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Youth River Voices

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

Seeking Microplastics in Mid-Elevation Highly Used Reservoirs

3/8/2021

5 Comments

 
PictureAuthor, Tristan Maker at Ivanhoe Lake near the continental divide in Colorado
By Tristan Maker, Roaring Fork High School, Carbondale, Colorado

Hello everyone, my name is Tristan Maker. For those of you who don’t know me, I am currently a senior at Roaring Fork High School located in Carbondale, Colorado, currently living out my senior year of high school through this exceedingly unique and unprecedented time in our lives. 
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As a result of the pandemic going on, my primary plans for my year academically, athletically, and socially have dramatically changed to where I can’t accurately predict and plan out obligations a week out. However, this has provided, not only myself but all of us a true chance to appreciate life and the fruits of life in the present tense rather than troubling over the harvests and hurricanes to come in later years. Gaining the intellect and the concepts of harsh realities, such as appreciating the time stamp we currently sit in has taught me lessons about how to live my life and how actions should be made. As Marty Rubin says, “water flows because it’s willing.” You have to be willing to make things happen, willing to create change for a better future!


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Embracing the Gray: How the Youth Water Leadership Program Changed My Life

1/2/2020

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Aidan learning from a local rancher about irrigation practices and tools during a ranch irrigation tour with Mt. Sopris Conservation District. photo by Sarah R. Johnson
By Aidan Boyd, Coal Ridge High School student
Working with the Youth Water Leadership Team the past two years has helped to inform and qualify many of the beliefs that I have about the water issues that unify our community. It is terrifying to think how little I actually understood about the inner-workings of how water use works before this program. Even though I am growing up in a community steeped in mining and agriculture, I have not fully comprehended the nuances this brings to discussions of water. I thought that the way I used water was somehow more right than how other people used it

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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

3 Comments

 
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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.  
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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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Finding Skills Within Myself With the Youth Water Leader Team

12/16/2019

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Madeline Dean introducing all the participating schools at the 2019 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. photo by Colin Laird
by Madeline Dean, Ross Montessori School student
Ever since I was born, I was outside and playing in the mud. 
My family made sure I didn't grow up surrounded by electronics so I knew what nature and the outdoors was really like. So when I found out about the Youth Water Leader Team I jumped in head first and applied.

When I was accepted into the Team I was actually a little nervous but I realized I had nothing to be nervous about throughout the semester. I experienced things I would have never thought I could possibly do such as the Ecoflight I went on, to look at our watersheds from above. I even found things in myself that I had not realized was even there. For example, when I went on stage at the Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit in front of 130+ people and introduced the schools. I learned so much from the Youth Water Leadership Team and I will always be thankful for it.
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Madeline Dean is a 7th grader at Ross Montessori School in Carbondale, Colorado. 
4 Comments

Creating Big Important Events By and for Youth

12/13/2019

2 Comments

 
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Samantha Anderson introducing all the elected officials and water policy makers at the 2019 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. photo by Andrea Holland

​by Samantha Anderson, Roaring Fork High School student
I enjoyed my experience with the Youth Water Leaders Team during the fall of 2019 with the Youth Water Leadership Program. I got to work on my speaking skills, learn more about the place I live, and be part of hosting and organizing the Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. 

This program gave me many opportunities to do cool things, like go on an Ecoflight and get interviewed by a writer for a newspaper. I was able to share my opinions with important people, and learn even more about our watershed. Being part of this team also helped me grow as a learner, a community member, and as a person. As a learner, my knowledge was greatly expanded through this program. As a community member, I learned more about what is going on around me and how I can affect it. As a person, I realized that I have more power than I would have ever thought because of this program. My favorite part of being on this team was going on an Ecoflight. I loved seeing our valley from above. 

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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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Use Biopesticides On Crops to Protect the Colorado River

12/4/2019

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Aspen High School students working on their call-to-action research. photo by Sarah R. Johnson
By Jenny Ellis, Aspen High School
As a sophomore chemistry student at Aspen High School, I am always getting opportunities to learn more about the world around me with my peers and how it relates to anything from brushing our teeth to major water systems in Colorado. This year I had the privilege of being able to work in a small group of my peers alongside Sarah Johnson of  Wild Rose Education and director of the Youth Water Leadership Program, focused on specific aspects of how to improve the quality of the Colorado River. 

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