It was a big year for the Kawuneeche Valley Restoration Collaborative (KVRC) in 2024, with the group getting its first large-scale projects underway.

The Kawuneeche Valley is home to the headwaters of the Colorado River, with the valley including property owned by Rocky Mountain National Park, the U.S. Forest Service and private entities. The collaborative was created to bring agencies together to provide large, long-term support for the restoration projects needed.

In the past 50 years, overgrazing by large herbivores such as moose and elk has reduced the population of willows in the valley, turning it into a drier grassland. Those willows provide critical habitat for beavers, which use them and nearby trees to build dams that slow the flow of the streams throughout the valley, providing protection against wildfires, improvements to water quality and reduction of erosion, among the many benefits. Those benefits are shared by all Colorado River water users, including those who receive Colorado-Big Thompson Project water.

A video of the Collaborative’s efforts goes further in-depth about the positive impacts of the projects.