By Peter Nagle

​Things are going great in the stock market, and that’s wonderful. If you’re invested, enjoy it. The thing is, markets don’t go up in a straight line. They never have anyway. There are these events called “corrections” that occur regularly. A nice word for “your account is going down in value - rapidly”. 
 
Yes corrections today, few and far between as they’ve been - which is very unusual - happen very quickly. You can be down 10 or 20% in a week. It’s shocking when that happens. Very shocking.
 
In my own view, I see a significant correction coming in the next 6 months or so. By “significant” I mean somewhere between 15 and 30%. The faster and farther it goes up….
 
The question is not when will it happen and how bad will it be. It will, in my view, and it will be. The question is how will you react? Will you sell in a knee jerk reaction? Will you put blinders on and cover your ears so to speak and try to ignore it? Will you just hold on for dear life? 
 
These are common reactions, we’re only human after all. I’ve been in this business for over 40 years and one thing I do know is that our emotions and our money do not mix well at all. As hard as it can be, we need to make emotionless decisions when it comes to money. We have to be a bit hard and cold about the way we think about our money. 
 
If you’re in it for the long haul then you have to have a plan on how to take advantage of the up years, and how to survive the down periods. Remember: corrections now tend to be short and severe, while rallies tend to be long and drawn out. Actually I think we can be kind of thankful for that!
 
The thing is, not to “react”. It’s better to anticipate than react and put a plan in place to ride out the storm, whenever it may come. What do I mean by that? Put your portfolio now in a position to ride through the inevitable downturn well. So how can I do this? 
 
Increase cash. That’s the first step. I see money managers selling stocks and increasing cash positions right now. I see Warren Buffett doing the same thing. These people are smart, and they are in the market all the time. And they’re emotionless about their money. That’s how we must be. And if they’re reducing exposure to stocks, shouldn’t we?
 
If you decide to do that, look at your portfolio and determine how much you want to raise the cash level to. Increasing to 25-50% would not be unusual. Yeah, it’s painful to sell some of the winners and take gains (taxable if you’re in a taxable account). There’s a bit of pain involved is doing this. You can’t avoid the emotion of “will I regret this?” But you either have to do it or not. And not is fine IF you won’t “react” in a correction and sell then. That is almost always a mistake. Make your decision and live with it, that’s what you need to do.
 
The benefit of this strategy is that, when the correction does happen, you’ll feel like you’ve already taken action to survive, maybe even thrive, and on top of that you’ll have lots of cash to buy when things get cheaper. 
 
It’s nice to get something at a discount, right? This is how stocks go on sale - at a time when your emotions scream “Don’t buy, it’s gone down a lot, and it’s never going to stop!” - is precisely when you need to get past that emotion and act. Buy good stocks whenever they go on sale. That’s the key. That’s what Warren Buffett does. Then you’ll actually be taking advantage of a correction, instead of falling prey to the emotions it causes. 
 
Peter J Nagle
Guaranteed Income Specialist
Thoughtful Income Advisory
Abiquiu, NM 87510
505-423-5378
Thoughtfulincome@gmail.com

By Jessica Rath​​

​Maybe you’ve attended one of concert violist John Graham’s performances at his spacious house up on a mesa in Abiquiú, or maybe you remember him from the Abiquiú Chamber Music Festival where he was featured for several seasons. Or maybe his music isn’t your cup of tea… Either way, here is another artist who chose the breath-taking scenery of northern New Mexico because it enhances his creativity and innovative skills. John is not only a stellar, award-winning  solo violist whose career took him to Beijing, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, and other places around the world, but he also played a significant role in establishing the viola as a solo instrument. He incorporates electronic technology and has inspired new music for the instrument.

I was present at a few of John’s performances in Abiquiú, and thus was familiar with his outstanding musicianship and innovative techniques. But when I met with John to interview him for the Abiquiú News, I got a rare glimpse into the mind of an artist and performer,  learning about his relationship with his instrument and with the audience.
 
John grew up in California and got his first violin when he was seven years old. He found a little black case tucked away on one of the shelves in the house of his grandfather who played folk music with his guitar and harmonica. When John asked what it was, his grandfather showed him the child-sized violin inside and told him that he had been waiting for one of his grandchildren to ask about it. “It’s yours, John!”, he said.
 
That was the beginning. His parents found a teacher, and John started taking lessons – everything about music was fascinating and entrancing to him.
 
