Community and Learning
Watershed planning leaders and practitioners throughout Colorado continue to collaborate, share their knowledge, and build support systems for each other as they plan for their watersheds. Below you will find links to recorded peer calls and notes and slides from peer field trips and workshops. All upcoming peer learning events are also listed, along with registration information.
Upcoming Events
RSVPs & Interest Forms
Roaring Fork Valley Field Trip
August 26-27, 2026
Making Dam Good Decisions Workshop
Monday, October 5, 1:00-5:30pm in Edwards
Environmental Flows Self-Paced Training Series (Opening in Fall 2026)
Previous Events
Peer Calls
Complementary or Confusing? Wildfire Ready Action Plans & Watershed Plans
6/18/2026
Learn from the Colorado Water Conservation Board and watershed planning leads who are developing Wildfire Ready Action Plans alongside their SMP/IWMP/other watershed planning efforts. Understand how these plans can be complementary in practice, the challenges and opportunities that can arise, and the synergy that can be created when implementing these tools together.
Presentations included:
Context Setting, Stacy Beaugh, Strategic By Nature
Wildfire Ready Action Plans & Watershed Planning, Andrea Harbin Monahan, Colorado Water Conservation Board
Example of WRAP and River Health Assessment Framework Working Together, Hally Strevey, Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed
Capacity Funding Approaches and Opportunities
4/30/2026
During this webinar, participants learned about strategies to help strengthen capacity-building efforts and how to “think like a funder” to better leverage capacity investments.
Presentations included:
Colorado Local Capacity Funder Analysis, Stacy Beaugh, Strategic By Nature
View the agenda and funder analysis
View the recording of the call
Ask a Practitioner
Data Management and Tools
8/15/21
Hannah Holm, Colorado Mesa University, and Seth Mason, Lotic Hydrological, discuss their approaches and experience with managing the vast amounts of data from a river health assessment. They cover two aspects of data within the SMP process:
Data management and synthesis needs, and how and when to create a plan (see the Assess Conditions phase of the SMP process).
Understanding where to source data for an SMP and tools that are available to give you a head start, such as the Colorado River Basin Data Dashboards.
View the 21-minute video
Using Recreation Surveys to Understand Community Preferences
8/26/20
Eagle River Watershed Council and Middle Colorado Watershed Council discuss customized approaches to understanding community’s preferences on river flows, uses, and access. More information on the American Whitewater flow preference survey and other approaches for understanding river-based recreation can be found here.
View the 16-minute video
Peer Workshops
Taking Plans to Projects: How to Create a Plan that Actually Gets Used
8/26/2025
During this workshop, participants identified the strengths and limitations of their planning efforts through a self assessment. Through guided discussions, participants discovered the enabling factors to make their plan an actionable tool instead of a dust collecting item on the shelf. During a panel discussion, participants explored lessons learned and tips from organizations around the state that have effectively and efficiently moved from planning to project implementation under different circumstances. Finally, participants celebrated the collective work that watershed planning leads have advanced across the state over ten years of planning.
Presentations included:
Workshop Overview, Chelsea Silva, River Network
View the agenda, worksheet (strengths and limitations), and panel notes
Grand Valley River Corridor Initiative Field Trip
5/8/2025 – 5/9/2025
During this field trip, participants learned about the Grand Valley River Corridor Initiative (RCI). The RCI utilizes a Core Team for ongoing coordination and strategic polanning, focused on stakeholder driven approaches and needs. RCI also collaborates with an Advisory Council representative of local, state, and federal governments, as well as nonprofits, businesses, and landowners. Field trip participants also learned about Wildfire Ready Action Plans and had the opportunity to visit multi-jurisdictional project site visits.
Presentations included:
Field Trip Introduction and Peer Learning Network, Chelsea Silva and Cheryl Cwelich, River Network
Background on the Grand Valley River Corridor Initiative, Rusty Lloyd, RiversEdge West
Fluvial Hazard Zones and River Corridor Management, Joel Sholtes, Wash Water Science and Engineering
Restoring the Grand Valley River Corridor, Joel Sholtes, Wash Water Science and Engineering
Grand Valley Riparian and Floodplain Action Plan, Seth Mason, Lotic Hydrological
Introduction to RCI Master Planning Process, Shannon Wadas, Strategic By Nature