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The Bo~rldei° Creek Watershed I~~iitiative (BCWI) ~~~as fors~~ed ten years ago ~~~ith a missios2 to <br />protect and enhance the health of the Bozdder Creek~~~atershed by con~nna~ity-based ste~~~ardship <br />thro~rgh ed~rcation, information and action. <br />1. Description of Proiect <br />The purpose of this project is to design a Boulder Creek Community Stewardship Plan for the <br />Boulder Creek watershed that will foster long-term conservation and stewardship of the <br />watershed through participation of community members who are intimately involved with <br />Boulder Creek. Funding for this project was provided by a grant from the Colorado Watershed <br />Protection Fund. <br />This project investigated opportunties on how to best engage local citizens, under the umbrella <br />of "StreamTeams", in hands-on activities that help protect and restore the watershed. Water <br />quality montoring, neighborhood and stream side education and outreach, habitat and wildlife <br />observations, invasive species removal, riparian plantings, creek clean-ups and other hands-on <br />community involvement activities were identified as potential StreamTeam opportunities <br />through the outreach portion of this project. These types of community-driven activities can help <br />foster an environmental stewardship ethic. People involved in community stewardship efforts <br />feel a sense of pride and accomplishment simply by being involved in activities that help protect <br />the watershed. <br />Creating a stewardslp etlic includes building partnerships that hii~lc govenunent agencies, <br />recreation entities, schools, local businesses, foundations, and the public. It is through these <br />partnerships that BCWI can assure the continuation of future stream monitoring programs for the <br />ongoing tracking of and response to changes in Boulder Creek and its tributaries. Finally, <br />partnerships will improve the chance of success for a grassroots effort to protect Boulder <br />County's environmental quality for current and future generations. <br />BCWI took amulti-faceted approach to identify hands-on activities for citizens to become <br />involved in watershed protection. These activities were then synthesized and evaluated to design <br />the Boulder Creek Community Stewardship Plan: <br />• Investigating how other organizations have involved community members in similar <br />projects; <br />• Conversations with employees of federal, state and local agencies; <br />• Consultations with user groups such as fisherman and local environmental organizations, <br />and; <br />• klformational feedback meetings with additional members of the community. <br />la. Review of Successful Community Involvement Strategies <br />The first phase of this project was to identify successful outreach approaches that have <br />historically been undertaken. This was accomplished in a few different ways: <br />• A discussion with a professional from University of Massachusetts Cooperative <br />Extension to determine ways that agency reaches out to the community; <br />• Researching two publications in the field of community outreach, "Community <br />Building: What Makes it Work" (Amherst H. Wilder Foundation) and `Building <br />