Not All Water is for Fightin’
Image credit to Matt Annabel
This article first appeared in the Summer 2025 edition of Wild Works.
In the rare exception to the saying, “whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting,” our community is in near-unanimous agreement that the Crystal River should remain as it is: free flowing, without dams or major diversions. In an effort to achieve those community goals, we are co-chairing a collaborative subcommittee of local stakeholders to explore and (we hope!) ultimately enact a Wild and Scenic designation for the Crystal, providing the river with the strongest and most durable protection available.
Achieving permanent protection for the Crystal requires deliberate, thoughtful work. The Wild and Scenic subcommittee has taken a deep dive into the law and policy behind the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and we’ve learned the ins and outs of how it can reflect community values and protect the river’s ecology and recreation. The subcommittee’s goal is to use this shared knowledge to develop a Wild and Scenic proposal for the Crystal that protects river values while addressing the interests expressed by local conservationists, landowners, ranchers and other water users. We’ll be working with a third-party facilitator for the remainder of 2025 to build out a detailed proposal and report that we can present to our Congressional Representatives to be crafted into legislation.
Critical to this effort is protection of the Crystal’s peak flow. Peak flows are the maximum or high-water flows of a river, typically occurring after a storm or during spring runoff. They are a natural part of the ebb and flow (pun intended) of a river’s life. The Crystal sees its peak flows in May and June as the snow melts. This natural cycle of unrestrained flows provides critical ecological benefits like sediment transport and the creation of aquatic habitats – such as riffles, pools and overhanging banks – for a wide variety of plants and animals. The Crystal River has run free for millennia, benefiting people and the entire ecosystem. We’re committed to ensuring this continues in perpetuity.
