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Award-winning author and journalist Zak Podmore will visit The Bookworm on Wednesday to discuss his book “Life After Dead Pool.” The book explores the magnificent terrain and complex politics of the Colorado River, its dying reservoirs and the surprising revelation that the inevitable loss of Lake Powell could be a turning point for a more sustainable future.

There will be a Q&A session and book signing, and light refreshments will be provided.

Podmore grew up alongside the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, so his appreciation of the body of water started at a young age.

“I grew up in a river-running family, and I learned to love the Colorado River and its tributaries from an early age,” Podmore said. “I first got involved with covering the river as a journalist in 2011, when I did a source-to-sea kayak trip from Wyoming to Mexico on the Green and Colorado rivers. Since then, I’ve covered water issues in the Southwest as a reporter for various publications, including as a staff writer for The Salt Lake Tribune.”

Following his work in journalism, Podmore worked on his newest book, which dives into the precarious situation of Lake Powell.

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“Lake Powell repeatedly broke record-low levels as I was writing ‘Life After Dead Pool’ from 2021 through early 2023,” Podmore said. “The design of the Glen Canyon Dam could make it very difficult to release water from Lake Powell during sustained drought conditions, which would affect the 27 million people who rely on Colorado River water downstream from the dam. My book argues that the Glen Canyon Dam needs a redesign to help mitigate the water crisis in the river basin.”

Despite record low water levels in Lake Powell and the droughts and other crises this brings, there has been evidence of recovering ecology in the Glen Canyon near Lake Powell. “The recovering ecology in Glen Canyon is the bright side of the water crisis, and it’s a major focus of the book,” Podmore said. “As Lake Powell has dropped, over 100,000 acres of previously flooded land have begun to recover. Ecologists I interviewed are shocked by the ecological integrity of the returning ecosystems in Glen Canyon. The book is about the megadrought that has gripped the Colorado River basin since 2000, but in a strange way it’s a positive climate change story because the drought is bringing back a lost national park in Glen Canyon.”

Podmore encourages that revitalizing the ecology in the Glen Canyon through modification of the Glen Canyon Dam could aid conservation efforts of the Colorado River basin.

“I hope the Glen Canyon Dam will be modified so that water can still be released downstream into the Grand Canyon, even if Lake Powell continues to drop in years to come,” Podmore said. “I think reengineering the dam would make sense from a water management perspective, benefitting cities and farmers alike, while also allowing Glen Canyon to continue its recovery.”

In reading Podmore’s book, one can find hope in the creative solutions from river conservationists like Podmore, and the resilient ecology of that area. “There is a growing water crisis in the Southwest, but it presents opportunities to do things better than we’ve done in the past,” Podmore said.