WSCC's March Newsletter

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Happy March everyone!

We are so grateful for the snow this month knowing that we can use all the precipitation we can get in the headwaters.

As spring creeps into the valley we are gearing up for this coming season and reflecting back on 2021. Join us at our Annual Meeting on Sunday March 20th at 3pm. We will be meeting via ZOOM (hopefully for the last time!) - RSVP here, or just join via the link in our Events Calendar. Our guest speaker will be Lizzy Potter. Lizzy is a lawyer with Advocates for the West and will speak to us about making sure public voices are heard in public land decision making processes, why it is important to participate, and what happens when the processes don’t work. Our annual meeting is also a time to come together and celebrate the past year’s accomplishments and look forward to what this year will bring. This year we are also excited to share the highlights from our Strategic Planning process.

Our Annual Report - Tater Heap should be arriving in your mailboxes in the next week to give you a good sense of what we’ve been up to even if you aren’t able to make it to the meeting. And if you can’t make it on March 20th, perhaps you can make it this Saturday for a fence removal project or to Adam Petry’s talk about Yellow-Billed Cuckoos, wrapping up our winter speaker series. Read on for more details!

Thank you all for supporting the work we do to protect our open spaces and wild places!

Tanya Henderson
Executive Director

Donate to support our work

Karen joined WSCC in February 2022 as the new Community Outreach VISTA. She grew up in upstate New York and spent most of her adult years in Oregon, working in environmental policy and planning for state and local agencies. In 2018 she left that path to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia. She spent the last two winters volunteering at Capitol Reef National Park and vows to never spend another rainy winter in the Pacific Northwest! Karen is excited to call Paonia home for a year (at least). She plans to spend her free time exploring the area on foot and bike, and spending many hours transforming local bounty into tasty and healthful meals.

UPCOMING EVENTS

photo of pink crabapple blossoms behind the words "you're invited: Annual Meeting, March 20th, 3pm-5:30pm, online"

Join us for our Annual Meeting on March 20th, 3pm-5:30pm on Zoom. We will share with you our successes and challenges from 2021 and talk about what 2022 holds for us here at Western Slope Conservation Center.

RSVP for the Annual Meeting on March 20th

Photo of mountain landscape with announcement of the Winter Speaker Series

Our very successful collaboration with The Learning Council and Delta Public Libraries on the Winter Speaker Series will wrap up on March 24th with a talk by wildlife biologist Adam Petry on The State of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. Join us at the Paonia Library at 6:00pm to learn more about this migratory bird that is at risk of becoming endangered in the western U.S. In this talk, Adam will address the biology, habitat, and population status of the federally-threatened western yellow-billed cuckoo in Colorado as well as the historic and future efforts to survey and monitor the species in the Centennial state. Note: this is an in-person event limited to 25 participants. RSVP soon to reserve your spot!

RSVP for the March 24th talk here

Two people in a desert landscape looking at the night sky with a title of Dark Sky Party

Check out those stars!! Join us for a celebration of dark skies and enjoy a guided tour of the spring constellations on Thursday, March 31st. WSCC is joining with the Colorado Canyons Association and Bureau of Land Management to host this astronomical extravaganza at the Smith Mountain Saddle in Gunnison Gorge NCA, starting at 8:00pm.

RSVP for the Dark Sky Party

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Announcement of fence removal projects with photo of several people working on a fence on the edge of an orchard

Our local big game herds are in need of help! For years, elk fencing has been installed throughout the North Fork, limiting where mule deer can migrate and access water sources and habitat. These pinch points can result in wildlife-vehicle collisions, and animals getting caught in tall fences causing fatalities.

WSCC is partnering with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers to remove unneeded elk fencing throughout the Valley. We are looking for volunteers to help with two upcoming fence removal projects.

Photo of three people standing in a river trying to catch insects with the caption Become a 2022 River Watch Community Scientist

Do you want to have more hands on knowledge about the health of our local waterways? Consider joining our River Watch team! Our dedicated volunteers go out every three months to take water samples and analyze them back in a lab. Find out more by visiting our website and email Jake to let him know you are interested. Our first sampling run of 2022 is Friday, March 11th!

Email Jake

We are always looking for more voices on WSCC's Volunteer Committees! Our committees are critical to the success of our programs, organization, community, and environment. We meet once a month - email info@theconservationcenter.org for more information.

February was a preview to our busy stewardship season! River Watch volunteers reviewed how to sample and analyze water from the Gunnison, Mike's Hikes leaders have begun planning trips, and the Public Lands Committee has been advancing our advocacy goals. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to these efforts! We're looking forward to several volunteer events beginning this month.

Haven't joined us as a volunteer yet, but want to? Click the button below to sign up for future opportunities.

Volunteer Signup

NEWS

SNOTEL: SNO, What's iTEL About?

There is a lot of talk these days about Colorado’s snowpack. Are we ahead of average? below average? I hear the basin is 95% of average. How many days till median peak? What’s the Snow Water...read more

Read the full blog post here

Support WSCC through your Colorado tax refund!
If you’re due a state income tax refund, a new program promoted through ReFUND CO gives you the opportunity to use some or all of it to directly support a local nonprofit that matters to you, such as WSCC! Read more...

Read the full blog post here

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Western Slope Conservation Center · 204 Poplar Ave. · PO Box 1612 · Paonia, CO 81428 · USA