When we first settled Colorado, the only place to survive our harsh winters was along the river bottoms.

Take a look at where every town and city in this state was located — along a river. Denver is on the South Platte, Montrose was on the Uncompahgre, Delta on the Gunnison, our own sweet little town is at the junction of the two mighty rivers of western Colorado, the Colorado and the Gunnison.

Railroads lines were built along those river corridors for the same reasons. But we abused our river bottom areas.

Years later, we began to see the error of our ways. Water, after all, is the lifeblood of the West. We can’t live without clean water.

About 30 years ago, thousands of local citizens began to clean up the riparian areas along the Colorado River here in the Grand Valley. This river zone does not look like it used to the first time I was chased off Watson Island by a couple junkyard dogs.

The island was trashed. Junk cars. Dead batteries. Feral pigs. No lie. 55-gallon drums of who knows what toxic waste leaked into our river. The rest of it was worse.

I took a stroll around Watson Island the other day with an old buddy of mine, John Williams, and his two springer spaniels, Ace and Roxie. Watson Island is located at the end of Seventh Street. It’s behind the Western Colorado Botanical Gardens.

Our stroll wasn’t very long since the island isn’t that big. That was OK with John.

He had a hip replaced recently, so this paved section of the Colorado Riverfront Trail was a good place for him to stretch out a bit, and a good place for a pair of friendly dogs on leash to get a little exercise and some fresh air. Plus, it was a beautiful western Colorado morning on the Colorado River.

The island has changed, much for the better. There are still a lot of non-native plants, trees and weeds on Watson Island, but the Tamarisk Coalition is working on that.

Right now, they’re spending about a quarter-million dollars and hundreds of man-hours cleaning up the non-native species and re-introducing native species to this river bottom land that’s been abused for the last century or more.

The Colorado Riverfront Project has been a wondrous thing for our river, and I don’t want to make city hall mad — especially in light of all it’s done recently to assist the Western Colorado Botanical Gardens, but the Colorado Riverfront Trail still needs your help.

You see, after thousands of people spent tens of thousands of hours cleaning our Colorado Riverfront property following a hundred years of trashing it, the city has recently decided light industrial use is OK along this corridor.

Odd, how could industrial zoning, light or otherwise, be compatible with the vision that helped clean up our riverfront? It’s in the flood plain!

Councilwoman Bonnie Beckstein said she viewed the industrial zoning as “the proper way of doing business.”

“Based on the fact that the property owner in good faith bought the property and dealt with the city in good faith, we need to respect that,” she said.

How about respecting the wishes of all those people who have labored all those years to clean up this mess? How about the fact that when Brady Trucking purchased the property, it was not zoned for their light industrial use and Brady knew it would take an act by the City Council to change that use?

Make no mistake: Brady has done a tremendous job of cleaning up a part of the river bottom that was also trashed. Thanks, Brady. Nonetheless, you knew it was not zoned for your use when you purchased the property.

To reach Watson Island, take Seventh Street past Enstrom’s where they make that heavenly toffee, over the railroad tracks, past The Daily Sentinel and past Los Reyes, that quaint little restaurant that serves such devilishly tempting, spicy Mexican food.

South Seventh Street ends at Struthers, where construction has finally been completed on the Riverside Roadway Project — the one that almost buried the Botanical Gardens alive.

The paved path to Watson Island winds behind the Botanical Garden and is open year-round. The path leads across a bridge and onto the island, with its hundred-year-old stands of Fremont Cottonwoods, which are just beginning to glisten yellow in this fall’s noonday sun.

Today would be a great day to hike/walk/stroll/ride here. Then find out what you can do to help maintain this area.

There are petitions circulating throughout town to reverse the vote of the City Council. Find one. Sign one. I don’t live within the city limits so I can’t, but I encourage you to.