Category: Four Corners Water Resources Center

Water Connections: Adaptation from Forests to Deserts, September 21, 2021

Spruce beetle-impacted forest in Southwestern Colorado with moderate levels of tree mortality. Photo credit: Sarah Hart

Click here for all the inside skinny and to register:

Participate in person or virtually on September 21st

The Southwestern Water Conservation District and Four Corners Water Center at Fort Lewis College are partnering to present “Water Connections: Adaptation from Forests to Deserts.”

This hybrid event will be held on Tuesday, September 21st from 5:00-8:00 p.m. at Fort Lewis College. Register now to reserve your in-person seat for $15.

If you prefer to view the livestream from home, please register to receive the Zoom link at no cost.

Below is a preview of the evening’s agenda:

5:00 p.m. Appetizers and Networking Outdoors

5:30 p.m. Snowtography – Forest Treatments and Hydrology

  • Joel Biederman, Research Hydrologist with USDA’s Southwest Watershed Research Center, presents his recent hydrology studies tied to forest treatments and upcoming test cases in southwestern Colorado

    • 6:30 p.m. Break

    6:45 p.m. Survey of Adaptation Strategies – From Our Forests to Our Deserts

  • Moderated by Steve Wolff, SWCD’s General Manager
  • Aaron Kimple, Mountain Studies Institute, regional forest health initiatives.
  • Selwyn Whiteskunk, Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Councilman, adapting to drought from the water user and tribal perspectives.
  • Carrie Padgett, Harris Water Engineering, southwest Colorado planning for future water needs.
  • Becky Mitchell, Colorado Water Conservation Board Director and Colorado Commissioner to the Upper Colorado River Commission, how aridification affects our water management.

    • Register

    Water Connections: Former #ColoradoRiver District Manager Eric Kuhn Joins Speaker Lineup October 14, 2020

    Here’s the release from the Southwestern Colorado Water Conservation District and the Four Corners Water Center:

    Register Here

    Eric Kuhn is the the latest addition to the speaker lineup for “Water Connections: SW’s Virtual Water Cooler,” an online event jointly hosted by the Southwestern Water Conservation District and Four Corners Water Center at Fort Lewis College on Wednesday, October 14th from 4:00-5:30 p.m.

    Author and former general manager of the Colorado River District, Eric Kuhn will address this question: “What can the last 20 years tell us about the future of Colorado River hydrology?” For a preview, check out this white paper he recently co-authored on the topic.

    Register now to reserve your spot (it’s free). You’ll hear short state and local water updates. It’s like visiting the water cooler to get the latest local scoop and connect–only virtual.

    Kate Greenberg (Colorado Department of Agriculture) and Celene Hawkins (Colorado Water Conservation Board) will speak to the status of Colorado’s agriculture and state water funding in the midst of a pandemic.

    Rob Genualdi (Division 7 Engineer), Bob Hurford (Division 4 Engineer), and Susan Behery (US Bureau of Reclamation) will provide a summary of the dismal 2020 water year in southwest Colorado. Ken Curtis (Dolores Water Conservancy District), Gretchen Rank (Mancos Conservation District), and Simon Martinez (Ute Farm and Ranch) will add observations from the season and provide a look ahead to what it might mean for water year 2021.

    Finally, we’ll hear the latest from various local water agencies and organizations in short “pop-up” updates from across southwest Colorado.

    This event is about making connections, so be ready to engage via the chat, poll questions, and interesting content. See you next week!

    Fort Lewis College home to the new Four Corners Water Resources Center

    Here’s the release from Fort Lewis College:

    Fort Lewis College is now home to a new collaboration between regional water leaders and academics. The Four Corners Water Resources Center, housed in Reed Library under the leadership of Director Gigi Richard, will be a space where students and community members can work together to address water issues in the Four Corners.

    Richard has been a visiting instructor in Geosciences for the last year at FLC, and prior to that was a professor of Geosciences at Colorado Mesa University, where she taught for 16 years and co-founded and directed the Ruth Powell Hutchins Water Center. Most colleges in Colorado have a water center with a specific geographic focus. The Four Corners Water Resources Center will have a Southwest and Tribal focus, with collaborations with other colleges possible.

