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Youth River Voices

Water, river, and climate change student leaders give voice to the most important issues of today

Protecting Home In and Along Homestake Creek

5/13/2020

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Homestake Creek, photo credited to author
by Madeline Dean, Ross Montessori School student
Homestake Creek probably has a home in its name for a reason.  Home... a place everyone is familiar with, and comes in all shapes and sizes. Although I might not live in Homestake, the places I like to go there do feel like home. 

This place has been in my life for what seems like forever. The  first time I went up to Homestake I was around the age of seven, and I have been going up there with my family ever since. I’m always very excited for the next great adventure that is only an hour away from where I live.  

There is a plan to flood an area of land along Homestake Creek in rural Eagle County. The companies wanting to do this are Colorado Springs Utilities and Aurora Water. They want to create a new reservoir that is not currently needed. There is enough water for both cities using the water delivery systems they already have.

For this reservoir they want to remove 497 actors from the Wilderness boundary, and flood an area of rare wetlands called fens. This reservoir would hold 20,000 acre feet of water but there is already a reservoir not far above called Homestake Reservoir. The values of Homestake Reservoir are very important to wildlife, anglers, campers, and my family.

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Speaking at Town Meeting Leads to Serving on Town Environmental Board

1/1/2020

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Laney Martens speaks to Snowmass Village Environmental Advisory Board in November 2019
By Laney Martens, Aspen High School student
This year I participated in the Youth Water Leadership Program on the Youth Water Leaders Team, helping lead our youth voices to speak in front of our community members and state representatives at the 2019 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. The Summit allows students to communicate their research and concerns during an amazing opportunity to speak and talk to experts and other adults about current water issues.   


Surprisingly, Two years ago I, myself was one of these students and attended my first Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit where I presented in front of my peers and other community representatives. This was my first step in becoming more interested in advocating for our watershed. Now, after being a member of the Youth Water Leaders Team, and helping organize and host the Summit I have a deeper respect and love for the opportunity that I have been given through this program.  ​

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Plastics Everywhere! Public Health Department, Please Pay Attention

12/18/2019

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Plastics in the water. photo from Edinburgh Greens
PicturePracticing our call-to-action presentation before presenting at the 2019 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. photo by Sarah R. Johnson
by Stella Halferty, Aspen High School student
My name is Stella Halferty and I am a sophomore at Aspen High School. This year in Chemistry, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to research and talk to experts from all around the Roaring Fork Valley about different topics and concerns about the Colorado River Basin and more specifically our local watershed. 


​After doing some background research and learning more about the Colorado River Basin and our watershed in general, we then split into small groups based on our interests and personal concerns. From there, we got to meet with experts and do all sorts of research specific to our topic with the help of the Youth Water Leadership Program director Sarah Johnson and our teacher, Scott Zevin.


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Take a Stand: Protect Vital Ecosystems in Our Watersheds

12/17/2019

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Hadley Hiebert, Youth Water Leaders Team member introducing Colorado River District's Zane Kessler at the 2019 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. photo by Anna Cochran
By Hadley Hiebert, Colorado Mountain College student
This year I served as the student intern for the Youth Water Leadership Program where I had the opportunity to help organize the 2019 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. During this internship, I had the opportunity to have experiences that will benefit me for future jobs that I have not had during my schooling. Organizing and contacting people was one of the primary tasks of the semester internship. Through this process of coordinating people, I acquired skills that I can take into any field I go into, and I think will benefit me in the future. Learning how to organize people and events through spreadsheets is a tool I never thought I would need to use. I was sorely mistaken when I found out that was the most efficient way of organizing large quantities of information.

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Water, Agua, Vatten, Acque, Uisce, Ur, Mvura

12/16/2019

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Youth Water Leaders Team exploring how irrigation works on a local ranch with the Mt. Sopris Conservation District. photo by Sarah R. Johnson
PictureYouth Water Leaders Team engages with participants at the 2019 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. photo by Andrea Holland
by Isla Bright Brumby Nelson, Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork student​
If you look up the definition of water, this is what will come up:  Water - A colorless, transparent, odorless liquid that forms the seas, lakes, rivers and rain, it is the basis of the fluids of living organisms.  
​

That is a terribly complicated definition for something that is so common in our society. Our water however, is not something to take for granted just because it so easily comes out of our faucets. We need to protect our watershed because it’s not infinite. I used to be worried a lot about our water supply and our world’s future, but participating in the 2019 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit, I realized that our future is in good hands – our hands. This does not mean that you dear reader can sit back and watch others solve the world’s problem. You, me and the random person down the street, we all need to work to do our share. 


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Flying for A Watershed Perspective

12/12/2019

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Anna Moon flying on an Ecoflight.
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View of West Elk Mountains from Ecoflight in October 2019. photo by Sarah Johnson
by Anna Moon, Roaring Fork High School student
​During this past fall semester I was a part of the 2019 Youth Water Leadership Team. This was a very cool experience for me. My favorite part was the Ecoflight we went on were we got to go on a flight over our whole watershed. It was cool to see where our water comes from and where it goes, from a different point of view. 

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Growing Up in Colorado

12/11/2018

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2018 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit, Speaker Erin Flaherty. Photo by Erin Danneker. EyeDrop Design.
By Erin Flaherty, Coal Ridge High School student
Published in Glenwood Springs Post Independent 12/15/2018
Growing up in Colorado was a dream for me as a little kid. Bountiful forests and streams to play in, mud cakes to make, stick weapons used to wage war against my older siblings. The outdoors were (and still are) a second home to me. My relationship with nature has matured from messing around with bugs to seeking a career protecting the outdoors. I joined a water quality testing group, Colorado River Watch, and participate in community activities outside. While it may be more complicated now, gathering data in the field still means I can splash in streams! 

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