Aspen Journalism

A group of Indigenous youths became some of the first in over a century to kayak the full length of the Klamath River along the California-Oregon border on July 11 after the nation's largest dam-removal project was completed last fall. The young tribal members spent years preparing for the monthlong descent with the help of nonprofit Ríos to Rivers, which was founded by Aspen resident Weston Boyles.

Tribal leaders want to be included again in federal funding through the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for conservation programs in the Upper Basin. The money would pay groups like the Southern Ute Indian Tribe for water they are not using.

Grand Valley water managers have a plan to nip a potential zebra mussel infestation in the bud, with one irrigation district beginning treatment of its water this fall. Mesa County plans to apply on behalf of the irrigation districts and water providers for more than $4 million in funding, which will come from the remaining $450 million of Inflation Reduction Act funding for projects in the Colorado River’s Upper Basin.

Water managers in the upper Colorado River basin took another step this week toward a more formal water conservation program that they say will benefit the upper basin states.

For five years, Zay Lopez tended vegetables, hayfields and cornfields, chickens, and a small flock of sheep here on the western edge of Colorado's Grand…