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Colorado Watershed Network
Dear
Colleagues, Partners and Friends,
It
is with regret that we inform you that the Colorado Watershed
Network is closing its doors, effective September 1. We have
enjoyed working with, supporting, and getting to know all of
you. Thank you for all of your support.
Over
the last decade CWN has worked hard to promote the health of
Colorado’s watersheds through nonbiased community based
science and support. Our most recent success was securing
funding through June 2010 for Colorado Project WET (Water
Education for Teachers). This program reaches out to teachers
across the state, giving them the resources to educate their
students. Since March of last year, we’ve also partnered
with Universities, Water Providers, Stormwater Permit Holders,
and others to put on specialized workshops meeting their local
needs. CWN also spear-headed the Colorado Water Education Task
Force in partnership with the Colorado Alliance for
Environmental Education and the Colorado Water Conservation
Board.
CWN
has implemented River Watch of Colorado for ten years, helping
over 70,000 people in monitoring their local streams. In the
last five years our volunteers have collected about 30,000
samples and bottles for metals, nutrients, and field
parameters, and in the last couple years, increased our the
number of samples analyzed by 25%. We also worked with
watershed groups, landowners, and basin roundtables, to
prioritize, manage, conserve, and restore important watershed
resources. This included working with partners to fund,
conserve, or restore nearly 30,000 acres for wildlife since
2003 by working closely with the Farm Bill. CWN has also been
an important partner in implementing the Colorado Data Sharing
Network and Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference.
The
program that helped make all of this work fit together was
River Watch. River Watch worked with volunteers from school
groups, to watershed groups. It trained and educated teachers
and others, and helped provide the data to make decisions on
local levels. The major funding source for River Watch is the
Colorado Division of Wildlife, who recently awarded this
contract to the Colorado Watershed Assembly.
Although
fiscally sound, without River Watch, CWN saw no way to keep a
cohesive organization together that made real sense as a
nonprofit. For that reason, we decided to spin off all of our
projects in an orderly fashion.
The
future of Project WET is still a little uncertain, but in
conjunction with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, we
have worked with a number of groups who are exploring taking
on the program, and we are keeping Jo Scarbeary, the program
coordinator on board until that piece is determined.
The
Colorado Data Sharing Network will continue to be operated by
the Colorado Water Quality Monitoring Council, and CWA will
become the fiscal agent for them.
Other
projects are being directly handled by individual staff until
they are finished.
As
of September 1, Jacob Bornstein will step down as Executive
Director and the organization will effectively be closed. If
there is an entity wishing to take over CWN’s nonprofit
status, please contact Reagan Waskom by October 1 at reagan.waskom@colostate.edu.
To contact Jacob Bornstein, you may email him at bornstein.jacob@gmail.com.
We
wish you all the best and are confident that all of our
projects and programs will go on to flourish in their new
homes.
We hope to work with you again in the future.
Sincerely,
Jacob
Bornstein
Reagan Waskom
Executive
Director
Board Chair
Colorado Watershed Network
Colorado Watershed Network
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