A special message has been written in an alfalfa field for the President to see when he flies into Grand Junction Wednesday. All he has to do is look out the window of Air Force One to see the message from the farmers of Western Colorado.

The land used is just off 29 Road and F 1/2 Road. An the field reads "Mr Prez- We rely on the Colorado River."

The group responsible for the message says it wants to focus the president's attention on issues of our region while he's here, and it believes this will get that done.
     

"We try to get creative in our work and reach decision makers any way that we can," coordinator with Protect the Flow Molly Magglestone said. "I think being In Grand Junction, it's very agriculturally based area so we thought it would be a perfect way to hopefully get his attention."
     

Protect the flow is the group behind the welcome message. It's a coalition of businesses who depend on the river for economic stability.
     

"We're really hoping to make that message resigniate with the President and with the administration that if you want to protect jobs and promote economic stability in Colorado you need to protect and promote the Colorado River," Magglestone said.
     

And farmers on the Western Slope say they couldn't produce their crop without the Colorado River.
"it's the most important thing, water, is the most important thing," Mesa Park Vineyards owner Brooke Webb said. "We rely on it completely. We irrigate our eight acres of grapes with the irrigation channel that's fed completely by the Colorado River."

And if farmers can't grow their fruit, the rest of the state and country suffers with the farmers.

"As a whole we have about 100 winearies in the state and I'm really supportive of the grape growers here in Palisade because we grow about 85 percent of the grapes that are put into the wine to make Colorado wine," Webb said.

In Colorado, the Colorado River provides 80,000 people with jobs.

"36 million people depend on the river and four million acres of crops are irrigated so we get our food from the river, and then we recreate on the river," Magglestone said. 

There's currently a bill being debated in the house that looks at common sense ways people can protect the water and make sure it's here for agricultural needs in the future.