This blog is coauthored with Hattie Johnson, Southern Rockies Restoration Director, American Whitewater
Now is the critical time to step up and strengthen protections for Colorado’s and our nation’s invaluable water resources, chief among them the tens of millions of acres of wetlands and millions of miles of streams that are now at risk of unregulated pollution and destruction. Without correct intervention, it seems almost certain that Colorado is experiencing peak clean water and will begin to see its waterways degrade—and disappear—in the years to come.
A new blockbuster report from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reveals that, between 2009–2019, the country experienced a serious decline in the amount of wetlands we have. Frighteningly, the nation lost about 670,000 acres (an area larger than Rhode Island) of vegetated wetlands, which perform more ecosystem…