSJD and now produces work on a freelance basis for the station. He grew up in Cortez and hosted a show on KSJD when he was 10 years old. After graduating from Montezuma-Cortez High School in 2010, he lived in Belgium, Ohio, Spain, northern Wyoming, and Himachal Pradesh, India before returning to the Cortez area. He has a degree in Politics from Oberlin College in Ohio.
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