Flying for A Watershed Perspective

Anna Moon flying on an Ecoflight.

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. 

Anna Moon addressing the 2019 Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit participants. photo by Mark Burrows

I also really enjoyed the Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit. It was cool to see how students in our valley came together to share their ideas to policy makers in our community. I learned a lot at the Summit. My favorite presentation was about the metals in our rivers. It was something that I had never thought about before.

​The other thing that I also really enjoyed were the Youth Water Leader Team meetings. Not only did we learn a lot, but we got food. I also made new friendships with the other members of the team. It was cool how all of us came from all over the valley to come together and have our meetings. Putting on the Healthy Rivers Youth Water Summit was also a cool experience. It took a lot of preparation and setup. We used three  different rooms for simultaneous presentations so that all students would get a chance to share their ideas with local and federal policy makers. It was cool to see what students my age were passionate about. I was in charge of reading a land acknowledgment and reading a closing statement. My other job was fixing the technological problems. Which there were a lot of. Overall I really enjoyed being a part of the Youth Water Leadership Team, and I will use the things I learned for years to come.
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Anna Moon is a 9th grader at Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale, Colorado. ​

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