As far as great rivers go, Colorado's Cache la Poudre is a crystalline gem, found embedded among the majestic Colorado Rockies. Its long borders ebb and flow along a wide and diverse path, cutting through the Continental Divide and feeding into both the Rocky Mountain National Park and Roosevelt National Forest.

For years, the river has attracted rugged adventurers and nature lovers alike with its nationally renowned canoeing and kayaking services, riverside hiking trails, and close proximity to lush camping grounds. These distinctions have been enough to give the Poudre the honor of being named Colorado's first National Wild and Scenic River.

When French fur-trappers took shelter beside the river during a violent winter storm in 1820, they saw its fertile banks as an adequate hiding place for their gunpowder. Thus, the Cache la Poudre earned its name, literally translating to "hiding place for powder."

Lately, the Poudre has been living up to its French moniker by becoming a political powder keg, both for advocates of water protection and industries who seek to farm out the river's supply of fresh water.

While nearly 90% of its water is already dammed and diverted to support local agricultural and industrial projects, the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) has proposed a scheme that will dam up (pdf) a large portion of the Poudre's remaining unexploited stretch of natural wonder.

If carried through to completion, this dam, dubbed the Glade Reservoir, will inflict harm upon natural wildlife and ecosystems that dwell within the river, not to mention incur millions of dollars in debt for local area residents to contend with. An estimated $426 million dollars will be spent in making this project a reality, which means that each local area family will be responsible for approximately $15,000 of debt, additional their total water payment bills.

What's more, experts predict that the "benefits" of building this reservoir may only exist in the rhetoric of its proponents. The dam would only be able to gather water during the river's wettest years (approximately one out of four), forcing water to be taken from the river by polluting pumps and posing a viable threat to drinking water supplies and the natural wildlife that depend on the river for survival. Disruption of traffic will be a major issue, too, as construction of this dam would require a large portion of Highway 287 to be rerouted, due to the hazard of flooding caused by the dam.

Take Action

If built, the Glade Reservoir will rain disaster upon all it touches, including surrounding communities, ratepayers, natural inhabitants, and especially the river itself. Don't let the NISP dam up one of the Poudre's precious few untouched spaces. Please go to SaveThePoudre.org and see how you can help stop the NISP dam project.