Saving the Homestake

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Aerial view of the Homestake Valley with the Sawatch Mountain Range on the horizon.
Aerial view of the Homestake Valley with the Sawatch Mountain Range on the horizon. © Steven DeWitt
Aerial view looking down on Homestake Creek and wetland ecosystems called fens.
Aerial view looking down on Homestake Creek and wetland ecosystems called fens. © Steven DeWitt
Fens of the Homestake Valley in Colorado.
Fens of the Homestake Valley in Colorado. © Steven DeWitt
Road sign at the entrance of the Homestake Valley on US Highway 24 in Colorado.
Road sign at the entrance of the Homestake Valley on US Highway 24 in Colorado. © Steven DeWitt
The Homestake Road, an old Stagecoach Road that once took miners to the gold mines in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area.
The Homestake Road, an old Stagecoach Road that once took miners to the gold mines in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area. © Steven DeWitt
The Whitney Creek Trail at the entrance of the Holy Cross Wilderness Area.
The Whitney Creek Trail at the entrance of the Holy Cross Wilderness Area in the White River National Forest. © Steven DeWitt
Whitney Lake with views of Whitney Peak.
Whitney Lake is the source of Whitney Creek, a tributary of Homestake Creek, with views of Whitney Peak looming in the background. © Steven DeWitt
View looking across the Homestake Valley
View looking across the Homestake Valley showing the wetland fen ecosystem and Homestake Creek. © Steven DeWitt
Looking down on the fen ecosystem of the Homestake Valley
Looking down on the fen ecosystem of the Homestake Valley in Colorado. © Steven DeWitt
A local guide fly fishing
A local guide fly fishing in the wetlands of the Homestake Valley in Colorado. © Steven DeWitt

Steven DeWitt

Steven DeWitt is a New York City-based conservation photographer. His work has appeared in numerous national and international publi…

Topics
Environment
Sub Topics
Conservation Drinking Water Drought Environmental Degradation Habitat Destruction Human Impact
Regions
North America United States
Water Rights

About Saving the Homestake

“Saving the Homestake” is a documentary film by Steven DeWitt about the fight to protect a rare wetland ecosystem from destruction in Colorado’s Eagle River watershed. At the edge of the Holy Cross Wilderness, hemmed in by forests and soaring mountain peaks, is a 10,000 year old wetland ecosystem in a glacial valley called the Homestake. Flowing through the valley is Homestake Creek, a tributary of the Eagle River – one of the Colorado River’s major upper tributaries.

A group of parties that collectively own water rights in the area want to build a reservoir by damming Homestake Creek. Almost all of the stored water would be pumped east back over the Continental Divide through a series of pipes and tunnels to the expanding cities of Aurora and Colorado Springs whose water rights in the area date back to 1952.

The proposed reservoir would inundate the wetlands and divert water from the Colorado River Basin. Water projects like these that siphon water from the Western Slope of the continent is one of the reasons the Colorado River hasn’t reached the Gulf of California since 1998. A lot needs to happen before dam construction can begin, but if the parties with water rights succeed in damming the Homestake, this rare, ancient, beautiful, biologically diverse, carbon sink will be lost forever.

In telling the story of a proposed dam in Colorado’s Homestake Valley, “Saving the Homestake” shows how the collision of water rights, exploding population growth and the climate emergency is a disaster unfolding throughout the entire American Southwest.