Do you work with or near a stream that flows through a Colorado city or town?
If so, we want to hear from you.
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2sLXONfaYSQ6AM6
In partnership with CWT, the graduate students from CU Boulder’s Masters of the Environment (MENV) program are conducting a statewide survey to better understand how urban streams are used, valued, managed, and restored. You may have read about their project on our blog here, here, or here.
The survey is part of the students’ year-long capstone project, developed in partnership with Colorado Water Trust, to better understand the needs of Colorado’s urban communities (whether those are big cities or small towns) when it comes to their local streams—and to identify opportunities for streamflow restoration that support both people and ecosystems.
Urban streams provide far more than just water—they offer places to gather, cool down, recreate, and connect with nature. Their health and function often depend on collaboration, local knowledge, and thoughtful planning. But they also face unique pressures.
To better understand the opportunities for and challenges to restoring flows to these waterways, the MENV students have designed this survey to collect data and local knowledge from around the state.
What kind of input is being sought?
The MENV students are seeking responses from professionals across sectors—including water providers, local governments, nonprofits, businesses, and other community stakeholders—who have knowledge of or involvement with a stream that flows through an urban area. In the context of this project, “urban” is used to mean anything that is not rural. We’re not just focused on Colorado’s bigger cities, but also small towns (and everything in between).
Their survey asks about:
- Recreation and infrastructure along and within the urban stream corridor
- Stream and streamflow restoration efforts, past, present, or planned
- Urban water challenges—such as dry stretches, infrastructure barriers, or financial limitations
- Community engagement, collaboration, and education in stream planning efforts
- Stream monitoring and interagency collaboration
Your responses will help create a more complete picture of how urban streams are valued, used, and supported—and where additional streamflow restoration efforts might make a difference.
Please share!
The MENV team is hoping for broad participation from across the state. If you know others whose work touches an urban stream and would be interested in this project, please share the survey with them.
Thanks for supporting this important student-led effort to understand urban streams in Colorado.
If you’d like to learn more about this project or have a specific question about this survey, feel free to contact Josh Boissevain, Staff Attorney, at jboissevain@coloradowatertrust.org.
First Photo: Clear Creek in Golden, Colorado. Credit: Yassie, Creative Commons license.