When he was in eighth grade, John was studying with a woman who had been a professional player. She introduced him to the idea of pursuing a career as a performing artist. “But you’ll have to practice more”, she told him. His fellow classmates spent after-school hours playing tennis or football or chess, joining clubs according to their interests, working on the year-book – social activities where kids do something together. Practicing a musical instrument for several hours a day wouldn’t allow any of this. John’s teacher had a suggestion: the summer before his freshman year she wanted him to prepare a recital program, and in the fall he should perform in public what he had practiced. John accepted the challenge, and the performance was a sound success. It taught John to be disciplined and focused, to practice regularly, and to follow the allure of music: “It draws you in to go further and further”, he said.
 
He started college at the San Francisco Conservatory and finished at U.C.Berkeley. It was a time of growth for John: he felt that some of the other students had more experience and were ahead of him. But he always took this and music itself as a challenge which would drive him further on his adventurous journey. For all his life, challenges would spurn him on to go deeper, to discover more.

“In the classical music world there is a very traditional hierarchy of instruments for what is considered great music, what is almost great music, what is just sort of mediocre music. Everything is being graded all the time, and that part of it never appealed to me. I never felt challenged to be the next best or something else. I was on my own pathway, and my teachers understood that.  I was really fortunate to have teachers who understood me.  I think they respected the journey I was on and that was fortunate; they never said, ‘You're good enough to do this, but maybe not that’.”

 I was curious: “First you started with the violin, but then you turned to the viola, why?”, I asked John. Here is what he told me:

“When I was a teenager, Columbia Artists Management offered community concerts in small towns. They had a nationwide program featuring their artists and other well known performers. If one of them was coming to perform in Oakland or Berkeley or San Francisco, the community concert organizers would get in touch with the performers’ managers and ask if they could play in a smaller town, such as Walnut Creek where I heard concerts. That’s where I heard William Primrose, who was one of the first people ever to make a career as a solo violist. I remember being very excited about the concert, but I didn't think of it as being any different than the violin, because I'd never held a viola or even seen a viola”.

“But during my first year at the Conservatory, I was playing in an orchestra for the first time, and also doing chamber music, playing in a string quartet. I would listen to the viola part as we were playing, and I really liked the deeper, more mellow sound of the viola. During  breaks I would ask the viola player if I could try the instrument. And there was just something about that sound that clicked with me”.

John is tall – 6’2” – and his chamber music coach suggested that the viola might fit better with his height and his hands. So John started to take lessons with the viola, and he immediately felt at home with the instrument and has loved the sound of it ever since.

My next question was: Is there any music written particularly for the viola, or is it all transcribed from music for other instruments?

“Up until the end of the 19th century and even into the beginning of the 20th century, the viola wasn't considered to be a solo instrument”, John told me. “There were exceptions: Mozart wrote a Double Concerto for violin and viola, which is one of the first concertos for viola. And Berlioz, in the 19th century, wrote a symphony that has a large solo viola part. And then Brahms wrote two sonatas for clarinet later in his life, and then made a transcription for the viola”.

“But in the 20th century, a number of violinists started asking composers of their time to write music for the viola. This happened in many places around the world, it was one of those magical synchronicities. These people, just like me, loved the sound of the viola and wanted more music for its unique qualities.”

John continued: “Now there's lots of music for the viola, and that is because of one of those first musicians like Lionel Tertis in England who asked for more viola music and who was the teacher of my principal viola teacher, Philip Burton, and an inspiration to William Primrose with whom I took some lessons as a student in the Aspen Music Festival. They were all a part of that movement to create a solo contemporary repertoire for the viola. While in college, I was also introduced to playing all kinds of contemporary music that's in the classical genre. I was just open to everything. And so a large portion of my professional life has been spent playing the viola in music written in our time. Especially in my New York days, I played a lot of premiere pieces, not only for viola, but also for ensembles. And that was a big, fascinating portion of my career”.

When I had seen John perform, I had noticed that he sometimes used electronic devices and a computer. I asked him about this.

John explained: “A composer can write a score that is like a concerto for viola and orchestra, but the orchestra part is all the electronic sounds. That's one of the best ways to describe it. Or, instead of a viola and piano, you're playing viola and electronic sounds. So, those electronic sounds could be just one line of someone singing, or it could be sounding like an orchestra of electronic sounds, or like a bunch of percussion instruments. It's fascinating to work with electronics, and one of the best parts is that, if it's a complicated score of electronic sounds, I don't have to be asked by an orchestra to play it. I can rehearse it all by myself, I can make the electronic part stop and go. So it's been a wonderful experience for me”.

What is it like to switch from big concert halls to small chamber settings, from an audience of close to a thousand people to just fifty or seventy, I wanted to know.
 
