Vision

Educating, Exciting, and Empowering People to Protect Their Rivers

Watersheds: The Source of Healthy Fresh Water
What is a watershed? How many of us can really describe a watershed? How well do you know your own watershed? If you don’t know where your water comes from, and where it goes, how can you protect it?

Utilizing fun science, discovery-oriented exhibits and experiential education techniques, the River Center will be a place where people experience our watershed from the mountain tops rimming the valleys, to the bottoms of streambeds to see where fresh water comes from, and where it goes. Are they aware that 80% of our water comes from melting snow? Do they know about the diversion tunnels that can take up to 38% of this water east across the continental divide to thirsty front-range communities? As visitors traverse the watershed experience in the River Center they will learn about natural and human acts that impact the delicate balance of a fragile aquatic ecosystem. In this otherwise semi-arid region, River Center visitors will experience riparian zones as the lush lifelines they are for people as well as wildlife. 

A Home for Roaring Fork Conservancy Programs 
Operating out of various rented spaces for over fourteen years, Roaring Fork Conservancy programs need a home. With a permanent location and adequate space, we can establish a much needed water quality laboratory to house our highly respected water quality research that keeps the public informed about the health of your rivers. With an attractive and exciting exhibit hall, we can bring attention and understanding to the value of your rivers. With innovative classroom spaces we can excite children and adults about how to protect rivers. With a central place focused solely on the rivers, we can host a wide array of public discourse to solve western water issues in the 21st century. Owning our own home ensures the legacy of Roaring Fork Conservancy and a future of river protection.

Why the Roaring Fork Valley?
About the same size as Rhode Island, the 1,451 square mile Roaring Fork Watershed is home to three spectacular rivers and numerous headwater streams. Nearly 85 percent of wildlife, from stoneflies to elk, depends on riparian habitat during their lifetime, yet less than two percent of Colorado is riparian. As a testament to its healthy status, the Roaring Fork Watershed boasts 25% of all Gold Medal stream miles in Colorado. Part of the larger Colorado River Basin, Roaring Fork water helps sustain a growing population of over 30 million people in the arid West. An already precious resource, the value of water will only increase in the future. With two of the five largest trans-basin diversions in Colorado and increasing demands for water, the Roaring Fork Watershed will be a focal point of this water debate. 

Roaring Fork Conservancy: Leading the Way in River Protection
Roaring Fork Conservancy sprang to life in the midst of a watershed movement in Colorado during the 1990s as watershed groups organized around increasingly important water issues. In 1996, a unique public-private partnership established Roaring Fork Conservancy as the non-profit conservation organization to promote water conservation practices and protection of the Roaring Fork River. Founding board members recognized that protecting the Roaring Fork River meant protecting all of the water that flows into it, including the entire Roaring Fork Watershed. Roaring Fork Conservancy was the first local organization focused solely on river and water issues throughout the Roaring Fork Watershed.

Roaring Fork Conservancy has grown to be one of the most respected watershed conservation organizations in Colorado. As we proceed through our second decade, protecting our watershed will mean creating a place where community members, visitors, and students can gather to understand what a watershed is and how to protect it. Although its current programs work toward watershed protection, to completely fulfill its mission, Roaring Fork Conservancy needs a home. 

River Center Experience: People Protecting Watersheds 
Since its inception, Roaring Fork Conservancy has envisioned opening a River Center to facilitate learning, understanding, and appreciation of our rivers. This state-of-the-art River Center will engage residents and visitors in hands-on exploration and interaction with rivers. In 2005, Roaring Fork Conservancy purchased land to build a River Center on the Roaring Fork River in Basalt, adjacent to Old Pond Park on Two Rivers Road. The River Center will serve as a launching point for watershed explorations of all kinds. Its indoor and outdoor exhibits and classrooms, staff and volunteers, and interpretive resources will give community members as well as guests, students as well as anglers, and citizens from all walks of life the tools to be watershed protectors.

The River Center will be a new 8,000 square-foot green construction. A destination in and of itself it will house Roaring Fork Conservancy programs, interactive watershed exhibits, child and adult-friendly gathering spaces, and a research laboratory. It will allow visitors to interact directly with adjacent river, wetland and pond ecosystems; host educational seminars, meetings and classes about water issues; provide laboratory space for water quality monitoring and research; and bring people together for learning and discussion about river issues. River Center visitors will leave with the knowledge and tools to better enjoy and protect their rivers and streams.

Take Home Message: We Protect What We Love, We Love What We Know
No matter where you live, you are part of a watershed. The River Center will help connect every single visitor to their watershed with the knowledge of how and why their rivers are worth protecting.