David Getches is Dean of the University of Colorado School of Law. Dean Getches is a graduate of Occidental College and the University of Southern California Law School. In addition to serving as Dean of CU Law, he teaches and writes on water law, public land law, environmental law, and Indian law. He has authored or co-authored several books including: Water Law in a Nutshell; Searching Out the Headwaters: Change and Rediscovery in Western Water Law and Policy; Controlling Water Use: The Unfinished Business of Water Quality Control; Water Resource Management; and Federal Indian Law. He has written many articles and book chapters that appear in diverse scholarly and popular sources, including recent articles calling for reform of Colorado River governance.
From 1983-1987, Dean Getches served as the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources under then-Governor Richard D. Lamm. While serving in that capacity, he strongly advocated water conservation, pressed for groundwater law reform, advanced ideas for better cooperative management and control of the Colorado River, urged expansion of the state’s designated wilderness areas, and spoke out on the importance of recreation and wildlife to the state’s economy. Dean Getches was also the founding Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund; he developed the staff, funding, and program of this national nonprofit Indian-interest law firm.
In addition to serving as a Board member of the Colorado Water Trust, Dean Getches chairs the Board of Trustees of the Grand Canyon Trust and is a member of the Governing Board of the Wilderness Society, the Board of Directors of Defenders of Wildlife, and the Board of Trustees of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. He is on Advisory Boards for the CU Natural Resources Law Center, American Rivers, and the Trust for Public Land. In the past, he served on the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the Colorado River Salinity Control Forum, the Colorado Groundwater Commission, the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board, the Rocky Flats Environmental Monitoring Council, and the Board of Directors of the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies.