FEBRUARY 25th, 2020: Next Friends of the Lower Blue River (FOLBR) Board Meeting | Eagle's Nest Community Center | 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
River Rally Scholarship Support Available! River Network offers a limited number of scholarships for those who need financial assistance to attend River Rally. The application is part of the registration process. To apply, complete your registration online and pay a $20 application fee. We also offer volunteer opportunities in exchange for registration discounts. Scholarship applications are due Friday, February 28th. Don't miss out!
Are You River Network’s 2020 Emerging Leader? In 2019, River Network established the Emerging Leader award, inspired by former River Network board member Leslie Lowe, whose generous spirit and encouragement of emerging leaders provided a vision for how River Network’s efforts could extend into a wider array of communities. The award provides early-career recognition and acknowledgement to an individual who shows promise and a path to expand the community of people who work on water issues by recognizing and lifting up those individuals who are working at the juncture of water and justice. Meet Kevin Jeffery, the 2019 Emerging Leader, and learn more about how to self-nominate today! Self-nominations are due Friday, February 28th. Click HERE.
Submit your Session Abstracts for the Colorado WaterWise Annual Symposium! Have a topic that you think would appeal to the Symposium audience? They’d love to hear about it through their abstract submission process. They are beginning the planning of the 2020 event and welcome you session ideas. Please complete the online form by April 3rd, 2020, for consideration at this year's event. If you have questions or issues completing the form, please email admin@coloradowaterwise.org, click HERE for the session form.
Colorado Water Trust and the Colorado Water Conservation Board have launched the annual Request for Water Process. This process offers a streamlined approach to water transactions to benefit the environment on streams throughout the state. In 2020, again water rights owners are invited to explore options to use their water rights for streamflow restoration purposes. Voluntary water sharing arrangements or voluntary acquisitions of senior water rights, on a temporary or permanent basis, can help restore flows to rivers in need, sustain agriculture, and maximize beneficial uses of Colorado’s water. This Process is confidential, completely voluntary and open to all water right owners, including agricultural, municipal, industrial, or other users. Offers will be accepted through June 30th, 2020. Colorado Water Trust expects to host informational webinars in spring of 2020. For more information, click HERE.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) is pleased to announce that the Public Review Draft of the Colorado Fluvial Hazard Zone (FHZ) Delineation Protocol along with a comment sheet has been posted for review HERE. Please submit by March 16th, 2020, comments, constructive recommendations, points of concern, areas that could use clarification, questions, additional references or studies for consideration and/or positive feedback recorded on the comment sheet found on the google drive folder and emailed to Chris Sturm (chris.sturm@state.co.us), Katie Jagt (katiejagt@watershedscienceanddesign.com), and Michael Blazewicz (michael@roundriverdesign.com). Additionally, if you have the opportunity to use this draft protocol for any mapping efforts in the coming months, the FHZ team is asking that you to fill out a short survey--the link is provided on the disclaimer page of the document.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) is pleased to announce the release of a new handbook Colorado Disaster Recovery, Lessons Learned: A Guide to Plan, React, Adapt, Evolve, and Achieve the Best Possible Outcomes for Our Communities and Stream Corridors. This book covers a conceptual model of recovery that includes: Disaster Response, Recovery Planning, Design and Permitting, Implementation, Monitoring and Adaptive Management, Pre-Disaster Planning. All of these are wrapped around a Centralized Recovery Program that also fully considers The Human Element that plays so heavily into recovery. The lessons learned pertain to each and every one of the recovery elements with each section providing action items or guiding principles for recovery managers to consider, including recommendations for:
Changes to State and Federal Disaster Response
Disaster Recovery Actions
Pre-Disaster Actions
Salinity Workshop Includes Colorado Corn Administrative Committee (CCAC) Commissioned Study. Full Study Being Published Spring 2020. A recent workshop about the increasing salinity of the South Platte river was organized by the Centennial, Morgan and Sedgwick County Conservation Districts with help from Sterling, Morgan and Julesburg offices of Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Information included a study commissioned by Colorado Corn Administrative Council. Topics included Regulation 85 & Watershed Planning, the effects of salinity on soil and agriculture, salinity on the South Platte, and the future of water storage on the South Platte. Speakers were Phil Brink from Colorado Cattlemen’s Association Ag NetWORK; Mike Peterson, retired soil scientist & agronomist; Mark Sponsler of Colorado Corn; Grady O’Brien of NEIRBO Hydrogeology; and Joe Frank of Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District. The full salinity study commissioned by Colorado Corn will be published Spring 2020.
There's an update to Water Education Colorado's high-quality reference series! The Citizen's Guide to Colorado Water Quality Protection, third edition provides an overview of water quality issues important to Colorado. It also tackles the complex water quality protection framework, including laws and regulations on a national, state and local level, which help ensure the protection, restoration and maintenance the quality of this natural resource. Click HERE to order your guide.
Colorado Small Acreage Management Newsletter. Inside this edition:Where do Bees go in Winter?, Soil Health, USDA Rural Development Value Added Grant, Which Trees to Transplant in Spring and Fall, Bird Migration Timing, Payson Lupine and Silvery Lupine. Click HERE to read!
Perhaps read this scientific paper: “Irrigation institutions typology and water governance through horizontal agreements.” Abstract: An argument is made for a typology of the diversity of self-governance. On the one hand, decentralized or centralized governance, and bureaucratic or non-bureaucratic water management. On the other hand the existence of networks of horizontal agreements with no overarching institutions.
Perhaps read this report: The Sustainable Water Management Profile: An Assessment Tool to Advance Water Supply Sustainability. Summary: The Sustainable Water Management (SWM) Profile is an assessment tool to advance long‐term water supply resilience and water resource stewardship at a regional scale. The Water Foundation completed extensive research within and outside the water supply community while designing this evaluation framework. The tool focuses on management actions that water supply agencies can take internally, with agency partners, and across their regions to improve the sustainability of water supplies. The profile provides standards for assessing stressors that cause water supply vulnerability, and for evaluating the responses of water supply agencies to these vulnerabilities. This article explains how the SWM Profile was designed by the Water Foundation to meet the needs of the water community and makes recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the profile and similar assessment tools. As the challenges facing water supply managers grow, standards that track progress toward sustainability become more important. The Water Foundation provides this article to share the lessons learned from the SWM Profile, in hopes that it will contribute to the work of other professionals in the field of water supply management.
AquaSPE in Zurich, Switzerland, invites you to join the largest knowledge sharing platform and business exchange for global water professionals—The Water Network, where you will find more than 113,000 water professionals. Check out the benefits - it is free and easy to join! Help solve the world's water crisis one answer at a time.
Watershed Wildlife Protection Group has posted their 2020 group meetings dates. To find the dates, times and location click HERE.
It Could Be Your Rooftop! Is your facility struggling with zinc in its stormwater discharge even after implementing BMPs? A hidden source of zinc could be your roofing materials or galvanized roof equipment. Learn more about StormwateRx’s Zinc-B-Gone® line of stormwater filteders HERE.
Egret Marsh Stormwater Park in Florida overlaps Municipal & Industrial (city & factory) filtration of water with Environmental habitat rebuilding. These multi-use structures are all the rage. Bioengineering with algae?! Watch the video HERE! Alexis Peralta notes, Colorado has harsher winters than this brackish ecosystem.
Colorado River District works every day to secure water supplies for agricultural, industrial, and municipal uses on the Western Slope. From the jagged peaks of the Continental Divide to the red rock canyons of the Colorado Plateau, and from the twists of the Uncompahgre River to the turns of the Yampa River, the Colorado River District contains the headwaters of one of our nation’s most important watersheds: the Colorado River. Watch and Share their video to spread the word.
Friends of the Lower Blue River is proud to announce the launch of their online guide to the history of the Lower Blue River Valley. With a click on the website or a swipe with your thumb on your device, you will be transported to key points of interest and their historical relevance from Summit to Grand County. This project was made possible by grant support from the Summit Foundation. To check out the LBR history guide, click HERE.
Learn About Methods for Stream Management Planning with CWCB’s and River Network’s New Resource Library! Just like individuals, each Stream Management Plan (SMP) is unique. The people and the location greatly influence their goals and activities. But there is also a common blueprint, documented at CWCB and River Network’s SMP Resource Library. For each step in the planning process, it presents examples, best practices, online resources, and methods to consider. The goal of the SMP Resource Library is to enlarge the pipeline of local coalitions that are interested, ready, and capable of undertaking Stream Management Plans, as well as advance the state of knowledge around how to craft effective and implementable SMPs. Resource Library case studies will be updated annually as SMPs progress. Experts in the different assessment areas (hydrology, water quality, recreation, riparian habitat, etc.) are encouraged to submit their ideas and feedback so it can continue to grow and improve. Click HERE to visit.
Visit the remodeled Colorado Emergency Watershed Protection website from CWCB. Now, many of the resources developed during flood recovery in Colorado available to the public for use on future efforts.