The Animas River and Other Colorado Watersheds
In November 2025, Durango City Council passed Resolution R-2025-0078 recognizing the rights of the Animas River, which flows through the city just downhill from Earth Law Center’s office. The Animas is free-flowing across its full 126-mile length, from its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains through its convergence with the San Juan River, a major tributary of the Colorado River.
Students in a Fall 2025 Water Justice course at Fort Lewis College in Durango, taught by Dr. Rebecca Clausen, learned about water governance issues and other Rights of Nature campaigns. The students then developed their own Rights of Nature resolution and presented it to City Council, where it passed unanimously.
The resolution recognizes four rights of the Animas river:
to flow free and flourish
to support essential functions within watershed ecosystems
to be free from pollution and other harms
to river restoration and preservation of adequate ecosystem health.
Rights for Our Neighbor: The Animas River in Durango, Colorado
Since the resolution’s passage, ELC has worked with Dr. Clausen and her students to invite diverse stakeholders and community members into a coalition. The coalition, which began meeting in August 2026, is working to build community awareness, interpret what the rights of the Animas River mean in practice, and ensure that they are being recognized.
Its initial activities include: review of an Animas ecological health assessment undertaken by the Aniimas Watershed Partnership; coordination to give input on the City of Durango’s upcoming integrated water management plan; and planning for a first annual report to the City Council.
River Resolutions & Guardianship Bodies for Colorado Rivers
ELC has supported successful river rights resolutions in the Colorado towns of Durango, Nederland, Grand Lake, Ridgway, and Crestone, collaborating with Save the World’s Rivers and other organizations and individuals. We also helped establish a watershed guardianship body in Nederland, the first of its kind in the U.S.—although Nederland abandoned this framework in 2024 to pursue a new dam, demonstrating the importance of community education and advocacy.
However, many waters in the Rocky Mountains are over-diverted, dammed, and degraded. Iconic waters like Boulder Creek, the Colorado River, and the Great Salt Lake suffer due to state and federal laws treating water merely as a resource, devoid of rights or voice. ELC continues working with Rocky Mountain communities, supporting Rights of Nature resolutions and guardianship bodies for watersheds.
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Email the Rights of the Animas River Coalition
The Animas River between Silverton & Durango, within 24 hours of the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill.
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Read the Animas River Rights Resolution
The Animas River flows just north of Durango, Colorado.
Additional resources on the Rocky Mountain Watersheds
Header Photo: Unsplash / Pablo Lara; Animas River photo one: Riverhugger, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons photo two: Ahodges7, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons / Resources Photo: Unsplash / James Lee; Footer Photo: Unsplash / Kody Goodson