JUNE 5th, 2019: Garfield County State of the Rivers Meeting. The 2019 Garfield County State of the Colorado River meeting, hosted by the Middle Colorado Watershed Council, will be held at the Rifle Branch Library. Free food and drinks at 5:30 p.m. The program begins at 6:00 p.m. Presentations at this year’s event will include information and updates about local planning efforts, current and forecasted conditions for the summer months, and an overview of “big river” issues including recent Drought Contingency Plans (DCP’s) for the Upper and Lower Basin states. For more information, click HERE.
JUNE 5th, 2019, 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.: 2019 WEN Symposium - Equity in Water Education. Join Water Education Colorado’s Water Educator Network as they discuss the work required to develop and sustain just and equitable water education programs that foster authentic engagement of all Coloradans. Tools and techniques to evaluate our own programs, explore success stories, and use our shared learning to identify potential changes to our individual program plans will all be explored. Click HERE for more information and registration.
JUNE 6th-7th, 2019: 40th Annual Getches-Wilkenson Center Summer Conference. This year, the conference is titled, Charting a Better Course for the Colorado River: Identifying the Data and Concepts to Shape the Interim Guidelines Renegotiation. You can find the Conference Agenda HERE and the Registration HERE.
JUNE 8th, 2019: Safe Summer Kick Off on Get Outdoors Day. Right around the corner. Get Outdoors Colorado, Metro Denver Nature Alliance, and SouthWest Denver Coalition are joining forces to host Safe Summer Kick Off on Get Outdoors Day at Garfield Lake Park from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. This FREE, family-friendly event is designed to promote access to healthy and safe outdoor spaces, support under-resourced communities, and celebrate nature exploration. Find the event HERE.
JUNE 11th, 2019 | 5:30 p.m.: Annual RiverBank Celebration hosted by Colorado Water Trust at the Denver Botanic Gardens.Would your company like to get your name out as supporter of healthy Colorado rivers, too? Click HERE to learn about all the cool benefits that come from sponsoring RiverBank.
JUNE 12th – 14th, 2019: Western Slope Rural Philanthropy Days in the North Fork Valley, Colorado. This opportunity only occurs once every four years in the Western Slope region, so mark your calendars for the unique opportunity to meet one-on-one with funders, participate in professional development opportunities, and network with other community leaders in the region. Western Slope RPD serves Delta, Eagle, Garfield, Mesa and Pitkin counties. Register now HERE.
JUNE 13th-16th: FIBArk. Every year in June during the Arkansas River runoff in Salida, Colorado, a festival occurs called FIBArk or “First In Boating the Arkansas”. The festival focuses on whitewater boat races and paddlers from around the world gathering to compete. Join this event for live music, food, drink, and tons of river events! This year marks the 70th Anniversary of FIBArk, the nation's oldest whitewater festival! Click HERE for more information.
JUNE 17th-18th, 2019: South Platte River Basin Tour with Water Education Colorado. Come see this hard-working prairie river up close and meet the people striving toward a water future for the local economies and habitats in Colorado’s northeastern corner. Tour topics will include the South Platte Basin Implementation Plan progress and priorities, Republican River Compact compliance, collaborative water storage and exchanges to meet an anticipated supply gap, alternative water transfers (ATM) benefiting multiple stakeholders, agricultural economy of the Eastern Plains, energy development, water quality, partnerships for endangered species recovery, and much much more. For more information, click HERE.
JUNE 18th-20th, 2019: The 4th Rocky Mountain Stream Restoration Conference will provide an opportunity for professionals to share ideas and lessons learned in stream restoration assessment, planning, design, construction, and evaluation, as well as other topical stream issues. The conference will explore stream restoration challenges and solutions, with a focus on the Intermountain West. For the agenda click HERE.
JUNE 20th, 2019: CSU Weed Network Tour. This is a free event that highlights cutting edge research conducted at CSU in collaboration with City and County Open Space managers along the front range, focusing on non-crop weed management and restoration of areas degraded by invasive plant species. The event is free including transportation and meals. For any questions, please contact Rachel Seedorf (rseedorf@colostate.edu) or Shannon Clark (Shannon.Clark@colostate.edu). Register HERE.
JUNE 20th-21st, 2019: Gunnison River Festival. The Gunnison River Festival (GRF) strives to educate water users throughout the watershed about the Gunnison River and put on a wide variety of events from concerts to whitewater races that appeal to all. The GRF begins on Thursday, June 20 with a Pearl Jam tribute band at the Ibar Ranch, a film festival on Friday, June 21. Due to this amazing water year, the main festival event with whitewater races, educational booths, food, and more originally scheduled for Saturday, June 22 has been rescheduled to Saturday August 24, 2019. The Pearl Jam concert and Film Festival at the Ibar are still occurring on their originally scheduled dates (June 20 and 21). Come visit both weekends! Visit the website HERE for more information.
