CW3E Explores Shifting Seasons and Precipitation in the Yampa River Basin Upcoming Webinar:

Thursday, September 17, 11-12:30 Mountain Time

September 15, 2020

The Yampa River is one of the wildest remaining major tributaries of the Colorado River, and provides crucial water supplies to local stakeholders and to locations as far removed as Arizona and Southern California. A multitude of environmental and societal factors are expected to be affected by climate change in the Yampa River Basin, and are pertinent to other watersheds around the American West.

This summer, CW3E and our partners at Colorado Mountain College, Friends of the Yampa, Yampa Valley Sustainability Council, Steamboat Ski and Resort Corporation, and Vacasa, among others, have virtually come together for the third annual Yampa Basin Rendezvous (YBR). YBR 2020 is a series of four interactive webinars examining the Yampa River Basin through the lens of climate change and seasonal variability. The webinars include talks by regional experts and lively discussions.

The first webinar was held on June 4, 2020, introducing the series and providing an overview of the past year in the Yampa Basin with an eye to this year’s theme of Seasonal Variability. The panelists included Marty Ralph, CW3E Director; Kent Vertrees, with Friends of the Yampa and Steamboat Powdercats; and Nathan Stewart, Associate Professor of Sustainability Studies at Colorado Mountain College.

The second webinar of YBR 2020 was held on July 9, 2020. Webinar 2 was a panel discussion on Changes in Measurement with a Changing Climate, addressing what our measurement data are currently showing and ways we can adapt our strategies to be more effective. The panelists were Mike Dettinger, Visiting Researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Jeff Deems, Research Scientist with National Snow and Ice Data Center; and Gannet Hallar, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science at University of Utah. Both the first and second webinars are now available to view online.

This week, on Thursday, September 17th, 11-12:30 (Mountain Time), we will have the third webinar of YBR 2020, hosted virtually on Zoom. The third webinar will delve into the changes we are seeing from shifting seasons and precipitation and how these changes are impacting our local and statewide watershed and forest health. Our panelists will include Russ Schumacher, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, Director of the Colorado Climate Center, and Colorado’s State Climatologist; David Stahle, Distinguished Professor of Geosciences at University of Arkansas; and Courtney Peterson, Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) Coordinator for the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science. Register here!

This event is part of a larger effort to connect graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, researchers, staff, and faculty from CW3E to the local communities of river basins throughout the west, to share knowledge regarding climate variability and change that has impacts on the environment, people and the economy.

The second webinar of Yampa Basin Rendezvous 2020 was held on 7 July, 2020.