Rig To Flip

10/02/2024

Warm Springs Rapid - This 8mm footage was filmed June 10th, 1965 by Bruce Julian who, with George Wendt the founder of OARS, witnessed the debris flow that created the Warm Springs Rapid we know today. NO SOUND. It’s a miracle this group survived the event.

NO SOUND - Archival Footage. This film was made on the morning June 10th, 1965 by Bruce Julian who, along with George Wendt witnessed the geologic event that...

09/21/2024

09/18/2024

The northwest Colorado city plans to turn itself into a river tourism hotspot after coal mining shuts down.

09/18/2024

Stoked to have worked with HECHO on this project.

Senator Michael Bennet
Senator John Hickenlooper
President Joe Biden

09/17/2024

09/10/2024

Annual benefits report!

09/09/2024

“Law enforcement officers should know that they cannot enforce trespassing laws on public property – in this case, rivers that are floatable even as they pass through private land. Homeowners who call a local sheriff on fishermen and rafters should be met with laughter.”

Join fisherman Roger Hill’s “Right to Wade” movement and ignore those illegal signs attempting to restrict access to publicly owned rivers for kayaking, rafting, floating and fish…

09/06/2024

You all know I’m an ardent supporter of a new national monument on the Dolores. If you’ve been through the canyons or seen some of the photos I’ve shared maybe you feel some kind a way about the place like I do.

No matter where you land on the Dolores as a monument, for or against, maybe unsure; these things are complex and there’s a lot to consider. No matter where you are on the issue, you owe it yourself to read this report.

Understand how these public land land issues get warped by misinformation, conspiracy theories, and extremism.

America’s loudest conservation opponents are anti-government extremists and conspiracy theorists Anti-public lands advocates have always relied on disinformation and fearmongering, and the National Monuments Disinformation Brigade identified in this report is no different. Opinion polls have shown...

09/04/2024

Had a blast with HECHO producing this & a couple other shorts. Proud to support the work they do

09/04/2024

The River of Sorrows is now on YouTube! If you missed a showing, want to share the link, or watch it again we’re excited to finally publish the film onto the Web free and clear. No matter how you feel about protections around the Dolores Canyons, our story weaves the history and management issues surrounding this iconic western waterway.

Two packrafters examine how a large trans-basin diversion devastated downstream ecosystems, cultures, and recreational economies. Documenting a two-week jour...

09/04/2024

Colorado is widely regarded as a leader and champion of outdoor recreation. 92% of Colorado residents participate in some type of outdoor recreation every year supporting one of the largest outdoor recreation economies in the Nation.

If you live here it’s just part of life, It’s part of the identity. Soaring peaks, powder days, endless trials, unforgettable fishing and hunting, red rock canyons and world class whitewater.

Colorado has embraced and enjoyed a reputation as an outdoor paradise. But there’s one glaring contradiction that unquestionably mars this image: stream access.

Stream access takes on many forms. It’s as simple as a picnic along the river, wading out to cast a line, or launching a raft onto the river. It is a fundamental concept every society reaches for. Stream access can be enjoyed across the nation, particularly western states like Montana, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.; but not Colorado.

Colorado’s has over 100,000 miles of flowing
water coursing throughout the state. While some are accessible to the public without a landowner’s consent, many more miles of riverway are, according to state law, inaccessible to the public whether they are floating, fishing, or participating in any kind of stream-based recreation. It’s here along the rivers in Colorado where the many wealthy landowners have acquired vast stretches of river bank- in some areas conflict between the haves and have-nots has taking shape in violence, even gun fire.

Legally speaking, a key term is navigability. Dating back to the settlement era of Colorado and the West, as states joined the union, the federal government gave them ownership of any river bed deemed navigable under the Equal Footing Doctrine. Such rivers were used at the time of statehood as “highways for commerce,”
and required to be public. Colorado, however, never defined the navigability of its rivers, and subsequent series of unusual court rulings have given landowners leeway to bar the public from riverbeds adjoining their property; even if people float onto it after entering legally elsewhere. Neighboring states, like New Mexico, have almost identical constitutional language about the use of the state’s waters for the public and have interpreted that language as giving the public access for recreational uses on all streams.