“One of the things I've been enjoying with my house concerts is that I don't feel the audience here can be defined, or wants to be defined. I'm not interested in whether they go to every classical music concert in Santa Fe. At this point in my life I have been just enjoying this close contact with this audience”, John explained.
​
“People's first reaction after a concert is, ‘it's so wonderful to be up close’, because they are just a few feet away. They can hear the effort. They can hear the bow crossing the strings. They can hear the hammers of the piano. They are aware of the physical production of the music, they have a more immediate emotional response to music when they’re up close. This has been a very gratifying part of my career”.

​ He continued: “One of the interesting things about playing in different halls is in  sensing  the differences in dimensions. You feel them as being an extension of your instrument. And so when you're in a concert hall and the audience is out there in the hall, after a few minutes, you sense how they're hearing you:  your sound becomes the space that you and they are in”.
So, after years and years of traveling and performing all over the world, with big audiences, John performs now in a more intimate setting, which is more personable, more personal in a way. John agreed.

 “In this journey, music was the impetus and the reward. When you enter school, there’s a large apparatus that is providing your education. Then when you get into the profession, there are managers, contractors, concert presenters and colleagues involved in how and where you will perform, providing a world of discussion and business that's all around this personal thing of wanting to express music. You become involved  in a world of discussion and business, and that's all around this very personal thing of wanting to play music. It has seemed quite natural to retire some of those dimensions of a career hovering around this ‘personal thing’.”

​And then John told me a lovely anecdote.

“In the 70s, I played  in the first three summers of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Georgia O'Keeffe let them use her images for their posters. They're gorgeous.”

“The gym that she built for the village was finished in one of those years, and she asked if some of the musicians could come up and play for the village to celebrate its opening. So three of us came up and played a Beethoven string trio. And afterwards she had us over to her house with our spouses for a reception. I remember going out to her backyard which overlooks the valley. I remembered that view so vividly. And then all these years later, when Cinda and I were talking about coming to New Mexico, I said, ‘What about Abiquiú?’”

I wonder if any of our Abiquiú readers might remember this performance from about fifty years ago? If so, please leave a comment!

“Cinda is a New Yorker, born and bred, she's a real urban woman. She isn't naturally given to ‘Let's go on a hike’ or anything like that. But this land and sky have become a real thing for both of us, it’s such a beautiful place in which to be”.

John continued: “We never thought about our home being a concert place until maybe the second year we were here. People had been so kind and helpful when we moved in so we thought that, in thanks, we would invite some people over and I would play some solo viola music”.
 
“Well, immediately we got some calls from other friends saying, ‘Oh, I hear you're giving a little concert in your house. Could we come?’ This is a small town, after all. So there were more and more people, but we did it. And then we thought, ‘Well, we could do this every year, just have our own concert here’, and that's what we started doing”.

In addition to the concerts at his home, John also performs occasionally in Santa Fe and Albuquerque  (watch the Abiquiú News for announcements). It’s not often that one gets the chance to listen to a world-famous performer who significantly contributed to the establishment of the viola as a solo instrument, inspiring a number of new compositions.
For a short taste, listen to John playing a traditional Irish tune at the 2009 Aspen Music Festival.

As we neared the end of our interview, John summarized his career:
“When you tell the story of your life, it sounds like you went from A to B to C to D, up the ladder to success. I felt so confined in the small town where I grew up, and those first years in San Francisco were explosive for me! When I look back on my career  I am amazed, the way it unfolded and developed. At each step it was like, ‘Oh, now I can stand, oh now I can walk’. You just learn how to do it”.​

“And now I’m just in a really great place – it has been wonderful to be out of some of the former constructs, to be me with my wonderful partner, daughter, grandson, and in this beautiful land and sky”.

Thank you, John, for sharing with me how and why you love your music and your instrument. What a wonderful, prodigious career and life you have.
 
 
 
 

By: Patrick Lohmann 
Source NM

Post-fire forest recovery is possible in a drying West, but only if governments devote as much time and resources to it as they do putting the fires out, New Mexico State Forester Laura McCarthy told a group of people concerned about the state’s forests Wednesday evening.
​
In a 45-minute address at a lecture hall at the University of New Mexico, McCarthy flipped through photos of charred forests and rivers clogged with ash due to the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire up north in 2022 and the South Fork and Salt fires in the Ruidoso area this summer.

“This talk does have a bit of heartbreak in it, and when we think about the climate change experience that we’re all in right now, there’s just no denying that there is this strong element of heartbreak,” she said in her keynote address for the Wildfire & Watershed Symposium, held by the Intermountain West Transformation Network.

