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970 Grand County
970 Grand County
Exploring Water Conservation and Community Education with the Headwaters River Journey Museum
How crucial is water to our community's survival? Discover the answer as we chat with Evie Guay from the Headwaters River Journey Museum about the indispensable role of water resources in Grand County, Colorado. Evie unfolds the mission of the museum, which through engaging, interactive exhibits, educates visitors on the vital importance of the Fraser and Colorado Rivers. We also explore the museum's history, their community-first approach, and the strides they have made over the past five years. Evie shares i insights and practical tips on water conservation, emphasizing the ongoing challenges posed by water diversions even amidst recent snowfall. This conversation underlines the importance of accessible, public education on water issues.
But that’s not all! We dive into the museum’s diverse and educational programs designed to captivate young minds. The Kids Learning Labs, aimed at children aged 6 to 12, offer hands-on activities like water quality testing and lessons on macroinvertebrates, all in collaboration with Rocky Mountain National Park to teach about endangered species and their unique adaptations. We also touch on the museum’s efforts to make learning affordable with initiatives like the monthly Family Day, boasting free admission for kids and students, and discounted rates for adults. And mark your calendars for some fantastic community events, including a blood drive with Vitalant and an upcoming river cleanup. All the event details can be found on our website, headwatersriverjourney.com.
My guest today is Evie Gray. Evie is with the Headwaters River Journey, located here in Grand County, and we talk everything about water and some of the cool events that they are hosting this summer. So sit back and enjoy. Good afternoon. Evie, how are you? I'm good. Gaylene, how are you? I'm good. It's just, it's so nice today.
Speaker 3:I know you really can't beat the weather.
Speaker 1:No, no, I was in Arizona and I got to tell you I couldn't wait to come back home to the cool weather.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine what was it like 110?
Speaker 1:It was about 105, and it was like walking in an oven, though, or what I would imagine. Walking in an oven would feel like.
Speaker 3:Definitely. I can't remember the last time I was in Arizona, but I definitely recall the heat. So yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was, like I said, could not wait to get back to this cool weather and have all my windows open and there's no need for air conditioning. We're so lucky. We are very fortunate yes and for being the middle of July.
Speaker 3:Knock on wood, it hasn't been too hot.
Speaker 1:No, it hasn't been. It's been heaven. So we're also very fortunate in this county that we have the Fraser River and the Colorado River, which leads us to our discussion with you today, with the Headwaters River Journey. Let's talk a little bit about how this got started, your museum and the history and all the fun stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. The Headwaters River Journey Museum is a interactive water and ecology exhibit. So in totality I think we have about 31 different hands-on learning opportunities and learning exhibits throughout it, but the main goal of it is to teach people about where their water comes from. So primarily, the museum focuses on the Fraser River, but the Fraser River is part of the headwaters of the Colorado River, so we're really talking about the headwaters as a whole, hence the Headwaters River Journey name, and so it started in.
Speaker 3:It started with an idea, started with the Fanchas, bob and Suzanne, who own Devil's Sun Ranch, and they really saw the impact Colorado water has on our community but also theions. So one of the cool things about Colorado is that 80% of its precipitation falls on the western side of the continental divide. However, about 80 to 90% of the population of Colorado is actually living on the eastern side, so we have this big water discrepancy and so to compensate for that, we have all these water diversions. So in Grand County, two of the big ones that people know of is the Moffett Water Tunnel and the Adams Tunnel up by Grand Lake, and they're just transporting water from one river basin across the divide, but we see such huge amounts of water being diverted that people don't really know about, and so the Fanchas really wanted to educate people on these water diversions and about water in general within Colorado.
Speaker 3:So through their foundation, the Sprout Foundation they, the Sprout Foundation they started the Headwaters Ecology and Community Centers nonprofit, and most people know us today as the Headwaters Center or Headwaters River Journey, which is our museum, and the museum actually opened about five years ago, on July 13th, so we're very excited to be celebrating five years of our museum. Congratulations, so we're very excited to be celebrating five years of our museum. Congratulations, thank you. Yeah, we have seen just really great support. So we're just under 10,000 visitors over the past five years, and we've also had about 120 educational events, and some of those educational events are our kids' learning labs, our speaker series and then some other ecology events as well.
Speaker 1:Well, that's great. I was looking at your website and I love that you have a lot of your learning the people that came to speak, that you actually have those on video so you can go back and watch those.
Speaker 3:Yes, so that was one of the main goals is to really make information accessible. I was actually just talking to someone about it that it can be very overwhelming. If you are to go look for anything about Colorado water on the internet, there's just so many sources, so many watersheds, so much different information. That kind of overwhelms you. So we like to keep it very simple, have it in a nice video format, especially for our speaker series, because I got to tell you I love being able to put something on 2x speed and listen to something as I'm doing some cleaning around the house.
Speaker 1:Right, that's educational and you learn something. So I always try to have people, you know when I have people visiting or journalists that go to the museum, because so many people are shocked when they hear that we're in a drought if they're from the East Coast, and so it's really interesting for them to learn about the water situation and just how it's a pretty precious commodity.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is definitely one of our most precious commodities and resources. We use a good amount of our water, but we're also exporting out a lot of our water, and so it's not only important to our local community, but also our state community and then also all the communities downriver, as we like to say.
