People & Community Benefits
CATEGORY: Engagement
Educational Engagement Indicator
The Educational Engagement indicator seeks to showcase opportunities provided to the community to learn about the health and function of the Yampa River as well as its ecosystem services. Opportunities to learn about the river can be articles in the paper, K-12 curriculum, interpretive materials, nonprofit outreach, etc.
This indicator will not be measured or scored and will not affect the scores presented in the scorecard report.
Community members wanting to learn more about the Yampa River should explore the following resources:
Educational Resources for the Yampa River
- Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition:
Yampa Valley Crane Festival - DWR and USGS streamflow data pages:
USGS
DWR - American Rivers
- Water Education Colorado
- Colorado State University
- Yampatika — programming for K-12 students in Routt and Moffat Counties
- Yampa River Leafy Spurge Project
- Colorado Mountain College — Yampa River Ecological Health Field Course; course code SUS-2779-SB01;
Course Description: A river is more than simply a channel that conveys water, sediment, and other matter downstream. A river is a vibrant ecosystem that provides a variety of services and supports multitude of living organisms, from the macroscopic – fish and cottonwoods – to microbes. Moreover, a river is a foundational piece of a community, something that ties together people from different walks of life and with different interests, provides livelihood, and creates a common perception of value. In order to best manage and adapt these vital river landscapes for the future, long-term river health monitoring and evaluation is necessary. The purpose of this course is to equip students with some of the field skills necessary to collect and interpret the data associated with river health monitoring, such as geomorphic assessments, riparian and bank condition evaluations, physical feature identification, macroinvertebrate surveys, and water quality measurements. In a combination classroom and field setting, students will learn both fundamentals of river science, from geomorphology to river ecology, and field methods encompassing a wide variety of disciplines and approaches. This two-week course will collect real data from a 31-mile stretch of the Yampa River from Stillwater Reservoir to Stagecoach Reservoir to be used in the ongoing Yampa River Scorecard Project, which will assess and score the health of the Yampa River in that segment. Students will spend ample time in the field hiking and in a boat on the river, and hone both river recreation and scientific skills. Ideally, interested students should have taken at least one environmental science course prior to enrollment and have some experience being on the river. Areas of study also include boat handling skills, safety procedures, ecology, geology, geography, safe and efficient travel, Leave No Trace principles, group dynamics, and data documentation. - Friends of the Yampa
- Yampa Basin Rendezvous
- Yampa Valley Sustainability Council Community Engagement
Educational Engagement score by Segment
Middle Yampa Segment
Educational Engagement was not scored for the Middle Yampa Segment
Steamboat
Segment
Educational Engagement was not scored for the Steamboat Segment
Upper Yampa Segment
Score coming 2025
Elk River
Segment
Score coming 2026
Lower Yampa
Segment
Score coming 2027