Support Our Watersheds

You may love visiting Grand County — but did you know its mountain waters may be flowing out of your taps at home?

Over two million water users on the Colorado Front Range depend on the Upper Colorado River watershed every day. When that perfect powder day melts in the spring, two major diversions pipe the runoff east over the Continental Divide to Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins. The quality and quantity of that water is directly connected to the health of our lands, rivers, and streams in Grand County.

The Colorado River is in crisis. 

Climate change, drought, and rapid population growth have stretched this vital resource to the limit — and proposals to increase Front Range diversions are pushing the Upper Colorado watershed to the brink. The signs are everywhere: algal blooms and increased sedimentation in Shadow Mountain Reservoir, summer stream temperatures threatening native cold-water species, rapid development upstream.

UCWET is working to protect and restore the Upper Colorado River for generations to come — but we can't do it without you.