Both disasters have been marred by floods and debris flows on burn-scarred mountainsides, “cascading impacts” she said are occurring at a scale governments don’t have enough resources for. They will make life much more complicated in and around those fire perimeters for years to come.

“The authorities and tools that we have aren’t well-suited for the challenges that we face,” she said. “To the extent that we rely on federal money to help us out, they’ve got all these definitions that we have to comply with to get their money, and most of the time we can’t, because it’s like putting a square peg in a round hole.”

“And so states and local governments are left to fill the gap,” she said.

​She called on Congress to take up measures developed by a group of wildfire and watershed experts, known as the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. The 50-member commission’s report, released in September of last year after two years in the making, makes 148 recommendations aimed at creating landscapes and communities more resilient to wildfire.

​She said the report lays bare the disorganized nature of post-fire recovery, with state and local governments often working at odds with federal partners. The “fragmented” approach to restoring landscapes and watersheds is markedly different from the way mass resources are coordinated to suppress wildfires, where she said it seems like everyone knows what role they’re meant to play and where they fit into efforts to extinguish a fire. 

“We just don’t have that for the post-fire environment, but it’s possible that we can use that model to help us out,” she said.

An eternal melodrama in one act
​By Zach Hively

Thank you for calling your friendly neighborhood multi-state waste service conglomerate. We are happy to assist you in the most efficient way possible. What is the nature of your call?

“I need to swap out my bins.”

I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. In as few words as possible, what is the nature of your call? 

“Swap out my bins.”

I’m sorry, please try one more time. In as few words as possible, what is the nature of your call?

“Swap. Out. My bins.”

Hmm. In an attempt to emulate human compassion, I’m sorry I didn’t catch that. Here, let’s try something else. What is your service address? 

“2234 Pine Way, Aurora, Illinois.”

That was 2234 Pine Way in Aurora, Illinois. Is that correct?

“Yes.”

Based on the phone number you’re calling from, we’ve determined your address is 2234 Pine Way in Aurora, Illinois. Is that correct?

“… Yes.”

Great. Let me look up that account. Beep boop beep. I see that you have zero dollars due. Would you like to pay that now?

“No.”

Okay. Do you need to report an error in service? 

“No.”

I didn’t catch that. Do you need to report an error in service? Say “yes” if yes, “no” if--
“NO.”

Okay. Hmm. I don’t see any other available issues at 2234 Pine Way in Aurora, Illinois. If you do not schedule a bin swap to our updated waste collection bins by the date listed on your latest statement--

“THAT’S WHAT I WANT. I WANT TO REPLACE MY BINS.”

Great. Thank you for calling the dedicated number we provided for you to swap out your outdated waste collection bins. Please say your service address as printed on your latest statement. 
“Twenty-two. Thirty-four. Pine Way. Aurora. Illinois.”

Great. It appears your service address at 2234 Pine Way in Aurora, Illinois, is not eligible for our dedicated phone number provided for you to swap out your outdated waste collection bins. We will email you a link to complete this process online, at the end of which you will receive our dedicated phone number for your convenience.

[head drops audibly onto chest]
​
I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. Let’s start you over. Thank you for calling your friendly neighborhood multi-state waste service conglomerate. We are happy to assist you in the most efficient way possible. What is the nature of your call?

Op Ed
​By Lupita Salazar

Tres Semillas - Uno para yo, uno para vos, uno para los animalitos de Dios.
Three seeds-one for me, one for you, one for God’s little animals. A dicho that expresses collaboration and symbiosis.

This week Tres Semillas Foundation, an organization whose name denotes hope, has evicted the Northern Youth Project from the land they have stewarded for 15 years. All to make the land attractive to a potential buyer.

What an ironic way to spend their anniversary. In the place of celebration, they have had to leave behind, and remove years of community and youth investment. From irrigation systems, to a graffiti and mural wall, to trees planted in the memories of youth who have passed away.
Why would Tres Semillas Foundation, an organization with such a name whose articles of incorporation state that they will “provide for economic development in the Abiquiu area” evict the Abiquiu Farmers Market, Frosty Cow, and the Northern Youth Project after they have all done just that? When a stated goal has been the “development of land for community purposes including education, arts, health, economic opportunity, and other forms of community support.”

Semillas are seeds. Are not the youth the seeds, the hope of our future?

Northern Youth Project’s goal is to “Support the Dreams of Northern New Mexico Teens.”Dreams are the seeds planted in the minds and hearts of the youth of our area.

Tres Semillas was formed to manage the land in the heart of Abiquiu for community use 17 years ago. They reached out for ideas and input. Leona Hillary and local teens including youth leaders Anastacia Maestas and Rebecca Gutierrez answered the call. In a community with no high school, recreational parks, or teen center-they planted a seed. 15 years ago these teens planted a garden on the Tres Semillas land.