    “A water center at FLC creates an exciting opportunity for the college to be a part of solutions to some of the challenging issues facing the region and to help develop the next generation of water leaders,” says Richard. “Water underpins everything in the Southwest, including our agriculture, economy, ecosystems, recreation, spiritual values, and cultural history.”

    Students across all majors will be able to engage with the center, from courses to campus projects and events. The center will connect students to the broader water community and expand student opportunities for internships and careers. As Richard states, water touches everything and everyone, and the greatest global challenge is having both clean water and enough water.

    “Students are interested in water! So many aspects of water are urgent for present and future grand societal challenges in the Southwest and globally. The new water center will strive to leverage FLC’s existing strengths to develop coherent water-related curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students,” says Richard.

    The water center serves as an interdisciplinary information hub to harness the expertise of faculty and enhance or facilitate new relationships between campus and the region. Water leaders, professionals, and other entities will be able to bring data and initiatives under one roof, to generate greater impact and access to regional water issues.

    “Fort Lewis is uniquely poised to play a leadership role in facilitating the development of solutions to the challenging water issues facing the Southwest,” says President Tom Stritikus. “FLC already possesses faculty expertise in water-related fields across disciplines, from science, policy and engineering, to the humanities.”

    Located in the middle of the San Juan River basin, which is a major tributary to the Colorado River, the water center will be able to engage with both major Western water issues and local water issues. The first undertaking for the center will be to form an advisory council of local and regional water leaders to develop the mission of the center. Richard will be focused on developing an online database of the rivers of the Four Corners, beginning with the Dolores River. The interface will be user-friendly to the general public, and those who are interested can dig in for more technical information, too.

    “Many opportunities for partnerships exist both on campus and in the local and regional community. We are looking forward to collaborating with existing groups and building new connections for Fort Lewis students and faculty,” says Richard.

    Community events, public talks and tours, and more information about the water center are at https://www.fortlewis.edu/water.

    San Juan River Basin. Graphic credit Wikipedia.

    Fort Lewis College launches the Four Corners Water Center — The Durango Herald @FLCwater

    Swim class on the San Juan River. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism

    From The Durango Herald (Mary Shinn):

    Group to focus on San Juan and Dolores watersheds

    The new Four Corners Water Resource Center at Fort Lewis College aims to help educate professionals and bring the community together to make good water management decisions, Director Gigi Richard said.

    “(Water) is a problem that is not going to go away as the population grows, as the climate warms, as we place greater demands on our existing systems and our infrastructure ages,” she said.

    Richard co-founded the water center at Colorado Mesa University and is launching a similar center at FLC that will focus on the Dolores and San Juan river watersheds.

    “We have called it the Four Corners Water Center because we don’t want to stop at the state line; the rivers don’t stop at the state line,” she said.

    The center expects to educate students, convene community discussions and create an online data hub collected on the Dolores and San Juan river watersheds, she said.

    Richard hopes to help highlight FLC water research and connect students with water-related classes, projects, research opportunities, internships and careers, she said. Fifteen FLC faculty are involved in water-focused research…

    Richard also plans to assess the college’s water-related courses over the next year and determine how the school could expand its water-related curriculum. The school could offer minors, majors or certificates related to water studies…

    The center also plans to create an online hub for data on the San Juan and Dolores river watersheds, such as native fish, sediment and channel morphology. She would like some of the data to be made into graphs that could be accessible to decision-makers, she said.

    The center also hopes to convene forums that could promote education and discussion, Richard said.

    For example, on Sept. 13, the center will host a forum called “Burned, Buried and Flooded: Water Resources Excitement in Southwest Colorado.” Panelists will discuss water topics including how the 416 Fire may affect the watershed, reservoirs and avalanches.

    The center expects to work with many of the groups already working on water issues in the region such as Mountain Studies Institute and the Water Information Program.