Downriver

Into the Future of Water in the West

By: Heather Hansman

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

The Green River, the most significant tributary of the Colorado River, runs 730 miles from the glaciers of Wyoming to the desert canyons of Utah. Over its course, it meanders through ranches, cities, national parks, endangered fish habitats, and some of the most significant natural gas fields in the country, as it provides water for 33 million people. Stopped up by dams, slaked off by irrigation, and dried up by cities, the Green is crucial, overused, and at risk, now more than ever.

Fights over the river's water, and what's going to happen to it in the future, are longstanding, intractable, and only getting worse as the West gets hotter and drier, and more people depend on the river with each passing year. As a former raft guide and an environmental reporter, Heather Hansman knew these fights were happening, but she felt driven to see them from a different perspective - from the river itself. So she set out on a journey, in a one-person inflatable pack raft, to paddle the river from source to confluence and see what the experience might teach her.

Mixing lyrical accounts of quiet paddling through breathtaking beauty with nights spent camping solo and lively discussions with farmers, city officials, and other people met along the way, Downriver is the story of that journey, a foray into the present - and future - of water in the West.

©2019 Heather Hansman (P)2019 HighBridge Company

Well-balanced look at some of the water issues in

Well-balanced look at some of the complicated water issues in the western U.S. The author brings a human element to the topic with adding her own story of floating the Green to the discussion.

10/10 would reccomend !

Loved this story following heather down the green river and getting a glimpse of her internal processing of such a complex issue. Learned a lot about water in the west along the way.

Fact based and Introspective

A personal journey down the river of focus brings the author into contact with nearly all impacted populations of the western water rights and limitations. Blended with an introspective questions of the authors self discovery are facts and interviews with those who use, enjoy, control, and maintain the Green River on its initial descent from the high Rocky mountains to the confluence of the Colorado. This book offers a first person view from the surface of the river itself in a way many manuscripts on the topic never will.

Narrator was awesome

Truly enjoyed the narration. Book itself did not break any new ground. it was definitely cool hearing about the Green and a little inspirational

Water is what connects us

Heather did a wonderful job of showing us the big picture of water then getting up close with people who are directly living the questions about water.