by Jennifer Patterson
As discussed in the last newsletter, this years CRA activities will focus on developing relationships with other organizations interested in riparian areas to facilitate knowledge sharing. To this end, many of us have been focused on activities associated with the upcoming joint conference with Colorado Watershed Assembly and Central Rockies Chapter of Society for Ecological Restoration. In an effort to identify potential speakers we are personally contacting some individuals as well as soliciting abstracts through open invitation. Our president-elect, Russ Anderson and past-president Kathryn Mutz, are reviewing the incoming abstracts and organizing the technical session for the conference. The proposed outline for the conference is included in this newsletter. Please mark your calendars on October 4-6, 2006 for this year’s joint conference.
Additionally, Corie Schott is continuing her outreach efforts to middle school children. She is focusing on schools in Grand County and is looking for potential partners to help her with this outreach program in other areas of the state. Please contact Corie if you would like to volunteer to participate in this program.
On another note, we all owe many, many thanks to our newsletter editors Jay Thompson and Bill Goosmann. They have published the newsletter for 3.5 years and have done a great job. We all truly appreciate all the work they have done. After a long tenure, they are handing over their responsibilities to two new volunteers, Tom Slabe and Steve Johnson. Tom and Steve plan to be flying solo by the end of the year.
CRA is also pleased to welcome our new intern, Christy Cleaver. Christy is currently a student at Colorado Mountain College and is being supervised by Dirk Monroe, one of our academic board representatives. Christy activities will include helping with the conference organization, posting our old conference abstracts to the website, assisting Corie with the middle school outreach program, as well as additional activities she finds interesting.
Please contact your executive board with any questions, comments, or suggestions. Everyone’s participation is always appreciated in keeping the green line green.