Share Findings for Action
Outreach and Education is a critical component of our project.
- Produced Case Studies and a Special Report for those considering Ag water conservation in the Colorado River Basin, highlighting more than 60 cases with links to references. We will make this available for use in university curricula and for decision makers at all levels.
- Published reports pertinent to project efforts.
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Implemented an undergraduate short course, Students in Dialog about Water, introducing students majoring in agricultural and environmental subjects to the importance of learning how to communicate across values in terms of water policy.
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Staged a graduate level summer course, How to Facilitate Water Stakeholder Collaboration, aimed at giving sociology graduate students skills in facilitating and offering them opportunities to practice, both in role playing and in actual experiences.
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Facilitated Youth Summit - Role Play of a Real Life Water Conflict with 45 high school students selected to be part of a summer course introducing them to contemporary challenges of rivers. Our role play gave them the opportunity to try their hand at negotiating an actual case that is currently in play on the Poudre River, in northeast Colorado, including trade-offs between agriculture and environment.
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Expanded the Agricultural Water Conservation Clearinghouse to include its own Colorado River Basin website to provide a platform for disseminating what we learn from this project and to share news specific to agricultural water conservation in the Colorado River Basin.
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Published an article on the new Colorado River Basin Agricultural Water Conservation Clearinghouse website in the June 2015 issue of Rural Connections.
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Published "From Vine to Wine on tour in Palisade, Colorado" on Your Water Colorado Blog about the Colorado Foundation for Water Education's 2015 Vine to Wine Water Tour of Grand Valley.
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Had the article "Bound by a River" written on project team member Perry Cabot's work to enumerate how much water can be conserved in any given farm field, while maintaining a positive economic yeild for farmers (published in the November-December 2015 issue of Headwaters).
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Developed and carried out the Colorado Water Sustainability Fellows Program - a two semester pilot project with the School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SOGES) and Community for Excellence (C4E) at Colorado State University to introduce Latino students to Colorado River Basin water issues and employ their help bringing in a wider range of community stakeholders.
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Had the following news articles written on the project's activities:
- "No Chico Brush: Collaboration for Colorado's Water Future" in Your Water Colorado Blog
- "Preserving Water for Agriculture with the Colorado Ag Water Alliance" in Your Water Colorado Blog
- "Producers gather to talk water conservation options" in The Fence Post
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Faciltated dialogue leading to the drafting and adoption of a position statement on ATMs (alternative transfer methods) by the membership of the Colorado Ag Water Alliance (CAWA). CAWA is comprised of agricultural leaders from across Colorado committed to the preservation of agriculture through the wise use of Colorado’s water resources. Members represent major facets of production agriculture, as well as partner organizations such as the Colorado Water Institute, Colorado State University, Colorado Department of Agriculture, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
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Funded five of the CSU Water Sustainability Fellows for internships the summer of 2017 to work with high school students of color in the low income Denver neighborhoods of Globeville and Elyria-Swansea in a National Western Center Youth Water Project aimed at increasing awareness of agricultural, urban, environmental water issues in Colorado and the Colorado River Basin.
Including a 5-Part Report on ways to minimize harm to agriculture if water transfers occur: 
As well as a Report and Website on a Shepherding Water in Colorado Workshop hosted by CWI:
Click here for a complete list of publications, presentations, etc. from the project.
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