Gear up for Colorado Stream Restoration Network (CSRN) workshops in 2020!
CRA’s Colorado Stream Restoration Network (CSRN) is back for its 7th season! We’re welcoming back our regulars and looking forward to new attendees in 2020. Brought to you by CRA and the City of Longmont, CSRN is a series of free workshops on riparian topics of interest to (and presented by) our Colorado riparian/stream community. CSRN started in 2014, born of Colorado’s 2013 Front Range flood as a means of sharing information and messaging to help guide flood recovery efforts towards more river- and riparian-friendly solutions. CSRN remains focused, post-flood recovery, on disseminating scientific and educational information on river science, river management, and river restoration to technical experts, project proponents, regulators, and community members. Ideas for future CSRN topic ideas are always welcomed. You can bring them with you to CSRN workshops or send an email to Julie Ash.
Join us on Monday, February 24th in Fort Collins for our first workshop to kickoff CSRN 2020. The topic is “The River Ethic”. Modeled after the Wilderness Ethic, the intent of this workshop is to start a dialogue on how to shape a river ethic that helps us improve societal understanding of stream corridors so that we tread more lightly (and safely) on them. Our presenters will suggest a river ethic as a way to lead us to better protection, management, and restoration of Colorado streams, as well as better protection of the people who love to live, work, and play along them. CRA wants to start this dialogue first with the CRA/CSRN riparian community to shape possible messaging on river processes and river understanding, generally, with the goal to ultimately share the river ethic broadly in our communities.
Dr. Ellen Wohl brings her eloquence, passion, and deep wealth of knowledge to set the stage for this CSRN discussion, sharing what pre-disturbance really looks like in Colorado streams. A common misperception is that healthy Colorado streams look the way they did prior to extensive development and other active anthropogenic impacts, however this misses the profound impacts to these streams caused by large-scale removal of beaver populations. Ellen will walk us through the tremendous, widespread beneficial effects of beavers on our riparian landscapes and the weighty changes that have been unnoticed or forgotten…until now. Making changes to how we act along and in our rivers first requires that we truly understand our rivers and the changes we have caused in them.
CSRN workshop: “The River Ethic”
Featuring Dr. Ellen Wohl (CSU), Matt Kondratieff (CPW), Julie Ash (CRA).
Monday, Feb 24, 2020 from 9am-1230pm
CSU Lory Student Center – 302 Longs Peak (LSC Large Meeting Rooms)
1101 Center Ave Mall, Fort Collins, CO 80521
To register for this free event, please send an email requesting a seat at the February CSRN to Julie Ash.
Space is limited and registration is first come, first served. CRA members are being given an advance registration benefit. Registration will open to all starting on Wed Feb 12th.