Profile on Mike DeHoff: Keeping a River Alive

Finding environmental hope in a dying river.

This is the first in a series of Fort Lewis College student profiles on local people
who are making a difference to the Earth.

Zac Streeter | March 11, 2025 | PS 232

A bunch of vampires sit around a table and discuss a dwindling food supply. One vampire suggests killing all their prey at once, but the others quickly reject the idea. The nutrients in the supply would run out, there would be no time for food to replenish, and vampire families would certainly go hungry in the long-term. They face a dilemma: in order to survive with their current parasitic livelihood, they have to keep the host alive. While vampires do not roam the Colorado River Basin, Mike DeHoff, a founding member and the principal investigator of the Returning Rapids Project, uses this analogy to describe the harsh reality of the Colorado River’s ongoing water problem.

Water that begins as snow in the Rocky Mountains trickles through tributaries and creeks before forming the mighty Colorado – “America’s Nile,” – the lifeline of the American West.  The Colorado River Watershed supplies freshwater for 40 million people in the arid Southwestern United States. Water usage among stakeholders across the basin equates to about 8.5 million acre-feet of water. This water is pulled from massive human-made reservoirs along the Colorado created by Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam. These reservoirs, however, are rapidly depleting as demand for water rises.

Mike DeHoff noticed these lowering reservoir levels as a rafter floating through Cataract Canyon, a stretch of river that is world-renowned for its continuous and difficult whitewater. The canyon was partially inundated by the construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963. DeHoff described that on his first trips through Cataract, the formidable rapid known as Big Drop III would commonly have jet skiers floating in the lake below rapid’s runout. As of 2026, the Colorado’s current flows past the Dirty Devil River confluence, over 35 miles downstream of Big Drop III, with several large rapids reemerging as lake levels have dropped. “One way I describe it is that Cataract these days is like an old friend you’ve known for a long time who has come home after being in the hospital for a while,” Mike described, speaking on how his relationship with the canyon has changed through Lake Powell’s recession. “They’re getting better, but they’re not entirely themselves yet.”

It is undeniable that Lake Powell’s recession and the western water crisis as a whole paints a terrifying picture for the West’s future. Lake Powell has dropped to below 27% water capacity, snowpack levels have hit record lows in the Rocky Mountains, deep cuts to cities’ water supplies are imminent, and as DeHoff puts it, “we made massive decisions without fully understanding the systems we were altering, and now we’re dealing with the consequences.” He says that we may be dealing with water bankruptcy in Lake Powell within the next 12-24 months.

But one thing that many may not expect, including DeHoff himself, is that Lake Powell’s recent lack of water has also revealed hope in the face of climate change. Returning Rapids’ case study on Gypsum Rapid within Cataract had startling results around Glen Canyon’s ability to rebound. Over the course of just a few years after Lake Powell dropped to record low water storage, a portion of river covered by sediment was re-carved by the Colorado, revealing a rapid that had not roared since the initial inundation of Lake Powell over 60 years prior. “Many people say the canyon beneath Lake Powell is permanently damaged. But remember—it took about eighteen years to fill Lake Powell,” said DeHoff. “If the reservoir disappeared and the river had eighteen years to restore itself, I think people would be amazed at how quickly recovery could happen.”

Returning Rapids at its core investigates a story of environmental resilience, one of a river reviving itself despite impossible odds. DeHoff argues that the planet has powerful healing properties, which means one thing: don’t give up. “Make thoughtful decisions, think beyond your own needs, and take care of the systems around you. If you do that, those systems will take care of you in return,” he said. In a time defined by drought and disappearing reservoirs, the Colorado River may still remind us of something important: even damaged systems can recover if people are willing to let them.

References

DeHoff, M. (2026, February 26).  Personal interview.

Lundgren, A. (2024, June 21). “Mud glaciers” and sand waves: Unearth trapped sediment’s influence on the ever-changing Lake Powell. Great Salt Lake News / St. George News.

Mullane, S. (2024, April 9). Most complete accounting yet of Colorado River water use released, shows ag, environmental, evaporative uses. Water Education Colorado.