Follow us as we continue along this story as we produce our new film, Common Waters, that takes a deep dive into this story, & beyond.

With NRS, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, & American Whitewater

09/02/2024

Roger Hill hiked across federally managed public land to enter the river, donned his straw hat, and cast his dry-fly line along that privately owned stretch last weekend without incident. This week, he urged other anglers statewide to replicate his civil disobedience and assert a public right to fish and float on navigable rivers — a freedom established in other western states.

We're proud to play a roll in calling for to join virtually every other state in the nation in recognizing public access on Colorado Rivers.

NRS
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers
American Whitewater

“We own the river bottom. ….. Essentially, what these guys are asking is that the state takes ownership of the land. “

08/26/2024

Have you heard that Mesa and Montrose counties put forward a national conservation area proposal to conserve just 29,806 acres of public lands in the Dolores River Canyon Country?

While it's good to see the counties accept that there's got to be a path towards protecting the Dolores Canyons, this particular proposal totally fails to protect the Dolores landscape’s most important places and values. The places so many know and love.

The counties’ plan conserves just 7.6% of the public lands included in the national monument proposal supported by Rig To Flip, leaving the remaining 92.4% unprotected and open to new mining and industrial development. Mesa and Montrose counties proposal draws a thin strip around highway 141 and totally misses the expansive canyon system, wildlife habitat and cultural resources around the Dolores.

We think Coloradans deserve serious and meaningful solutions for stewarding the irreplaceable values of the Dolores Canyons: rich ecosystems that sustain iconic big game populations and threatened species, cultural sites that tie local Tribes to their ancestral homelands, historic places that tell the story of our state’s mining history, and abundant recreational opportunities for us all to get outside.

We need your help! Tell Mesa and Montrose counties that their plan just won’t cut it.

The counties have launched a public comment process to hear from residents interested in the future of the Dolores Canyons. Please take a few minutes today to let the county commissioners know that you support the Dolores Canyons National Monument and urge them to consider comprehensive conservation protections for these extraordinary and irreplaceable public lands- Link in Comments below.

You might want to mention:

Mesa and Montrose counties’ proposed Dolores Canyon National Conservation Area does not adequately conserve the values at stake in the northern stretches of the Dolores River Canyon Country.

Specifically, the proposal fails to protect important big game habitat and cold water fisheries in Unaweep Canyon, Roc Creek, Sinbad Ridge, on the slopes of the Uncompahgre Plateau and in core wildlands including Sewemup Mesa, The Palisade, and Dolores River Canyon Wilderness Study Areas.

The proposal fails to protect significant historical sites that tell the story of our mining history, including Tenderfoot, Flat Top, Calamity, Outlaw and Blue Mesas.
The proposal fails to protect countless Indigenous cultural sites in the Dolores’ tributary canyons.

The proposal fails to protect important habitat for rare and threatened species. These critical areas include the three aforementioned wilderness study areas, as well as Unaweep Canyon, which contains a colony of the threatened silverspot butterfly.

I want to ensure that citizens across Mesa and Montrose county, indeed across the country, can continue to enjoy, steward, and benefit from the Dolores River Canyon Country long into the future. Under the NCA proposal—which leaves the vast majority of public lands in the Dolores River Canyon Country open to new mining and industrial development—that future is uncertain.

That’s why I support the more comprehensive Dolores Canyons National Monument proposal.

COUNTY SUBMISSION LINK IN COMMENTS BELOW

08/21/2024

Did you see the political stunt Utah’s GOP dropped yesterday that has asked the Supreme Court to privatize all BLM public lands to Utah’s control?

Let’s be crystal clear: there’s NO WAY for the governor to make up that deficit should the feds transfer the land to Utah, UNLESS the state government were to sell or lease it for mining and resource extraction.

