Latest News

Calling All High School Students and Young Adults!

  Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado are looking for participants and mentors for VOC’s first ever Youth Stewardship Summit!  In partnership with OUTDOOR NATION, Camelbak, North Face, and Lincoln Hills Flyfishers – we are inviting YOU to participate in a fun, long weekend.  

                      Youth Stewardship Summit - August 1-4, 2013VOC will host a 3-day Youth Stewardship Summit for high school students across the state from August 1-4.  This exciting event will focus on stewardship, outdoor recreation, environmental education, and leadership training. Registration is required; cost to enroll is $15, and it includes transportation, food, and gear. Learn more here.

Click here to apply online to the Youth Stewardship Summit.

Database Update; 7 January, 2013

- Historical Secchi data from 1990-2000 and 2006-2007 loaded

- Healthy Headwaters 2010-2012 Sondes data loaded

Database Update; 12 December, 2012

- 2008 to 2012 Algae Toxin data loaded

Database Update; 5 December, 2012

-  Corrections to 2012 Secchi data, particularly August 8 & 15 data

-  2012 Secchi Sondes data loaded

- 2012 Stream Temperature data loaded

GCWIN's Water Quality Database

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Fall Education Programs

Our hectic but rewarding Fall has resulted in most of our education programs completed successfully, with only the Water Festival remaining on October 30.  The West Grand Watershed Week occurred from September 17-21, and brought approximately 100 students and the new West Grand Middle School Science Teacher, Robert Newton, on three field trips comprising of 14 activities.  Students toured the Climax Molybdenum Mill, sampled for benthic macro invertebrates, performed water quality chemistry tests as well as calculated stream discharge rates. 

During the week of September 24 nearly 300 East Grand Middle schoolers went on three field trips, and hiked up to the new Broome Hut, also sampled for Benthic Macro invertebrates and did water quality experiments.  The East Grand 10^th grade Biology students enjoyed the third annual Bug Week during the week of October 8.  During the week students learned about watershed science and healthy river measurement techniques, enjoyed a presentation from Jon Ewert of the Colorado parks and Wildlife, and had a field trip on October 11 with amazingly good weather.  During the field trip students sampled for benthic macro invertebrates and calculated a biotic index for their stream sections. They also performed water quality testing including testing for copper, iron and nitrogen as ammonia, calculated stream discharge rates and did riparian analyses as well as substrate analyses.  

Also during this period Celine Graas led a station at the Monarch Lake Day, taking over 120 5^th graders from all over the county through a mini-Secchi disc and water quality analysis.  All in all we led or were involved with about 600 students in Grand County over the last two months.  Grants from the Climax Education Fund, the Excel Energy Education Fund, and New Belgium funded the buses, and supplies.  Finally, over 65 teachers, water professionals and parents helped us with all the events and trips, several of whom attended multiple events in a variety of functions.

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