10/08/2026
💧 Who gets Colorado’s water?
Our 7th graders got a firsthand look at one of Colorado’s most complicated real-world problems today with Eric Trout from Fairfield and Woods. And yes… a guy named Trout working in water. 🐟💧 We couldn’t make that up!
Eric helped students understand Colorado water rights—and why water is about so much more than where a river flows.
🏔️ Water and people are far apart.
Most snow falls west of the Continental Divide, while most people live east of it. So how do we get water where people need it?
🌊 Rivers are promised more than they deliver.
The Colorado River has been promised to more users than the river can reliably provide in some years. What happens when there simply isn’t enough?
🌾 Cities grow, while farms hold some of the oldest water rights.
Agriculture has many long standing water rights, while growing communities need more water. How do we balance competing needs?
Students learned that you can’t own a river—you own a right to use it.
They explored:
💧 “First in time, first in right.”
💧 “Use it or lose it.”
💧 Water right decrees
💧 Water court
💧 Farm water shares
💧 And even how water gets from the Fraser River Basin to Northglenn’s taps
Then came the hard part: making decisions.
Students took on different community roles—a ranch, feed mill, subdivision, and town—and had to decide who should have access to limited water.
Is it fair? Who should get water first? What happens when there isn't enough for everyone?
These are the messy, authentic problems our students are learning to navigate: problems without easy answers, where understanding the issue, listening to different perspectives, and designing solutions matters.
Thank you, Eric, for helping our 7th graders see Colorado water in a whole new way! 💧🏔️
&woods &woods,PC
