For decades, economic interests and political alliances have overshadowed rational watershed planning in the West. The result is a vast plumbing system of dams and diversions causing significant environmental damage and struggling to meet increasing water demands. National headlines frequently feature stories of rivers running dry and conflicts between environmentalists and farmers due to insufficient water allocation.

Living Rivers pioneers a new approach to watershed advocacy, emphasizing conservation over waste. Unlike traditional agencies focused on maximizing water extraction, Living Rivers promotes strategies for large-scale river restoration. By engaging communities across the Colorado and Rio Grande River watersheds, Living Rivers builds popular support for conservation initiatives and pressures water agencies to embrace solutions that balance human needs with preserving river ecosystems.

Living Rivers advocates for readily available yet underutilized solutions such as municipal water conservation, recycling, and irrigation efficiency improvements. Additionally, it emphasizes changes in cropping patterns and highlights the ecological damage caused by hydroelectric power generation. Despite the feasibility and economic benefits of these approaches, they face opposition from entrenched special interests, hindering their widespread implementation.