"A chronicle of both personal and ecological redemption by a gifted writer and observer, as well as a stirring affirmation that, even in a world suffering from terminal burnout, seeds can take root, flowers can clossom, and hope abides."
--KEVIN FEDARKO, The Emerald Mile and A Walk in the Park
"
Life After Dead Pool is a fascinating account of how climate change and drought are forcing a radical reimagining of western water management. Investigative journalist Zak Podmore gives us solace, insight, and maybe even hope.
--DAVID QUAMMEN, Spillover and The Heartbeat of the Wild
"Written in time with Lake Powell's water level decline, Life After Dead Pool is Zak Podmore's clear-eyed but hopeful assessment of the potential restoration of Glen Canyon. A captivating vision of regional transformation."
--FOREWORD REVIEWS
"
Life After Dead Pool teases apart complicated issues at the Glen Canyon Dam: water management, Indigenous rights, and political, economic, and ecological concerns, all in the context of history and culture. With captivating storytelling, lively characters, and in-depth research, Podmore engages with these questions, offering surprising conclusions, a refreshing approach, and solutions outside of a traditional binary."
--SHELF AWARENESS
"Zak Podmore, an inveterate explorer of the American Southwest, has crafted an intimate look at the dramatic changes unfolding in the canyons of Lake Powell. In so doing he engagingly challenges most of the historical and contemporary wisdom of Southwestern water policy. None of the prominent stakeholders--the states, agricultural interests, federal land managers, environmentalists, economic boosters--escape scrutiny. But Zak is no simple critic. He outlines a number of exciting future policy paths with realistic optimism.."
--FORMER U.S. SENATOR MARK UDALL
"An invaluable chapter in the history of the Colorado River."
--DAVID EVERETT, Back of Beyond Books
"Zak Podmore offers a plan both visionary and practical, on how the river can, once again, redeem the region."
--DAVID GESSNER,
All the Wild That Remains and
A Traveler's Guide to the End of the World"Both a cure and instigator for sandstone and river-induced canyon-itis, Podmore explores a future without Glen Canyon Dam through the lens of a journalist and the soul of an adventurer. The future of water management in the west starts with asking tough questions, and Podmore investigates the issue's centerpiece."
--MORGAN SJOGREN,
Path of Light"By taking us into the lost and reemerging landscapes of Glen Canyon, Podmore deepens our understanding and calls us to action to protect the greatest resource we have in the desert--water."
--CALVIN CROSBY, The King's English Bookshop owner
"In a world everywhere fraying at the seams, Zak Podmore studies a colossal human mistake and finds reasons for hope. I admired this book and you will too."
--PHILIP CONNORS,
A Song for the River "
Life After Dead Pool is impeccably clean writing and reporting. In balancing the thrill of a canyon's resurrection with the challenge of managing a dwindling river, Podmore leaves us in the best place possible in a fraught world. Fully informed, welcomed into an engaged community of researchers, and sitting in a circle in the Cathedral in the Desert, singing.
--STEPHEN TRIMBLE, editor of
Red Rock Stories and
The Capitol Reef Reader"Podmore shares a fascinating history and offers us a hopeful and practical solution to a natural ecosystem that is miraculously emerging from the depths."
--ANNETTE MCGIVNEY,
Pure Land
"Beautifully written and thoughtfully organized, Podmore's exceptional book should be required reading for anyone who has even briefly reflected on what Glen Canyon was before the dam was built, what it is now, and what it could be in the future."
--ERIKA M. BSUMEK,
The Foundations of Glen Canyon Dam: Infrastructures of Dispossession on the Colorado Plateau
"Podmore's viewpoint on the current condition of the Colorado River Basin is one only gained through years of watching the Basin change with his own eyes. Life After Dead Pool is a gift to readers."
--EVAN SCHERTZ, Maria's Bookshop owner
