Hot tip from an ex-resident of D.C. to all you activists out there: If you want to get the president’s attention, standing outside the White House with some signs and bullhorns is not going to do it. Everyone does that. You have to get creative. Like these guys, who cut their message into a field of crops, in hopes that the president would see it from Air Force One as he flies into Grand Junction, Colo., on a visit:


The group that came up with this plan is a coalition of more than 500 western businesses that have an interest in keeping the Colorado healthy. It’s called Protect the Flows (which, we’re sorry guys, but that does sound like it has something to do with menses), and it’s concerned about the dropping water levels in the river. Demand for the water is shooting up, at the same time that drought is decreasing supply.

The group’s specific requests are pretty simple: Take a look at the report the Interior Department’s putting together on the state of the Colorado and pay a little attention to a farm bill provision that would help Colorado River farmers conserve water. But it was a little hard to fit all that on one cornfield.