Dolores River Boating Advocates

General: Dolores River Boating Advocates (DRBA) has a unique niche as a local conservation and whitewater boating group. We are the only group solely focused on the Dolores River landscape and we are dedicated to working collaboratively toward lasting solutions. We help bring people together around complicated issues facing the Dolores River and we serve as a voice for the river. We educate the public and provide valuable recreational information to those rafting the Dolores River. Our collaboration with other groups in Colorado and our leadership in local conversations about the Dolores River has made us a strong and relevant organization locally and regionally. Advocacy, Long-term Protection Work: Our advocacy work is focused on securing long-term protection for the Dolores River Corridor below McPhee Reservoir, and guarding against potential damaging proposals related to the river and adjacent public land. DRBA made significant progress in 2022 on the designating of a National Conservation Area that would protect a portion of the lower Dolores River including 76 river miles and almost 70,000 acres. Legislation was introduced in both the Senate and House in the summer. The Senate Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the bill in the fall, and it came very close to passing in December. We also coordinated the Dolores River Coalition which is made up of local, regional, and national conservation and recreation organizations that have an interest in protecting the Dolores River. In 2022 we were appointed as the co-chair of the Native Fish Monitoring and Recommendation Team which works to benefit the river environment downstream of McPhee Reservoir. Stewardship and Partnership Work: Operating within our established MOUs, in 2022 we continued to partner with three Bureau of Land Management field offices spanning four counties to engage in stewardship activities to benefit the Dolores River. Specifically, DRBA coordinated and conducted our annual river campsite maintenance and monitoring on the lower Dolores in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to improve campsite visibility, quality, and recreational safety. We also organized and hosted a restoration planting project with local youth at the Bradfield Bridge Recreation Area. These two projects combined engaged over 30 volunteers with the Dolores River landscape. In 2022 we also started supporting the USFS by providing a bathroom for the 5-month high use period at a popular river take-out adjacent to the town of Dolores. We continued to financially support the maintenance of a USGS river gauge at Slick Rock which is important for both recreational and ecological purposes. Education Programming:Our River School youth and family education programs continued to grow and diversify in 2022. We dramatically increased the number of youth and family members served, growing engagement from 268 in 2021 to 638 in 2022. This included youth and family river trips, school field trips, and in-class programing. We also continued our Paddle Day program with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe to provided fun paddle experiences in partnership with the Tribes summer youth program. In 2022 we launched a new week-long immersive summer camp program for middle school age youth and it was an incredible success. All of this programming is provided at no cost to youth, families, and schools. Much of this work was conducted as part of our partnership with the Montezuma Inspire Coalition, which has a goal of getting all youth in Montezuma County outdoors. These programs are impacting youth in local communities in a meaningful way and inspiring future stewards of the river. We engaged 21 volunteers during the implementation of our youth programs in 2022.Outreach and Education: DRBA celebrated our 10th anniversary in 2022 and hosted a looking back/looking forward event for our members and supporters. Over one hundred people joined us to cheer our accomplishments, learn more about what we do, and to look to the future of our organization. Five volunteers helped with this event. We held our annual Permit Party and Silent Auction Fundraiser online again due to the pandemic. This included an evening of online outreach and education programming combined with music and entertainment. Though the event was online, we engaged 15 volunteers for planning, setup and cleanup, programs, and production of the event. We continued selling the new official Dolores River Guide for the Dolores River that we released in 2021. The guide includes a unique education and outreach section, including information about advocacy work on the Dolores River. The proceeds from selling the guide will be used to produce the next version of the guide. We were a sponsor of and participated in the Dolores River Festival in 2022 after it had been cancelled for two years. We typically provide free raft rides for community members as part of this event. Due to low flows the raft rides were cancelled at the last minute, but we had 24 volunteers signed up to help with that effort.