Take two for ‘Down the Colorado’ video series

GLENWOOD SPRINGS – Glenwood Springs native Zak Podmore and his team of Colorado River documentarians have teamed up with Canoe & Kayak magazine to release a new film series online, starting this week.The five-part, web-based series, “Powell to Powell,” was to be released earlier this year at downthecolorado.org, a website dedicated to telling the story of Podmore and his fellow researchers’ journeys down the Colorado River over the past two years.But when Podmore hooked up with Canoe & Kayak to write an article about their experiences, the video series was put on hold, said Podmore.A sneak preview of the series is being posted online at canoekayak.com, in advance of the article’s publication in the June edition of Canoe & Kayak, Podmore said.Also featured is a three-minute, time lapse of images that chronicles Podmore and fellow Colorado College graduate Will Stauffer-Norris’s historic kayak journey from the headwaters of the Green River to the Sea of Cortez during the fall and early winter of 2011-12.Powell to Powell was a follow-up river journey organized by Podmore, Stauffer-Norris and two fellow college grads last summer, as part of Colorado College’s ongoing State of the Rockies project focusing on Colorado River issues.The six-week, research-based trip took them from the headwaters of the Colorado in Rocky Mountain National Park to Lake Powell.The Colorado Foundation for Water Education is also putting together an accompanying piece to the series, which will include reactions from stakeholders and water experts in Colorado.”Their goal, as I understand it, is to create a broader conversation around the issues touched on in the film series, first with the experts, and then in public forums on their site,” said Podmore, a 2006 graduate of Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale and 2011 CC graduate.Some “minor editing” was done to the film series since it was first set to be released, he said. By partnering with Canoe & Kayak, the series and the issues it raises will have broader exposure, he said.The Colorado River was listed last week by the conservation advocacy group American Rivers as its “Most Endangered River” for 2013.Over-allocation of the river’s water from transbasin diversions, large in-basin reservoirs used for storage and recreation, and growing demands by downstream users have severely impacted the river’s ecosystem in recent decades.The 2011 “Source to Sea” trip took Podmore and Stauffer-Norris from the headwaters of the Green River in Wyoming to its confluence with the Colorado, then all the way to the now mostly dried-up river delta in Mexico where the water no longer meets the sea.The duo produced a 45-minute documentary from that trip, titled “Remains of a River,” which they premiered during a stop-off in Glenwood Springs as part of their summer 2012 trip down the river.During the second trip, the expanded group focused on collecting water samples and interviews with various river experts and users, including ranchers, recreation groups, conservation organizations and government officials.Since then, Podmore and the team have been making presentations giving talks across the country about the Colorado River and the issues that are impacting it.jstroud@postindependent.com