How Dams Fall

by Will Falk

“The Colorado River speaks,” Will Falk insists in How Dams Fall . Written while Falk was involved in the first-ever American federal lawsuit seeking personhood and rights of nature for a major ecosystem, the Colorado River, this essay, at once lyrical and analytical, explores the American cultural, and his personal, relationship with one of the world’s most famous—and most misunderstood—rivers. Responsible for speaking on the Colorado’s behalf in court, Falk spent weeks traveling with the river asking her who she is and what she needs. With brutal honesty and an unflinching commitment to witnessing the river’s wounds in all their painful detail, How Dams Fall is an intimate conversation between a human and a river. In a time when the Colorado River is at record low levels and water shortages look inevitable, this essay is a must-read for outdoor enthusiasts, naturalists, water advocates, and anyone who has ever fallen in love with the natural world.

78 pages, Paperback

Published August 6, 2019

Reviews

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anyone can speak for the Colorado River, it is Will Falk. In English almost as lyrical as River language, he describes his journey to listen to the Colorado River as he fights for her legal rights in our human courts. And as he suggests, the best way to learn from a river, is to go spend a lot of time next to a river yourself, and listen. Thank you Will for writing this beautiful book.

[Karly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This essay is completely overwrought and full of problematic analogies and comparisons . He writes that the river is a slave, but “even this dark image felt too generous. Slaves may still be liberated. Slaves still live.” He also compares the river being “silenced” to Holocaust victims. Big yikes from me.

[Thomas Qualls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will Falk is a futurist, a visionary, and an animist, wrapped in the cloak of an environmental advocate. He is the rarest of creatures living among us, a licensed attorney actively advocating, protecting, and channeling a voice for the land and water that sustains us all, while also having the mind and soul of a poet. Forget the philosopher king, Falk has transcended that ideal and instead embodies something much higher. Walt Whitman would be proud.

[Thom Gibney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will Falk feels like a natural successor to romantic-era naturalists like Thoreau and Emerson but carries the weight of anthropogenic darkness with each page.
If the romantics used ink in their ink pots, Falk
writes representing the Colorado River (and the rest of the natural world) with fire and blood.