The move isn’t benevolent or fiscally sound. It’s corrupt and rotten. Brought by right wing extremism from the likes of Mike Lee, Ken Ivory, Cox, Karen Budd Fallen, Rob Bishop and other nut jobs. Not the people of Utah.

This stunt excludes lands managed by NPS, and BLM NCLS lands; but the photo below is more accurate than not.

08/16/2024

Underneath the opposition, there’s always been more to agree on in a Dolores Canyon national monument President Joe Biden. Through the nuance- We all love this place and want it protected.

The proposed Dolores Canyons National Monument would be big enough to fit all nine of the state's current monuments inside of it.

08/09/2024

Grand Valley people! Come join us and our good friends Scott Braden from the Colorado Wildlands Project, & Hannah Holm from American Rivers on August 28th, 6-7:30pm- central library community room. We’ll talk a little about the 2024 water year and efforts to permanently protect the Dolores Canyon Landscape.

  Mesa County Libraries is proud to partner with media production company Rig to Flip to present The River of Sorrows, a film featuring the adventures of two packrafters as they travel into th…

07/31/2024

The anti-monument misinformation contingent, backed by corporate mining interests, out-of-state anti-conservation groups, right-wing think tanks, & right wing politicians are well-heeled outsiders imposing their values on public lands that belong to all.

Read Jonathan Thompson’s latest take on the Dolores Country & protecting the landscape.

& subscribe to The Land Desk if you haven’t already!

The News: Western Colorado’s Mesa and Montrose Counties propose a 30,000-acre national conservation area for the Lower Dolores River corridor as an alternative to the proposed 400,000-acre national monument. While this may look like a peace offering or compromise of sorts from counties that have o...

07/25/2024

Mesa & Montrose counties have drafted a proposal for a National Conservation Area as a counter to a national monument by cutting down the protected area by 92% & leaving out the most sensitive priority wildlands, wildlife habitat and high value cultural sites. This is unacceptable and hope that you’ll take the time to submit comments in the portal link shared below.

After conservation group efforts to place nearly 400,000 acres of redrock river canyon under national monument designation, Montrose and Mesa counties put forward a counter proposal.

07/24/2024

https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/blm-director-tracking-discussion-on-monument-idea/article_38e1029a-493c-11ef-85cb-03529de714e1.html

The director of the Bureau of Land Management said Tuesday that she is watching the discussion about a proposed national monument in the Dolores River region and as a westerner

07/17/2024

Center for Western Priorities has uncovered emails between Mesa County Commissioners and monument opponents that show a clandestine and coordinated effort to skew poll results against a proposed monument around the Dolores costing tax payers over $20K.

Actions like this are what cast doubt over the sincerity and seriousness of any NCA proposal.

When Aaron Weiss requested internal emails from Mesa County related to a public opinion poll on a proposed national monument for the Dolores River region, he wasn’t expecting them to

07/04/2024

“Colorado’s U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper are on board with increased protections around the Dolores River but only if existing mining, hunting, grazing and water rights are protected”.

Colorado's U.S. senators want protection around the Dolores River that will guard existing mining, hunting, grazing and water rights

07/03/2024

Thank you Senator Michael Bennet & Senator John Hickenlooper, this is the kind of discussion, process and leadership all Coloradan’s want.

Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper released the following statement on the proposal to designate the Northern Dolores Canyons region as a national monument: “For decades, Coloradans have worked to find a sensible way to protect the Dolores River. Over the last several....

07/01/2024

Wow! A first-of-its-kind deal for Craig and Moffat County that secures tens of millions of dollars, water rights & more in coal plant closure. Major piece of good news.

A landmark agreement with Tri-State Generation and Transmission is on track to pump tens of millions of dollars into Craig and Moffat County over the next decade — seeding a trust fund that perpetually supports...

06/30/2024

Designating a new national monument won’t create another “Moab”. Doing nothing will create that…
Senator Michael Bennet
Senator John Hickenlooper

By JOHN WEISHEIT