The Daily - August 12,2021 - 24

Ideas
B I G A C T I O N
Josh Jesperson
brings conservation
home in The Animas
Expedition.
Flow State
In the upcoming film The Animas Expedition,
Josh Jesperson takes a long, hard look at the
water crisis in the West by focusing on his
hometown river. He talked to us about the
challenges ahead and how we can make a
difference if we get involved.
By Chris Steinkamp
PRO ATHLETE/ADVENTURER/
activist Josh Jesperson has been
hard at work on The Animas
Expedition, a soon-to-be-released
film that calls attention to the
importance of freshwater, especially
in the drought-stricken West. A
former Navy Seal who holds the
speed record for skiing/riding all
54 Colorado fourteeners, Jesperson
is a frequent speaker on climate
change and river stewardship at
Outdoor Retailer. We recently
caught up with him between trips
to Denali and the Cascades to
learn more about the film and why
it's important that everyone takes
action to protect our watersheds.
What inspired you to make this
film? And why did you choose
the Animas River to be the focal
point?
The narrative of many stories exposing
pollution and/or climate change
produced by the outdoor industry is
so often abroad with a very doomand-gloom
appeal. I really see the
need to bring the focus to our own
backyard and engage the audience
in a different way with some action
24
sports, some laughs, and an engagement
process that helps them
understand that they can also help
effect change. And why the Animas?
Well, it flows right through the town
I work and live in!
What's the history of the
Animas?
The Animas River is part of the
Colorado River system and was
named by a Spanish explorer in the
18th century. Its headwaters form
below a tight collection of peaks
over 13,000 feet in the middle of
the San Juan Mountains. Along its
100-plus miles, it is fed by many
tributaries pouring out of other
magnificent drainages with some
including 14,000-foot peaks. The
river has seen much contamination
of varying levels since the hardrock
miners showed up looking for gold
and silver in and around current
day Silverton and the ghost town of
Animas Forks upstream. In 2015,
there was a catastrophic blowout of
the old Gold King Mine's bulkhead,
which had been holding back millions
and millions of gallons of highly
toxic liquid. When this happened,
/ OUTDOOR RETAILER SUMMER 2021
I REALLY SEE THE NEED TO BRING THE
FOCUS TO OUR OWN BACKYARD AND
ENGAGE THE AUDIENCE IN A DIFFERENT WAY
WITH SOME ACTION SPORTS, SOME LAUGHS,
AND AN ENGAGEMENT PROCESS THAT HELPS
THEM UNDERSTAND THAT THEY CAN ALSO
HELP EFFECT CHANGE.
an orangish vomit-colored liquid
flooded down the river, devastating
the biology of the river and threatening
agriculture downstream. The
pictures of this incident make your
stomach turn and think about the
kids playing in the water in Durango,
the farmers irrigating their fields
in New Mexico, and the Utes and
Navajo through whose reservations
the river runs.
Talk about the experiments you
did. What were they? How were
you able to provide unique help
to the scientists?
ISAIAH BRANCH-BOYLE, COURTESY THE ANIMAS EXPEDITION
The Daily - August 12,2021

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