And every year since, generations of teens have participated in the agriculture or art programs. They have cleaned and maintained the acequia, held farm to table events, and visited other farmers and community events to expose the youth to a wider world.

Tres Semillas, who instead of planting their three seeds, their hope for the future, is selling this land to the highest bidder. An organization created to protect Abiquiu from outside development and exploitation, has itself made the community vulnerable. Instead of continuing to cultivate the seeds that have flourished for years, they are digging them up. Another sacrifice to the bulldozer of capitalism. A non-profit organization turned into a landlord- who has existed out of non- profit compliance for years.

What a shame that another handful of seeds has been taken away from our youth in a region that already has limited resources. Local schools have limited or no art programs. Recreational and job opportunities are also scarce. Youth are often isolated due to lack of transportation and opportunities to connect with others.

Though these seeds have been taken away FOR profit. The wildflowers have blown in the wind. Evicted and uprooted. But resilient with community soil, a loving sun, and nourishing water. Though their absence will leave a scar, the seeds will float in the wind to a new place. New land ready to receive them.

But the story of Tres Semillas will remain. The story of how Peter and Sarah Solmssen, as well as Bernadette and Steve Gallegos sold the land they were entrusted to manage for the community instead of stewarding it. How they evicted a youth program. How they made a whole community vulnerable to unwanted development. The story of their greed and disregard for their neighbors and the future of our region.

Quisieron enterrarnos, pero se les olvido que somos semillas. They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.

By Dr. Matthew Schumann, Dar al Islam
 
“And the servants of the All-Merciful who walk gently on the earth, and when ignorant people address them, they say, ‘Peace.’” (The Quran, chapter The Criterion, 25:63)
 
This weekend, Dar al Islam will host a dozen guests and local community members to map hiking trails across our 1400-acre campus. This effort is part of our long-term vision to establish sustainable and accessible hiking trails to enhance nature-based learning and recreation at Dar al Islam. Titled “Walking Gently,” this retreat will also explore the spiritual and moral dimensions of serving as a khalifa, or God’s representative on earth, a key concept in Islamic thought.
 
In the Quran, God explains that He created human beings to serve as his representative or vicegerent on earth. This responsibility is understood as a trust, or amana. Fulfilling this trust is each human being’s life mission. Success in this quest requires the mobilization of our spiritual and moral energy, as well as human and material resources. During “Walking Gently,” participants will reflect on how to strive towards fulfilling this trust and how to do so with beauty and balance.
 
Attendees will arrive at Dar al Islam on Thursday evening, God willing, and will open the program with an evening of prayer, worship and song. On Friday morning, they will take a contemplative hike in Plaza Blanca. Our first discussion session will take place in the canyon and will focus on the spiritual dimensions of the soil and water. After communal Friday prayers, participants will learn about Prophetic character, a key aspect to serving as God’s representative.
 
On Saturday and Sunday, participants will spend the morning hiking in Plaza Blanca and elsewhere on Dar al Islam’s campus. Plaza Blanca is a 200-acre slot canyon formed out of white, volcanic ash. For decades, it has been a prized destination due to its serenity and unique geologic formations. A popular hiking destination, Plaza Blanca receives more than 5,000 visitors every year. It was also frequented by Georgia O’Keefe, who painted portions of the canyon while living in Abiquiu.
 
Additionally, retreat attendees will enjoy field trips to the Poshuouingue ruins and Abiquiu pueblo. Community visioning sessions on Saturday and Sunday will allow participants to focus on how they can enhance their individual spiritual development and service to their communities. The program concludes Sunday night with a bonfire and reflections.
 
Dar al Islam is an educational and spiritual retreat center that was founded in Abiquiu in the early 1979. Today, our mosque complex hosts hundreds of guests each summer. We are dedicated to supporting the religious and spiritual education of American Muslims and fostering bonds of mutual understanding between our faith community and our neighbors. The “Walking Gently” program will not only contribute to the future development of Dar al Islam’s campus, but also help build a community around spiritually-integrated, nature-based programming in the American Muslim community. We are excited to continue developing our educational and recreational offerings for the benefit of our local and national community.
 
Plaza Blanca, which is a 200-acre site consisting of beautiful white rock formations, is part of the Dar al Islam property and has been accessible to visitors for hikes from throughout the nation and the world since its acquisition in 1979. Plaza Blanca, or the White Place, was made famous by several paintings of the national arts icon, Georgia O’Keefe, who spent a significant amount of time at Plaza Blanca in the 1930s and 1940s. Additionally, more than 13 movies have been shot at Plaza Blanca over the years, including The Magnificent Seven, The Lone Ranger, Cowboys and Aliens, Missing, Earth 2, and more. 

