GRAND VALLEY DISTRICT, Colo. (RFD News) — The snowpack on Colorado’s Grand Mesa plays a key role in supplying water to communities and farms across the Western Slope. The U.S. Forest Service now has a partnership focused on protecting the watershed that feeds those systems.
The Grand Mesa Watershed Resiliency Partnership is working to reduce wildfire risk in high-elevation forests, where snowmelt eventually becomes domestic water that local cities and communities depend on, as well as water for power generation.
Hannah Holm, Director of Strategic Projects and Partnerships for American Rivers Southwest Region, says the area serves as a critical source of water.
“The Grand Mesa really serves as the water tower for this part of Colorado. Our drinking water supplies and also our rivers come from high elevation places like the Grand Mesa.”
Recent wildfires across the Colorado River system have raised concerns about the vulnerability of these areas.
Project leaders say their work focuses on breaking up fuel in key parts of the watershed so that future fires have less impact. The goal is to protect water sources that hundreds of thousands of people depend on.
Officials say for communities across the Western Slope, protecting water starts with protecting the land it comes from.
