Uniting for Colorado’s Water Future

Every summer season, because the spring snowpack dwindles and stream flows recede, work crews placed on their waders, seize a wide range of instruments, and get to work restoring Colorado’s pure stream methods. Course of-based stream restoration entails putting in hand-built buildings into degraded stream channels. These buildings leverage pure riverine processes to revive streams and wet-meadows which were degraded by years of intensive grading and re-engineering stream channels for agriculture and human settlement. Excessive-functioning streams and riparian floodplains assist bolster late-season flows, that are desperately wanted for agriculture, ingesting water, and wildlife in the course of the late summer season and fall dry seasons. These methods additionally buffer flood impacts, present key stopover habitat for migratory birds, and make Colorado extra resilient to drought, wildfire, and local weather change. 

Whereas funding has increased for process-based restoration, on account of continued funding in Colorado’s Water Plan and a better concentrate on implementing nature-based options, discovering the workforce to construct constructed log jams, beaver dams, and rock buildings has turn into a bottleneck. Volunteer organizations, comparable to Wildlands Restoration Volunteers (WRV), Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC), and Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers (RFOV) have stepped in to fill the hole. By means of the volunteer alternatives outlined beneath, you’ll be able to play a pivotal function in securing Colorado’s water future all whereas serving to restore very important fowl habitat all through our state. 

The place Can I Volunteer for a PBR Work Crew? 

Organizations comparable to WRV, VOC, and RFOV, supply all kinds of volunteer alternatives from path constructing to eradicating invasive species and thinning forests for wildfire mitigation. Whereas process-based stream restoration includes a minority of volunteer alternatives in Colorado, volunteer crews are rising in significance as extra initiatives hit the bottom. These initiatives are sometimes sponsored by native, state, or federal companies or regional non-profits, designed by skilled stream restoration consultants, and (in these circumstances) applied by you! 

In 2025, seven alternatives stay to volunteer in a PBR work crew. Three occasions are hosted within the central entrance vary from late summer season by means of October, three occasions are hosted in Northern Colorado, and one occasion every is deliberate within the San Luis Valley and the Japanese Plains. 

PBR volunteer occasions are both one or two-day weekend alternatives. Relying on the system being restored and the restoration targets, work could embody gathering pure supplies comparable to pine boughs and branches, utilizing put up pounders to put in created logjams or beaver dam analogues in flowing streams, or constructing erosion-management rock buildings in ephemeral stream and wet-meadow habitats. By means of these experiences, you’ll not solely contribute to significant work however study intimately concerning the significance of Colorado’s stream and riparian areas – and certain see a few of our winged neighbors who name these locations residence! 

2025 Volunteer Alternatives in Stream & Moist Meadow Restoration

Click on on the registration hyperlinks for extra data on the work being executed, necessities, and to register!

Saturday – Sunday, September 6-7
Genessee Park Beaver Mimicry with WRV
Entrance Vary – Jefferson County, Colorado
Register here

• Volunteers will assemble beaver mimicry buildings in a degraded stream to enhance beaver habitat and make it simpler for beavers to construct dams of their very own to allow them to maintain a wholesome river ecosystem. It is a full weekend challenge, however because of the accessibility of the location, tenting isn’t required or supplied. 

Saturday – Sunday, August 9-10
Beaver Dam Analogue Development at Wilcox Gulch with VOC
San Luis Valley – Saguache County, Colorado
Register here

• Assist restore the Willow Creek Watershed by constructing Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) and Submit-Assisted Log Constructions (PALs). Volunteers will acquire and use on-site supplies, comparable to lifeless and downed willow and aspen, to simulate a beaver dam. They could additionally help with beaver exercise monitoring. It is a full weekend tenting journey.

Saturday – Sunday, August 23-24
Meadow Restoration at California Park with VOC
Northern CO – Routt County, Colorado 
Register here

• Assist restore this fragile meadow ecosystem by constructing erosion prevention buildings, like Zeedyks and Zuni Bowls, primarily utilizing rocks.  Duties will embody mountaineering, transferring massive rocks, and digging to position them into place. It is a full weekend tenting journey.

Saturday – Sunday, September 6-7
North Sand Hills Creek Restoration with WRV
Northern CO – Jackson County, Colorado 
Register here

• Restore riparian habitat in a sand dune ecosystem! Volunteers will set up posts and weave sticks and sod collectively to create beaver dam analogues (BDAs). Come ready to channel your internal beaver! It is a full weekend tenting journey.

Saturday – Sunday, September 20-21
North Sand Hills Creek Restoration with WRV
Northern Colorado, Jackson County, Colorado
Register here

• Restore riparian habitat in a sand dune ecosystem! Volunteers will set up posts and weave sticks and sod collectively to create beaver dam analogues (BDAs). Come ready to channel your internal beaver! It is a full weekend tenting journey.

Saturday – Sunday, September 20–21
Erosion Management at Southern Plains Land Belief
Japanese Plains, Prowers County, Colorado 
Register here

• Volunteers will construct erosion management buildings to stop additional erosion of the stream beds and assist the watershed flourish once more. Volunteers will assemble One Rock Dams, log jams, and beaver dam analogs to stabilize stream beds, sluggish erosion, and create situations for vegetation to get well. Duties will embody amassing and putting rocks, logs, and tree trunks, and leveling stream beds with shovels. It is a full weekend tenting journey. 

Saturday, October 11
Caribou Ranch Stream Restoration
Entrance Vary, Boulder County, Colorado
Register here

• Construct Beaver Mimicry Constructions to enhance riparian habitat! Work will contain putting in posts and weaving collectively sticks and sod plugs to create semi-porous “dams” that assist to unfold water out and restore incised channels. Volunteers can join one or each work days. 

Sunday, October 12
Caribou Ranch Stream Restoration
Entrance Vary, Boulder County, Colorado 
Register here

• Construct Beaver Mimicry Constructions to enhance riparian habitat! Work will contain putting in posts and weaving collectively sticks and sod plugs to create semi-porous “dams” that assist to unfold water out and restore incised channels. Volunteers can join one or each work days.