The arkansas river watershed collaborative (ARWC) will work to integrate several subgroups for more comprehensive watershed management planning in the upper arkansas watershed

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $405,965 Project Grant on August 29, 2024 to the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative (ARWC), a non-profit organization in Colorado, through the Cooperative Watershed Management Program (CFDA 15.554). The grant will support ARWC's efforts to integrate multiple subgroups and enhance comprehensive watershed management planning across the Upper Arkansas watershed region over a three-year period ending December 2027. Key activities include improving cross-jurisdictional coordination, data sharing, and stakeholder engagement around issues such as water quality, forest health, wildfire risk, drought impacts, and agricultural land preservation. The grant funding will help ARWC build staff capacity, develop outreach plans, and facilitate watershed planning processes that involve local communities, government entities, and other regional partners.

These active subgroups have a mixture of goals, scopes, and geographic emphasis across multiple counties. Some of the concerns these groups address include, but are not limited to, water quality quantity, forest health and wildfire risk, drought impacts, recreation, water rights protection, working agricultural lands, and post-fire recovery. ARWC plays a pivotal role in cross jurisdictional communication, planning, and data sharing through participation in the arkansas basin roundtable, numerous forest health councils, and the upper arkansas watershed partnership. ARWC is engaged in several watershed planning phases, projects, and monitoring throughout the upper arkansas watershed. We aim to increase these efforts capacity, coordination, and facilitation while supporting several regional subgroups in watershed health protection and planning. Additional funding for coordinators, outreach, facilitation, and monitoring is critical to the growth and sustainability of our watershed health and planning work. Developing an outreach planand building staff capacity will engage stakeholders and the public better, adding to the success of our planningefforts. The tasks for this project are expected to take at least three years to complete, with a completion dateof december 2027.