River rafting Rio Grande, Colorado (1987)
	Recreation is increasingly big business throughout the American West. Among the more profitable activities is whitewater rafting, with thrills and spills and (relatively) little environmental impact. This is not always the case; the effects of several hundred people a day handling bodily needs going down a river like the Colorado or the Rio Grande, sustained over five or six months, takes its toll. But rafting companies are increasingly trying to "tread lightly" on the land. It all makes for grand sport. Whether this will supplant the older and extractive economies very much remains to be seen.
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