The Animas River begins high in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains and runs 126 miles south before joining the San Juan River in Farmington, New Mexico. Along the way, it moves through alpine forests, narrow canyons, agricultural valleys, and the city of Durango. In Fall 2025, the authors and other students in a sociology course on water justice at Fort Lewis College in Durango had the opportunity to shift how the Animas is understood in local governance. They developed and presented a Rights of Nature resolution to the Durango City Council, which passed unanimously in November 2025.