The Dolores River contains an impressive diversity of landscapes, from its pristine high-altitude headwaters in the Lizard Head Wilderness to the red sandstone canyons at the confluence with the Colorado River 230 miles downstream. The basin sustains rare riverside habitats, plant communities, and native fish and wildlife. Historically, the area’s economy has been based primarily upon mining and agricultural operations, the latter of which is dependent on significant diversion and delivery of water supplies from the Dolores River. The decline in traditional industries, coupled with a growing recreation economy, has resulted in significant social, economic, and environmental changes. Basin communities are challenged with finding ways to enhance their long-term economic and cultural well-being while preserving landscape health.
Over the past four decades, paddlers have worked with local community groups and non-governmental organizations to preserve the Dolores River watershed and to enhance opportunities for high-quality multiday river trips; second only to opportunities found on the Grand Canyon. In partnership with the Dolores River Boating Advocates, our local affiliate club, and other organizations and businesses, American Whitewater is directly advocating for the long-term protection of the greater Dolores River corridor and for improved recreational releases from McPhee Reservoir when the snowpack allows.
As a long-standing member of the Dolores River Coalition, we are advocating for durable, long-term river protections for the river and its canyons through federal legislation. A decades-long, local and bipartisan effort recently culminated in the Dolores River National Conservation Area and Special Management Area Act, championed by Senator Bennet and Senator Hickenlooper. The bill, protecting over 50 miles of river downstream from Mcphee Dam has been introduced numerous times and most recently successfully passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in December 2025. American Whitewater will work to see this broad-supported bill pass through Congress and will continue to seek avenues for protecting the northern, downstream, canyons of the Dolores River.
Efforts to protect the Dolores River and its surrounding landscape are critical to protect the river from further development of its water and natural resources. However, existing impacts from McPhee Dam on the lower Dolores River have already caused harm to downstream ecosystems and whitewater boating. Due to drying conditions and water rights in McPhee reservoir, the dam only releases water downstream in years with a surplus of water and those years are becoming fewer and farther between. American Whitewater has worked for decades to work to find collaborative and creative solutions to increase flows downstream of the dam. In years when the surplus is present, American Whitewater is at the table weekly with dam operators, irrigators, and fish biologists to maximize boating opportunities and ecological benefits of the water flowing downstream.