One Colorado river basin has been drying for years. It’s changing a way of life – By Michael Booth (Colorado Sun) / May 21, 2023
Are the lessons from a $30 million effort to restore the parched Republican River a road map for other rivers, or a warning?
STRATTON — In the crackling dry rangeland north of this dwindling farm town, at a minor depression slowly filling in with yucca, sage and tumbleweeds, the South Fork of the Republican isn’t so much a river as the ghost of one.
A river it may be on the maps. But when fourth-generation wheat farmer Bob Brachtenbach stops his truck over the map coordinates for the South Fork, his wheels come to rest on a bridge that doesn’t span water, but simply connects one sand dune to another.
The last time he saw running water under this bridge, Brachtenbach says, was a memorable night of harvesting winter wheat with the rainfall-charged river reflecting fireworks from Stratton 2 miles away.
That was 1993.
CONTINUE > https://coloradosun.com/2023/05/21/republican-river-basin-drying-farming/
