Witness to Water: How to Save the Colorado River, with Pete McBride
The RegenNarration
The Colorado River is treated much like plumbing on a map, but out on the ground it’s a living system with thresholds, memories, and consequences. I’m joined by award-winning photographer, filmmaker and adventurer, Pete McBride, whose latest book Witness to Water: One Photographer's Mission to Defend the Colorado River traces two decades of unexpected reporting and personal reckonings on the river he grew up with. We talk about the alarming reality of collapsing Rocky Mountain snowpack, rising heat, and a basin-wide standoff that pushes reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead toward 'power pool' and 'dead pool' levels right now.
From there, the story gets visceral. Pete describes walking into Glen Canyon as the water recedes, finding ghost forests, vanished rock art, and signs of life returning fast as habitat reappears. We dig into why dams create ecological surprises, including endangered fish dynamics and invasive species risks, and why water policy can’t be solved only in fluorescent-lit rooms. One of Pete’s simplest proposals lands hard: get the negotiators in a boat and have them be with the river together.
We also hear of Pete's extraordinary rare hike through the Grand Canyon, heartbreak on the Colorado River Delta, and later the healing legacy of Delta Dawn, where a pulse flow briefly had Pete and friends become the last people to paddle to the sea, and where ongoing targeted releases now rebuild pockets of riparian forest and bird habitat. Along the way we explore 'earned hope', Indigenous leadership and successes, uranium mining and the uncertainty around amazing groundwater dynamics, along with the quieter lesson running underneath it all: how silence and soundscapes shape what we notice, what we protect, and even what we become.
Pete's recent op-ed in Time Magazine, How to Save the Colorado River, might even have been called How to Save All Rivers. It certainly had us also talking about the parallels here in Australia with the Murray/Dungala River, along with our recent journey there.
Pete's short video update from the Delta.
Recorded 22 May 2026.
With thanks to Ed Roberson on the Mountain and Prairie podcast.
Music by Pete McBride.
Katie Ross and I talk about the Murray/Dungala River journey for ep302. And Katie talks a bigger water story in ep304.
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