At least my subconscious pays attention.

​By Zach Hively

When folks ask me what advice I have for writers, I often straight-up steal something I gleaned from Pam Houston on (I think) a radio interview: Notice the glimmers—the things that have been snagging your attention recently are doing so for a reason.

This poem comes, I think, from a corollary, which I’ll call the Glimmer Archives: the things that caught my attention once upon a time, which I suddenly remember for no good reason, except that there is always a reason.

This entry from the Glimmer Archives was a pretty convincing memory that a bridge in Paris had collapsed because too many lovers had fastened too many locks onto it, presumably without leaving the keys. 

Taos, N.M., Oct. 15, 2024— Carson National Forest planners opened a scoping period for two proposed projects related to recreation and special uses today. The projects, as currently proposed, are considered categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act, and comments are sought to help daylight any unknown issues.
 
The scoping period closes at 11:59 p.m., Oct. 30, 2024.
 
Ghost Ranch Trails
 
Forest staff are proposing to officially incorporate three popular, but informal, trails that begin on Ghost Ranch, an education and retreat center in Abiquiu, and continue onto national forest land. Additionally, the following adjustments are proposed:

• Both the Chimney Rock and Kitchen Mesa trails would include minor reroutes out of erosive drainages to increase the sustainability of the trail over the long-term.
• Natural drainage features would be added to a section of the Matrimonial Point Trail to reduce flooding impacts.

 
The proposal only covers portions of the trails on public land, not on Ghost Ranch property. A map is attached.
 
For questions and to submit a comment, contact Jennifer Sublett at 575-581-4554 or jennifer.sublett@usda.gov.
 
Snyder Paleontological Quarry Permit
 
The Carson National Forest has received a Special Use Permit application from a researcher to continue excavation of vertebrate fossils from a previously disturbed quarry site and other areas of geologic sampling. The location is known as the Snyder Quarry that is located within the Canjilon Ranger District and is a site of previous paleontological excavation. The purpose and need of this proposal are to extend the term of the special use permit for continued research.
 
For questions and to submit a comment, contact Carmen John at 575-758-6272 or carmen.john@usda.gov.

A complex system of pipes, tunnels and canals carry water around the Western U.S., like this one in Colorado's Fraser Valley. However, policy experts say a cross-country pipeline wouldn't make sense for political, financial and engineering reasons.

The Colorado River is a lifeline for about 40 million people across the Southwest. It supplies major cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Denver and a multibillion-dollar agriculture industry that puts food on tables across the nation. But it doesn’t have enough water to meet current demands.

Policymakers are struggling to rein in demand on the river, which has been shrinking at the hands of climate change. The region needs to fix that gap between supply and demand, and there’s no obvious way to do it quickly.

But one tantalizingly simple solution keeps coming up. The West doesn’t have enough water, but the East has it in abundance. So, why don’t we just fix the Colorado River crisis by piping in water from the East?

The answer is complicated, but experts say it boils down to this: It doesn’t make sense to build a giant East-to-West water pipeline anytime soon for three reasons — politics, engineering, and money.

Political headwinds

If the West’s leaders wanted to take some water from the East, who would they even ask? Right now, there’s no national water agency that could oversee that kind of deal.
“I would argue that there aren't many entities with the authority across the country to do this,” said Beaux Jones, president and CEO of The Water Institute in New Orleans. “I don't know that the regulatory framework currently exists.”

Water is often managed using a messy patchwork of different government agencies and laws. The Colorado River is managed through a fragile web of agreements between cities, states, farm districts, native tribes and the federal government. Even though they’re all pulling from the same water supply, there’s no central Colorado River government agency.

A similarly complex system applies to many watersheds in the East. Even if a single city or state in the Western U.S. seriously wanted to build a pipeline from the East, it’s not even clear who they’d meet with to ask for water from a different area. And there’s no single federal agency that could sign off on such a deal and make sure it doesn’t harm people or the environment.

Delegates from states that use the Colorado River met in Las Vegas on December 15, 2022. Western water is managed through a fragile web of agreements between cities, states, farm districts, native tribes and the federal government. A similarly complex system applies to many watersheds in the East.

Any serious effort to pull new water in from the East to the Southwest would likely touch some part of the Mississippi River basin. It’s a sprawling network of smaller rivers that covers 31 different states, from Montana to Pennsylvania.

It’s a busy river with a lot of uses. And while its shortages aren’t as severe as dry times in the West, the Mississippi River basin goes through its own droughts. So even if, someday, the governments of the East and West set up a formal way to negotiate a water transfer, the cities, farms, boaters and wildlife advocates to the east might not be willing to share.

“The very nature of there being sufficient availability of water in the Mississippi River Basin to, in a large scale way, export that water,” Jones said. “I think there are many people on the ground within the Mississippi River basin that would fundamentally disagree with that.”

Engineering limits
​There are countless examples of large pipelines and canals moving liquids around the U.S. at this very moment. The longest existing today is the Colonial Pipeline, which carries gasoline from Houston to northern New Jersey through 5,500 miles of pipe.

So if we have the engineering capacity to do that, could we build similar infrastructure for water? In theory, yes. But it would have to be much larger than existing pipes for oil and gas.
“It takes so much more water to supply a city than it takes gasoline,” said John Fleck, a water policy professor at the University of New Mexico. “So the size of the pipe or the canal has to be a lot bigger, has to be much wider, has to cover a lot more ground.”

Because that pipeline or canal would be so big, it is more likely to ruffle some feathers along the way. Fleck suggested that landowners in its path, including local governments, could push back on a giant new piece of infrastructure running through their properties and mire any pipeline project in regulatory red tape.

Phoenix, Los Angeles, Denver and Salt Lake City wouldn't look like they do today without giant water-moving systems, like this pipe that is part of the Central Arizona Project. Experts say all of the feasible water pipelines have already been built, and a system to carry water in from the East is too difficult to be worth building.

All that said, a pipeline is still physically possible. There is perhaps no better argument for an East-West water transfer than the fact that the Western U.S. is already crisscrossed by multiple huge pipes and canals that carry water across long distances.

The West as we know it today wouldn’t exist without that kind of infrastructure. Much of Colorado’s population only has water due to a series of underground tunnels that bring water across the Rocky Mountains. Phoenix and Tucson have been able to welcome new residents in the middle of the desert with the help of a 336-mile canal that carries water from the Colorado River. Los Angeles, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City would not be the cities they are today without similarly ambitious water delivery systems built decades ago.
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The existence of those water-moving projects isn’t proof that we should build a new, even bigger water pipeline from the East, Fleck said. In fact, he pointed to those systems as proof that we shouldn’t.

“All the feasible ones have largely been done, and the ones that are left are the ones that weren't done because they just turned out not to be feasible,” he said.

Money problems
Even in a world where the West’s leaders could find a willing water seller, get the right permits and put shovels in dirt, experts say an East-to-West water pipeline would simply be too expensive.

Any solution to the Colorado River crisis will require massive amounts of public spending. The federal government alone has thrown billions of dollars at the problem in just the past few years. But water economists and other policy experts say a cross-country pipeline isn’t the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

Stacks of hay bales sit beside an irrigation canal in California's Imperial Valley on June 20, 2023. Experts say there are more cost-effective ways to fix the Colorado River crisis than building a cross-country canal, like paying farmers to pause growing thirsty crops such as alfalfa.

Kathleen Ferris, former director of the Arizona Department of Water resources, pointed to two ongoing efforts that might be a more cost-effective way to help correct the region’s supply-demand imbalance. One involves paying farmers to pause growing on their fields, freeing up water to bolster the region’s beleaguered reservoirs. Another uses expensive, high-tech filtration systems to turn wastewater directly back into drinking water.

“Sometimes I feel like people don't want to do the heavy lifting,” said Ferris, who is now a water policy researcher at Arizona State University. “Instead, they want to just find the next water supply and be done with it and have somebody else pay for it.”

Ultimately, she said, those kinds of programs already have momentum and cost less money than an East-to-West water pipeline.

“Why don't we do the things that we know are possible and that are within our jurisdiction first,” Ferris said, “Before we go looking for some kind of a grand proposal that we don't have any reason to believe at the moment could succeed.”

Pipe dreams becoming reality
Piping in water from outside of the Colorado River basin, for all of its challenges, is a tempting enough idea that the federal government has given it a serious look.

In 2012, a Bureau of Reclamation report analyzed ways to bring new water into the Colorado River Basin, including importing piped water from adjacent states.

The study concluded that strategy was not worth the money and effort.
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“It just isn't the time yet,” said Terry Fulp, a retired Reclamation official who helped write the study. “We felt that there were other things we could be doing in the basin, particularly in the Lower Basin, that would relieve the pressure.”

This map from the Bureau of Reclamation's 2012 "Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study" shows places where water could theoretically be imported. One of the report's authors said now "isn't the time" to pipe water in from the East.

