By Colorado Law Graduates Eric Dude, Marisa Hazell, and Shelby Krantz
The Law of the Colorado River
seminar, taught by Professor Sarah
Krakoff, is a deep-dive into the American West’s most important resource –
the water of the Colorado River. We studied every aspect of the river and its
management; the Colorado River Compact, the two major dams at Glen Canyon and
Boulder Canyon, Tribal water rights and the Tribes’ involvement in the
development of the modern Law of the River, how management is changing in
response to aridification in the West, and more. Unlike many other law school
courses, the bulk of the course is not about legal arguments in appellate
courtrooms. Instead, it focuses on how the stakeholders who rely on Colorado
River water have negotiated throughout the last century to prop-up an
allocation scheme that promises too much from a river that provides less water
every year. To cap off the seminar, we took a two-week trip down the Colorado River’s
mainstem through the entire Grand Canyon from Lee’s Ferry to Pearce Ferry…
When our bus pulled up
to Lee’s Ferry on May 7, we caught our first glimpse of the river we had been
studying so closely for the last four months. It was clear and frigid-cold.
Just hours before our arrival, this water had been released from the bottom of
Glen Canyon Dam, where all of the silt the river carried from the Colorado
Plateau settled behind its seven-hundred foot high concrete walls. We settled
into our boats (wooden dories) and began our course west as the Kaibab
Limestone—the layer of rock that makes up the rim of the Grand Canyon—rose out
of the water. For the next two weeks, we would watch this layer rise thousands
of feet into the air above us, as each successive layer beneath it added new
colors and textures to our canyon landscape.
These two weeks on the
river are, in many ways, reducible to some meaningful numerical figures:
14 days;
277 river miles;
Over 100 rapids;
5 dory boats;
5 guides;
12 newly minted JDs;
3 rising 3Ls;
2 conferred LLMs;
2 Colorado Law
professors;
1 Public interest lawyer
2 Colorado Law alumni
donors.
But the reducible parts
of this trip only provide the barest outline of what we experienced. The story
is more satisfyingly filled in, as are most stories in life, by the uncountable:
Waiting to climb behind
a limestone waterfall onto a moss-clad ledge to jump into a pool of warm,
cerulean spring water, and the cheers that erupted as each of us did so in turn
(including one epic belly flop);
The deep relaxation
brought on by a warm, sunny lunch break after hours of shivering through cold
wind and rain;
The ease of existing in
a world not overburdened by connection—two weeks of cell-service-less bliss—and
the creativity that flowed from the space created;
The validation of
solidifying connections with old friends and creating connections with new ones,
and the sweet exhaustion of hours of belly-laughing and late-night sing alongs;
The panic of realizing
on Day 8 that we might run out of beer—and the calm when it all worked out;
The pure joy of riding
through rapids with successive twenty-five-foot waves, and that of making it
through unscathed;
The incredibly fleeting
feeling of cleanliness and refreshment after braving a cold bath in the river;
The pride we felt during
our river-side graduation ceremony, and the gratitude of sharing it intimately
with important mentors and close friends; and, importantly,
The pure awe of
experiencing a new and unmatched beauty around every bend in the river through
the entire length of the Grand Canyon.
Each person on this
trip, undoubtedly, could add pages of their own to this list. While some of
these feelings are shared among us, each person took their own important
lessons from the trip. Some of us were inspired to add new routines to our
personal lives to emulate what we enjoyed on the river—more time dedicated to
journaling, reading, or quiet contemplation. Others were encouraged to get back
out for more river trips, more climbing, more hiking. And we each felt driven
to prioritize time outside away from the grind in our careers in order to
ground ourselves and recharge.
The academic insights
were just as numerous and uniquely impactful. Spending the entire semester
learning about the history of policy and law on the Colorado River
fundamentally changed the experience of rafting down the canyon from merely an
immersion in nature to an immersion in history and culture. To us, the trip
wasn’t just through Grand Canyon National Park; it was through the heart of a
river that has always sustained the people of the Southwest.
As we traveled from Lees
Ferry to Pearce Ferry, it was inspiring to run the same rapids as John Wesley
Powell and know the hardship his crew faced in the very same spaces. It was
humbling to see petroglyphs from centuries ago and picture the tribes that
inhabited the canyon before colonization, while at the same time understanding
the law and policy that pushed them onto reservations to facilitate western
expansion and public lands development. And as our guides read the rapids based
on water flows from the Glen Canyon Dam and told stories of higher levels, we understood
which government forces were impacting the water we floated on and how the
communities that depended on energy and water from the dam were growing because
of it (for better or worse).
Watching the moon rise
over canyon walls each night, we pictured those before us who had done the
same: American Indian tribal members, adventurers, policy makers, and fellow
rafters. Each with their own perspective on the canyon and how it should be
utilized or preserved. All who had, in their own way, influenced how we were
experiencing the canyon. Rafting with this context allowed us to understand how we, as students
passionate about protecting spaces like the Colorado River and the Grand
Canyon, would be a part of this long connected history. That is, how our future
careers are not just about the issues of today or the present state of nature,
but build on the fabric of the past and the changes that the law has brought to
these landscapes.
Through three years of
law school and grueling office internships, our work can feel very detached
from the communities and spaces the law impacts. Somewhere along the way, we
all get caught up in the culture of law school and the compulsion to always do
more, and we lose touch with our base motivations. Many of us came to law
school because we wanted to solve problems for communities and environments
with compassion and insight, not merely engage in the rote application of legal
rules. Rafting the Grand Canyon with the knowledge we gained through this
seminar will allow us to do just that. And in the grandeur of billions of years
of history displayed through striking rock layers, the trip made us feel a
little less small in the world and more connected to it all.
At mile 210 of the Grand
Canyon, Professor Krakoff gave us our commencement speech in our chair circle
on the beach while Andy, one of our guides, played “You’re Gonna Make Me
Lonesome When You Go” on his guitar. In that moment, it was impossible not to
feel grateful to have come to Colorado Law and been given the opportunity to
have this experience as a capstone to our legal education and a catalyst to our
legal careers. The trip gave each of us a renewed sense of wonder and purpose.
It is the ideal energizing experience to take with us into our careers. We
gained perspective on how we wanted to prioritize our lives to ensure they will
be meaningful—in our legal careers, as advocates, and as people. We will
forever remember the inspiration of the trip, the amazing connections we made
together, and the joyful adventure we shared.
rful
