Can the Dolores River be saved?
The Dolores River begins high among the San Miguel and Rico ranges, tumbling recklessly past long-defunct hardrock mines and flowing in a south-southwesterly direction to the town of Dolores, Colorado. … Yet today the Dolores is receiving an unexpected reprieve from its woes. This winter’s huge mountain snowpack has brought big springtime water to the river — and to area farmers’ ditches — for the first time in years. Bipartisan legislation aimed at preserving what’s left of a segment of the lower Dolores River is now inching its way through Congress. And a new poll shows strong public support for more protections for the watershed, including possibly the creation of a national monument. But will it be enough to save this battered and beautiful stream?