Fulp said the study was a worthwhile endeavor, and that the idea of importing water from the East might make sense down the road. The scale of the challenge posed by the Colorado River crisis, he said, will take some big thinking, “on the order of the thinking when we built the Hoover Dam.”
“It's one of those possible solutions that should always stay, if not forefront on the table, somewhere on the table, so that you don't lose sight of it,” Fulp said.
Despite the fact that many Colorado River experts have cast doubt on the feasibility of a cross-country water pipeline, even some sitting state officials say it deserves more research. Chuck Podolak, director of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona said the idea deserves “serious attention.”
“We understand that every option is hard, every option is expensive, every option has political hurdles, every option is a daunting engineering task,” he said. “Right now, we’re in a let's-look-at-everything mode with eyes wide open.”
Arizona and other states around the region, with their eyes on continued growth, are already looking at ways to stretch out the water they already have using technology. Terry Fulp said those efforts may need to expend past the spendy and ambitious engineering projects that are already helping facilitate that growth.
“It'll be the time someday, if we want the Southwest to continue to grow the way it's been growing,” he said. “There's only so much water in the basin.”
This story is part of a series on water myths and misconceptions in the West, produced by KUNC, The Colorado Sun, Aspen Journalism, Fresh Water News and The Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder. KUNC’s coverage of the Colorado River is supported by the Walton Family Foundation.

Written By Coleen Graybill and Tina Kleckner

Step into history at Abiquiu Inn on October 25th and 26th, 2024, for Curtis & Cuisine, a two-day event honoring the legacy of Edward S. Curtis, the renowned photographer of Native American peoples. In collaboration with the Curtis Legacy Foundation, this immersive weekend will feature captivating stories, rare photographs, and unforgettable culinary delights.

The event opens with a reception on Friday, October 25th, from 4-6 PM, where guests will have the opportunity to meet John Edward Graybill, Curtis’ great-grandson, alongside Teri Fraizer (Laguna) and Shawnee Real Bird (Apsáalooke), descendants of the Native Americans Curtis photographed. The weekend will also include an exhibit of unpublished Curtis photographs, offering a rare glimpse into previously unseen images from his Alaska, Plains, and Southwest series. For the first time, these photographs will be available for sale, with proceeds supporting the publication of Edward S. Curtis: Unpublished Southwest.

A culinary highlight of this event will be the authentic Native American cuisine prepared by award-winning Navajo Chef Freddie Bitsoie, whose specially crafted menu perfectly complements the cultural experience. Friday’s reception will feature Native-inspired appetizers, and both days will offer exquisite dinner options in addition to lunch option on Saturday, with cultural exploration and exceptional dining, reservations are highly recommended.

Saturday, October 26th, brings even more insight into Curtis’ life and legacy with Special Presentations by the Curtis Legacy Foundation: Gain insights into Edward Curtis' life and the enduring impact of his photography.

• 10:00 AM: "Edward Curtis - The Man/The Legacy" Did you know that Curtis’ daughter smashed his original negatives? Come hear the story! Presentation by John Graybill/Curtis’ great-grandson and Tim Greyhavens/Curtis Historical Expert

• 1:30 PM: "Carrying the Legacy Forward" with special guests Teri Fraizer (Laguna) and Shawnee Real Bird (Apsáalooke), contemporary descendants of people that Curtis photographed over 100 years ago. Be transported to a different time and place as these storytellers bring their culture to life in different ways through art. Presentation led by John and Coleen Graybill/Project Manager for CLF.
• Book Signing: 11:30 AM and 3 PM - After over three decades without new Curtis scholarship, meet the authors who have unearthed unpublished materials and penned the first fresh look at his life and work.

”We’re honored to host Curtis and Cuisine and welcome Chef Freddie Bitsoie to Abiquiu Inn,” says Colin Noble, owner of Abiquiu Inn. “This partnership with the Curtis Legacy Foundation is a perfect way to celebrate Indigenous culture through both art and cuisine. We invite the community to join us for this unforgettable experience.”

Don't miss this extraordinary opportunity to immerse yourself in Edward S. Curtis' world.     With book signings, exclusive presentations, and a chance to purchase rare Curtis prints, Curtis & Cuisine is a must-attend event for lovers of history, culture, and exceptional food by Award Winning Navajo Chef Freddie Bitsoie. Join us at Abiquiu Inn, a beautiful gem nestled in the heart of New Mexico, for an unforgettable celebration of Indigenous heritage and Edward S. Curtis’ enduring legacy.
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For more information or dining reservations,  call Abiquiu Inn 505-685-4378