Former State Senator Fred Anderson was a “renowned water-issue activist” and the legislative father of the Instream Flow Program. In his passing, the Colorado water community has shown a great deal of appreciation and respect for his efforts on behalf of Colorado’s natural heritage. Anderson served sixteen years in the state Senate, eight of those as Senate President. He was a “great fellow” and an even-handed legislator. According to CWT’s Board Vice President, David Robbins, Anderson “carried the bill in the legislature that permitted the concept of beneficial use for the environment, also known as the Instream Flow law.” In 1973, beneficial use for the environment was a new concept in Colorado water law. Six years later, Robbins argued that the 1973 legislation was constitutional, and the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in his favor. Now, over 8,500 miles of Colorado streams are protected by instream flow water rights. Anderson was also “instrumental in integrating ground and surface water rights and restructuring the state water laws in 1969” (Denver Post).
Fred, we thank you for your contributions to Colorado water law and policy and for the lasting effects that your efforts will have here in Colorado.
The Honorable Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr., a Justice on the Colorado Supreme Court, recently re-dedicated his 2003 poem to honor Fred Anderson:
COLORADO
MOTHER OF RIVERS
When I was young the waters sang
of being here before I am,
of falling sweet and soft and slow
to berry bog and high meadow.
And held me in her lap and cooed
the willow roots, the gaining pools,
and called me through bright dappled grass
and called me O, My Shining One;
And shaped a bed to lay me on
and played the flute so high and clear.
And shape the stones to carry me,
when I am young and full of fight
for roaring here and roaring there,
for pouring torrents in the air.
When I am young as mountain snow
in crag and cleft and cracked window;
I call the green-backed cutthroat trout,
I call the nymph and hellgrammite,
I call the hatch to catch a wind,
I call upon the mountain track;
I call the scarlet to the jaw
as morning calls her own hatchlings,
call Yampa, White, the Rio Grande,
San Juan, the Platte, the Arkansas.
Greg Hobbs 2003
(in celebration of the 30th year
of Colorado’s instream flow law)
Dedicated again this December 30, 2011
To Senator Fred Anderson, Sponsor of the 1973
Colorado Instream Flow Law