JUNE 22nd, 2019 | 12:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.: Citizens for the River at Confluence Park. Citizens for the River is Denver’s premier, FREE, urban river festival, which features a river rodeo parade, stand up paddle board demos, a variety of riverside recreational activities, a kids zone, live music, beer, food vendors, water sport vendors, and more! This year, the party will feature live music throughout the event day on the east side of Confluence Park, capped off by a national headliner concert to end the day! For more information, click HERE.
JUNE 24th-26th, 2019: Great Plains Low Impact Development (LID) Research & Innovation Symposium, hosted by Colorado Stormwater Center at Colorado State University. This 3-day symposium is organized to provide stormwater practitioners in the great plains region the tools and information necessary to successfully use low impact development (LID). Many conferences on this topic are geared toward the West and East coast implementation of LID, but this conference focuses on how to use LID in the middle of the country including all of challenges and barriers. Registration is closed. If you are looking to join the symposium as a sponsor or exhibitor, there are several sponsorship packages still available! For more information, check out the website HERE.
JUNE 25th, 2019: Party on the Poudre. Colorado Water Trust’ fundraiser on the banks of the Cache la Poudre River has been rescheduled! Local resident, Craig Harrison, is generously opening up his barn at H Lazy T Bar Ranch to invite you to a Party on the Poudre! Join them for an evening of drinks, appetizers, and discussions about Colorado’s water challenges as well as solutions to protect our rivers and the communities around them. Colorado Water Trust's innovative thinking is coming to the Fort Collins area, as they build a coalition of partners to help put water back in stressed reaches of the Cache la Poudre River. They believe that our water challenges in Colorado are fixable by working within the current system and all Coloradans are needed to get engaged. For more information and registration, click HERE.
JUNE 29th, 2019: 12th Annual Ridgway RiverFest. The Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership is excited to bring another family-friendly, lively community festival to you at Rollans Park in Ridgway. With no admission fee for festival goers, this event would not be possible without donations from sponsors. UWP is now seeking sponsorships from $100 to $2,500. To find out more, please go to their RiverFest Sponsor Resources webpage, or email Tanya at ridgwayriverfest@gmail.com.
AUGUST 6th-7th, 2019: Denver Watershed Tour. Join Denver’s Public Works and Denver Water on a two-day tour of Denver’s watershed to explore how water moves from source to faucet and storm drain. The Denver Watershed Tour is designed for classroom and informal educators to learn more about how water gets to and moves through our communities. Throughout the tour, participants will engage in interdisciplinary activities to bring back to the classroom. For more information click HERE.
AUGUST 24th, 2019: Gunnison River Festival. The Gunnison River Festival (GRF) strives to educate water users throughout the watershed about the Gunnison River and put on a wide variety of events from concerts to whitewater races that appeal to all. Due to this amazing water year, the main festival event with whitewater races, educational booths, food, and more was rescheduled to Saturday, August 24th, 2019. Visit the website HERE for more information.
AUGUST 24th, 2019: RiversEdge West hosts Raft the River. Join them and local river experts for their 5th Annual Raft the River fundraiser, a one-day float trip and dinner along the Colorado River in Fruita, Colorado from 3:00 p.m. -7:30 p.m. They'll be floating from Rimrock Adventures to the Loma Boat Ramp. Registration ends August 15th! For more information, click HERE.
SEPTEMBER 17th-19th, 2019: San Luis Valley Rural Philanthropy Days. RPD conferences include many opportunities to increase your understanding of nonprofit best practices, collaborate with other community leaders, and connect with Front Range and local funders. The funder roundtables are a signature of the RPD program and provide a unique opportunity to meet with grant-makers in a rural setting. The goal of RPD is to bring increased access to resources to support sustainable rural nonprofits, increase the engagement of funders in rural communities, and encourage effective collaboration on a regional scale. For more information head HERE.
OCTOBER 8th - 10th, 2019: 2019 Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference "The Human Element" at the Westin Riverfront Resort, Avon, CO. The 2019 conference will explore the influence of The Human Element on water and watersheds in Colorado and the West. Our growing human presence and resulting impacts on watersheds is undeniable. At the same time, our human experiences and social/emotional connections to watersheds are integral components to be considered in the work to preserve, protect and restore our watersheds. Together we will delve into our impacts and connections. We will look for ways our influence can be fostered and mitigated to avoid loving our home to death. For more information visit our SCW CONFERENCE webpage.
Apply for a scholarship by June 14th!
Early Bird registration begins July 1st!
OCTOBER 30th, 2019 from 8:15 a.m.-3:00 p.m.: 11th Annual Water Conservation Symposium hosted by Colorado WaterWise at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The event will cover water, climate, drought, and planning for the future. For more information and registration, click HERE.