Click the link to read the article on the KUNC website (Scott Franz). Here’s an excerpt:
January 20, 2026
Steamboat Springs author and adventurer Eugene Buchanan has lived near the banks of the Yampa River long enough to notice its rhythms and moods are often mirrored by the residents in his northwest Colorado ski town.
“The river’s pulse kind of matches your own,” he said Thursday. “You know, come springtime, you’re jazzed up, and the rivers crankin’ and flooding, and the surf waves are in and people are rafting it and (stand up paddleboarding). Then it slows down to a trickle later in the summer and people are inner-tubing it. Fly fishing it. That’s a little more of a tranquil time.”
But as Buchanann warns in the first chapter of his new book, Yampa Yearnings, “not all is hunky dory in Yampaland.” Last summer marked the fourth time in history that there was a call on the Yampa due to drought conditions and upstream users were forced to cut back their intake. And like other rivers across the West, Buchanan said the waterway faces growing threats from climate change and increased demands from water users. Buchanan’s book is not all about hard times and drought on the river. In between his history lessons about the Yampa and the challenges it has faced, readers will also learn about the fate of Buchanan’s efforts to help a rancher get his lost cattle back across the raging waterway. There’s also a tale of his friend’s paddling adventure from Colorado to Utah to prove the waterway can facilitate ‘interstate commerce.’ KUNC water and environment reporter Scott Franz interviewed Buchanan about his book and the state of the Yampa. Answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Franz: What impact do you hope this book has for the Yampa River and its future?
Buchanan: It’s hard to say how much impact a book like this will have. It’s my hope that those who are familiar with the Yampa learn to appreciate it a little more. Maybe look at it with a different eye next time they see it. If people aren’t familiar with the Yampa and they live somewhere else, maybe they’ll look outside and see their backyard creek flowing through their town and just think about it a little more. Maybe they’ll donate to a local nonprofit that’s trying to help preserve it, or they’ll pick up some trash or get involved. Or they’ll vote appropriately, how they want to, perhaps preserve it.
