The State of Colorado's Watersheds Report 2005

• Year: 2005
• Title: The State of Colorado's Watersheds Report
• Author: Colorado Watershed Assembly
• Description: 2005
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

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It is my great pleasure to present the
2005 State of Colorado's Watersheds
Report. This year's Report continues
the effort by the Colorado Watershed
Assembly (CWA) to showcase the
work of many of our state's individual
watershed groups to protect our state's
rivers and streams. It is also a look at
some of the issues that have affected
Colorado's watersheds over the past
year and a look forward at some of the
emerging challenges.
One of CWA's primary focuses is
bringing new funding and training to
our watershed community, including
the following:
• Headwater States Partnership
— CWA is a member of a regional
partnership to prepare for future
challenges to Western headwaters
(page 35).
National Watershed Health Project
(NWHP) — Learn about the
expansion of this national training
and assistance project (page 37).
Colorado Watershed Protection
Fund (CWPF) — CWA successfully
led the legislative campaign to
reauthorize the fund for three more
years (page 41).
CWA license plates — CWA is
marketing a new watershed
protection license plate to provide
CWA with an ongoing long -term
source of funding (page 41).
Our steadily increasing population
and recent drought are showing us
the true value of our limited water
supplies and the need to manage them
cooperatively and wisely. People across
our state recognize there is a real and
growing societal need for better long-
term protection of our watersheds for
the well being of their families and
communities, and they want to be more
actively involved in the management of
this critical resource.
CWA is made up of watershed
groups whose members are diverse
local stakeholders — municipalities,
conservancy districts, water providers,
landowners, federal and state agencies
and individual citizens - who are all
willing to work together to develop
cooperative and innovative solutions
that achieve measurable and lasting
improvements in water quality.
The Assembly's goals are to serve
as a statewide voice for watershed
groups, to provide an ongoing
mechanism to funnel resources to
these groups, and to amplify local
watershed group's public outreach and
educational efforts. CWA is committed
to establishing a statewide network of
watershed groups that provides the
long -term vision and protection that our
irreplaceable water resources deserve.
The Assembly recognizes the need to
continue to work with the strongest of
our watershed groups, and yet find ways
to help new groups form and younger
groups mature.
As watershed group leaders
struggle to improve conditions within
their individual watersheds, many have
realized that there are rules, regulations,
and societal behaviors that transcend
their own watershed area that impact
management of their watersheds.
These issues include the impacts of
unsustainable growth, inappropriate
development strategies, how to identify
and implement Best Management
Practices (BMPs), and how to get
utilities and the public to implement
long -term water conservation practices.
CWA was formed to address these
issues as state, regional, and Federal
levels.
In order to more effectively serve
our watershed groups' sustainability
needs, CWA has begun the transition to
having a full -time Executive Director.
Over last winter and spring, we worked
with the Colorado Department of Public
Health & Environment (CDPH &E),
the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), River Network, General Services
Foundation and other funders to develop
a viable funding strategy for CWA's
expansion.
CWA has found a uniquely qualified
and dedicated leader in Jeanne Beaudry.
Jeanne previously served as the Executive
Director of the Roaring Fork Conservancy
for eight years and has been actively
involved in the development of CWA
since its inception, including serving on
its Board of Directors. In December, 2004
she quit her position with the Conservancy
and took on a short term assignment as
a Marine Biologist in the Antarctic. In
May, 2005, the Assembly hired Jeanne
Beaudry as its first Executive Director. She
is currently on her final Arctic assignment
as we await the availability of funding,
and she will be returning to CWA fulltime
in mid - September. CWA would like to
particularly thank the Nonpoint Source
Program (NPS) within the CDPH &E, and
the EPA for their support of Colorado's
watershed groups and CWA during this
transition.
To better coordinate this transition and
give Jeanne a clear mandate for its future
direction, Jeanne, the Board of Directors,
and CWA Committee Chairs will have a
one day planning retreat on October 7th. It
is clear that Jeanne has already begun the
task of turning CWA into the organization
its watershed group members have always
wanted it to be!
Richard Fox, President
Colorado Watershed Assembly
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