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• Board Meeting Date: 9/17/2008
• Description: Rio Grande Watershed Association of Conservation Districts - Conservation and Education Public Outreach
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Narrative: Agency Information:
Mission and Goals
The Mission of the Rio Grande Watershed Conservation Education and Public Outreach Program
is to provide dynamic conservation education to the San Luis Valley community and to promote
stewardship of our nat ural resources. Our goals are to develop educational materials and
program s centered on conservation practices that can be presented to the San Luis Valley (SLV)
educational trips, coordinate conservation
activities for youth and adults , develop p roject learning opportunities, provide assistance to
conservation districts, facilitate meeting s for environmental, conservation and education groups
and provide conservation presentations.

Summary
The focus of th e group is to maximize the use of renewable resources and encourage best
management conservation practices, The Rio Grande Watershed encompasses 7,828,451 acres,
approximately 27% of which are farm and crop lands, 13% rangeland, 28% privately held
acreages and 32% public lands. Over the past 19 years the Rio Grande Watershed Association of
Conservation Districts and its member agencies have been working to forward conservation
learning in the region and sound natural resource planning, management, and devel opment. These
goals exemplify effective conservation education to a broad spectrum of area youth, who are the
- makers and potential conservation planners, will help to ensure the best
coming decades.

Programs
The Rio Grande Watershed Association of Conservation Districts has maintain ed the education
position for nine teen years and over that time period has established numerous conservation
education programs that include:

I n the fiel and conservation curriculum development that are tied to
the Colorado State Content Standards ;
th

C oordinate the Colorado Association of Conservation Districts 6 Grade Poster Contest
with all schools here in the San Luis Valley ;

C oordi nate the Soil, Water and Range Components of the Beaver Creek Junior Natural
Resources Camp ;

D evelop project learning opportunities for students grades 7 - 12 ;

P articipate on the Environmental and Conservation Education Council ;

Facilitate meeting of environ mental, conservation and education groups and provide
conservation presentations.

These include the following hands - on educational activities : performing s no w surveys and water
f orecastin g; river and r iparian study center; the 6th Grade Conservation Poster C ontest; ground
water m odel ; and project l earning . We a
studies and water quality t ri ps, organic farm tours, windbreak and living snow fence p lanting. .
We have maintained our participation level from schools and have created a valley wide
following and have community programs that are continually sought after for local events.
Issue
The Rio Grande Watershed is asking for funding to maintain the Conservation Education
Specialist position. Though we have maintained this position for the past Nineteen years this year
has seen a dramatic decrease in funding from two of our major contributors: the Natural Resource
Conservation Service an d the SLV area County Commissioners. T hese decrease s in funding were
not from lack of support for the position, but instead from federal and local government funding
decreases in the general fund s to these par tner s which forced them to re - itemize their bud gets .