KKCO (October 9, 2025)—The Colorado Water Trust is a nonprofit that has been around for 24 years, and their mission is to restore water to Colorado Rivers.
Blake Mamich, Program Director at the Colorado Water Trust, said, “What we do is work in a pretty specialized little niche in the Colorado water world.”
The niche he’s talking about is dealing in water rights transactions, routing water a certain way, that results in more water for rivers. This year, they have helped return the most water they ever have to Colorado waterways. “On the Yampa River, for example, we put about 7,000 acre feet of water back into the river in an acre foot. If you imagine a football field that is under 1 foot of water, that’s an acre foot. I believe we did about 5,000 acre feet on the Colorado River in the 15-Mile Reach there in Grand Junction,” said Mamich.
One of the criteria used for knowing where to put water lies in fish survival rates. “If a stretch of river isn’t meeting critical thresholds to basically keep fish alive, sort of minimum thresholds for that, then that river needs water,” said Mamich.
By feeding water back into these waterways, agriculture and local economies are also feeling the boost. “It’s had a positive impact on the recreation economy sort of in the steamboat area, and then further downstream releases benefited some of the agricultural producers that otherwise wouldn’t have had water this year,” said Mamich.
The Colorado Water Trust has spent $550,000 in Western Colorado so far this year to help improve water conditions where needed. To donate, get involved, or learn more about the nonprofit, here is the link, https://coloradowatertrust.org/.
KKCO
Matthew Kryger
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