Speaker 1:Right, it does kill me when I see people watering their lawn in the middle of the afternoon.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is one thing we love to talk about in the museum is that you should really be watering your lawn very early in the morning or late at night, because all that water is just getting evaporated back up if you're watering in the middle of the day.
Speaker 1:Right, and you know that leads me to a really interesting point too is that we've had a decent snowfall up here the last couple of years, and so then it's like, why is the Colorado river still in danger? And it is because of evaporation is one of the reasons correct.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah. So this past year, this past ski season actually, winter Park reported 400 inches of snow, which is great. We love to see it. However, what we're seeing is that our snow seasons are actually getting shorter. So I believe on average, we're seeing about 15 days of our snowpack disappearing. So our season shortens by 15 days, which is kind of hard to believe, because all these ski resorts are staying open later and later, right, but we're seeing shortened snow pack periods. And then also one of the big issues we're seeing is a soil moisture content.
Speaker 3:So, if your soil is really dry and then you have these big melts during runoff, right, a good majority of that water is going to get sucked up into our soil before it even hits the rivers. So that's one of the big issues, and then another is that our water is just over allocated. So there's definitely places that you have too many users that need that water, and then it's just going to take a lot longer to get back into the system. Or, as with diversions, you're having water leave your watershed and your watershed system as a whole. So interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, let's talk into something a little bit later.
Speaker 3:No, but I mean it's really interesting and and that's what you guys teach and that's important information we love to say that we get to see all the impacts firsthand, and so that's why we're all a little bit protective of our water, more so than some other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, one thing that your museum does is which I just love. We just talked about the. It's the speakers, what did you call it? Our speaker series.
Speaker 3:Yep. So our speaker series, and then we also have our kids learning our lab, Right? So let's talk about the kids. So our kids learning labs are designed to really educate kids between the ages of 6 and 12 about water, ecology and then conservation. So those are what we typically try to focus all of our lessons on, and they're three-hour programs that we try to have once a month at least.
Speaker 3:In the summer. We typically have change from each session. So this last session we just did, we talked about macroinvertebrates and water quality. So we went down to the river and got to turn over rocks and look at the different bugs that were in there, and then we also got to test the water and use. We tested for pH and dissolved oxygen to tell us how clean our water is. And then what's really cool with macro invertebrates is that they can tell us this similar results as the chemical testing. So we get to teach kids about not only the chemical processes but the natural processes that we can see how clean our water is.
Speaker 3:So that was one, but it's not always just water focused. We've done. We've had collaborations with Rocky Mountain National Park, where we get to talk about endangered animals and animal adaptations, which is lots of fun, especially when they get to bring in the animal skins and everyone gets to touch them and see all of that. What's the cost of those? So we try really hard to keep the cost low. It typically is $5. Every now and then we'll have a free event, but really the cost is just to help us cover our supplies and then also cover snacks for the kids. Try to keep it really affordable so that we can reach all audiences with that. So we don't want anyone to feel left out.
Speaker 1:No, that's great, that's very affordable. Well then, you also, in August, have the Family Day.
Speaker 3:Yes. So our Family Day is just to try to really get people to come into the museum and we're very fortunate to have grants from the Colorado Headwaters Chapter of Child Unlimited and the Colorado Headwaters Land Trust A lot of headwaters up here, yeah, there is but those grants cover our kids' admissions and students' admissions. So anyone who's 18 or under gets to go into our museum for free, and if you're a student you also get to go into the museum for free. So we don't really discriminate if it's bachelor program, graduate program or PhD programs, it doesn't really matter to us, but we really want to make sure if you're trying to learn something, you can come in for free. Our typical admissions for the museum is $10 for adults and $8 for seniors. The first Saturday of every month we do our family day, which is a $5 admission for every adult.
Speaker 1:And the museum. I never get tired of going into it. It's like I learned something different.
Speaker 3:There's just so much you can learn from it. Like I said, we have so many different exhibits that get to teach you about water and ecology and it can take you two hours, if you're like, really trying to read everything, listen to everything and process everything. So, yeah, very fun museum.
Speaker 1:You need to go a couple of times and then you're doing a kind of a cool community event, that you're doing a blood drive.
Speaker 3:Yes, so we have a blood drive coming up. We have a blood drive coming up the last Monday of July, which is July 29th. So this is in partnership with Vitalant to just give people the opportunity up here to give blood and also help support Vitalant and all of their blood donations. So we have that coming up, and then another community event we have in the works is our river cleanup, and that will happen sometime at the end of September, and all this information can be found on our website under our public events calendar.
Speaker 1:And what is that website?
Speaker 3:So the website is headwatersriverjourneycom.
Speaker 1:Okay, evie, you're always such a wealth of information. I really enjoy talking with you. I always walk away with a new little tidbit, so I appreciate that.
Speaker 3:Of course, I always feel bad. Sometimes I feel like I'm overwhelming people with the information. I need people just to tell me to stop, because I could talk about it for hours on end. Information is key. There's just so much happening in the world of water within Colorado right now. Yeah. I mean it's what we survive on.
Speaker 1:Exactly it's important for all of us. It is Well, evie. Thank you so much for your time and I hope to see you at the museum.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you, gaylene, and hopefully you can come walk through with me here shortly.
Speaker 1:I will and learn more. You take care. Thanks, you too.
