The Call for Special Session Proposals for the AWRA Specialty Conference: Connecting Land and Water for Healthy Communities has been extended to February 1st, 2021. Hopefully this is a little relief for those who were planning to submit and will be incentive for those who wanted to submit but couldn’t due to the tight timeline.
Applications for 2021 Growing Water Smart Workshops in Colorado and Arizona are open. The virtual workshops will be held over 3-4 days; mid-May for Colorado and mid-June for Arizona. This physically distanced but highly collaborative workshop provides a great opportunity for counties, municipalities, or regions to link water and land use, create an action plan, and qualify for technical assistance to support your path forward. There is no cost to participating teams. Contact climateresilience@sonoraninstitute.org with questions. Applications are due by February 15th, 2021.
The City and County of Denver, Denver Water, Mile High Flood District, Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, the Greenway Foundation, and CWCB have come together to create Denver's first One Water Plan. Complete and share this short survey to inform the process and help ensure the Denver One Water program meets the goals and needs of the community. The survey will remain open until early 2021.
Green Team Academy is offering complimentary sponsorships for the 2020 International Climate Action Challenge to Climate Reality Chapters and Branches. The challengers are planting trees, doing cleanups, and transforming their communities! To get started click HERE and request a free Level 2 Sponsorship as a Climate Reality Chapter or Branch.
Mountain Area Land Trust (MALT) is pleased to announce the completion of a Conservation Easement on the 71-acre Sacramento Creek Ranch located near Fairplay within MALT’s Red Hill to Hoosier Pass Priority Area! The Conservation Easement on Sacramento Creek Ranch will prevent the future subdivision of the property and protect critical open space and wildlife habitat for Elk, Moose, Black bear, Beaver and numerous other species that call this area home. The Colorado Natural Heritage Program has identified this region as having “Very High Biodiversity Significance." In addition to critical biodiversity protection, the Conservation Easement specifically ensures use of the property for public recreation, education and research purposes. If you are interested in visiting Sacramento Creek Ranch or learning more about the public uses, please send an email to malt@savetheland.org or call the MALT office at (303) 679-0950.
The Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) has just recently released the 2020 Forest Action Plan (FAP), which is a road map to improving forest health across Colorado in the next decade. The 2020 FAP was created by forestry experts at the Colorado State Forest Service. This in-depth analysis of forest trends offers solutions and guidance for improving forest health and ensuring our forests — and the resources they provide — persevere for future generations. This plan will also help assist decision-makers in investing in our forests where these investments will make the most difference. If you would like to take a look at the plan please click HERE and HERE. Additionally, there is a Forest Action Plan app on the CSFS Forest Atlas page HERE. This is an easy, interactive tool that drills down into the themes of the Forest Action Plan and is an important tool to understand and know how to use. For CSFS and federal grants, partners will need to show where their project fits in relations to the FAP and will need to convey how the projects that they are proposing ties into this plan.
2020 has seen the three largest wildfires in Colorado history and over 600,000 acres have burned across the Centennial State. Along with many of the obvious concerns that come with fires of such magnitude, additional concerns have been expressed towards the impacts on wildlife. In the newest podcast episode, Colorado Outdoors dives right into the pros and cons of wildfire as it relates to wildlife, aquatic life, and the health of our forests. Providing the context on the subject is senior wildlife biologist for CPW's northeast region Shannon Schaller, northeast region senior aquatic biologist Jeff Spohn, and Casey Cooley, who is CPW's forest habitat coordinator. Listen to the podcast HERE.
Help plan your public areas. Arapahoe County Open Space is currently looking for input online, on potential priorities for Arapahoe County’s Open Spaces program for the next decade and beyond. Please take a few minutes, if you haven’t already, to complete a questionnaire and review an interactive tool that overlays these potential priorities on a map of the County. Click HERE to take the survey.
At the opening of Fishers Peak State Park in Trinidad on Friday, October 30th, Governor Jared Polis signed an Executive Order creating the Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnerships Initiative.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is ending the emergency public fish salvage that was enacted at Barr Lake State Park back on September 4th. Anglers are expected to revert to fishing under the normal regulations.
We are so happy to share Colorado Water Conservation Board’s newest podcast, "3 Birds and a Fish," highlighting the importance of the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program. To listen to this podcast on various platforms, click HERE.
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is one of the most comprehensive environmental statutes in the United States. It seeks to protect both human health and ecological resources, to maintain healthy waters, and to restore waters that are impaired. The Clean Water Act provides states and authorized tribes with the tools and guidance necessary to protect and maintain healthy waterways in cooperation with federal government agencies. To explore River Network’s Clean Water Act resources, click HERE.
Arapahoe County Open Spaces is in an exciting stage of 2020 master planning efforts!
Youth Adventure Workbook- This ACTIVITY GUIDE will help bring some structure and joy amid these challenging times. Please share with kids, educators and parents, and help encourage submissions. Return the completed workbook by November 6th (extended deadline) to receive a free bike frame bag from ACOS.
LISTEN Engagement Report- This DOCUMENT summarizes what has been learned to date from the community and County stakeholders through a variety of surveys, interviews, and targeted discussions during the LISTEN public engagement phase (spring/summer 2020).
2020 Master Plan Survey Results- This REPORT is for people who want to dive deeper into public survey data and key findings from the 2020 master plan survey. A SUMMARY is presented, along with the FULL SURVEY RESULTS.
The Denver Parks and Recreation Landscape Typology Manual is a system to identify landscape typologies and the health of individual typology sites. This is a great resource to evaluate and prioritize urban forest health efforts.
The Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, a center of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, proudly co-funded Swimming Upstream, a new StoryMap that highlights collaborative conservation efforts to protect endangered, native fish populations in the Upper Colorado River Basin and enhance critical streamflow management for recreation and agricultural needs in and around Grand Junction, Colorado, along a stretch of the Colorado River commonly known as the 15-Mile Reach. The StoryMap was developed by the Conservation Innovation Center for the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program, in collaboration with the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Click HERE to access the map.
Share your drought related-stories! Faced with the challenge of traveling and touring in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Colorado Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources invite all who are experiencing the impacts of drought, particularly in agriculture, to submit their drought-related stories online through a dedicated “Drought Virtual Tour” website managed by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.