Yampa River Stewardship Program- Landowner Guide and Practitioner Handbook: A stakeholder-driven framework for living and working along the Yampa River
Roddy Beall1*, Ben Beall2, Kim Lennberg3, Emily Burke4
1Zenobia Consultants, Steamboat Springs, CO, USA rbeall@zenobiaconsultants.com
2Zenobia Consultants, Steamboat Springs, CO, USA rbeall@zenobiaconsultants.com
3Alba Watershed Consulting, Boulder, CO, USA kim@albawatershedconsulting.com
4Friends of the Yampa, Steamboat Springs, CO, USA emily@friendsoftheyampa.com
The Yampa River Stewardship Program (YStew for short) is a planning and capacity building program led by Friends of the Yampa, and supported by a coalition of nonprofits called the Yampa River Collaborative. Using river health data and stakeholder input, YStew identifies specific ways to move the Yampa to a healthier state through empowering landowners, land managers, and practitioners to implement river restoration projects and land management practices that support river health.
Specifically, we engaged stakeholders to define desired future conditions and to develop strategies to move existing conditions toward this vision. By listening to diverse voices, we identified common barriers to implementing river restoration projects and land management practices. Finally, we developed a collaborative process to partner with landowners, land managers, and practitioners to find and begin projects on the river.
Attendees will see YStew’s community process for developing a shared vision of stewardship, and see how the program is developing conservation and restoration projects to fulfill the vision.