Welcome to The Friends of the Yampa

The Friends of the Yampa is a group based on one common passion, a shared love for the Yampa River.

Our mission is to protect and enhance the environmental and recreational integrity of the Yampa River and its tributaries, through stewardship, advocacy, education and partnerships.

Established in 1981, we have a long standing history of working to develop wide support for a healthy Yampa River that supports a vibrant, diverse economy and is accessible for all to enjoy.

Today, the Yampa River and its tributaries remain a model of a healthy river system, not only here in northwest Colorado but in the entire Colorado basin and the western United States. In a world where most rivers have been dammed, diverted and dewatered, the Yampa River still remains intact, supporting a diverse riverine and terrestrial environment while allowing for multiple recreational and consumptive uses.

Due to the fact there are very small reservoirs in it’s headwaters and a lack of major diversions taking water out of the system, the Yampa River remains the wildest river in the entire Colorado River system.  Some say it’s the last free flowing river in the Colorado River System, but this can be debated due to the reservoirs that are in the headwaters and the series of agricultural, municipal and industrial diversions all up and down the river.  But, even with these small dams and diversions, the Yampa River retains a natural hydrograph that mimics what it was before humans entered northwest Colorado. The river still annually floods it’s banks, scours its cobble and create habitats that support endangered habitats and species.  This is rare in today’s world and thus motivates the Friends of the Yampa to work hard at keeping the Yampa wild as threats to dewater the river will never go away.

How to Join? If you also love the Yampa River and its tributaries, you can become a member by signing up here.

News from the Fundraising Front: 

Every year in November we host our annual Big Snow Bash fundraiser. This fundraiser is a big deal for our Friends group and we appreciate all your efforts in supporting this cause. We hold a silent auction at this event so we always need auction items as well as people, like you, to bid on the auction.  Join us on Facebook! or sign up for our newsletter to keep up dated on when this BSB fundraiser is going off.

What We Are Up To: We organize river clean ups, work to providing access to the river, hold discussions about the Yampa’s important and rare attributes, fund and help build river habitats and river features for a variety of uses as well as participate in a local, regional and national policy efforts and campaigns. Our annual Yampa River Festival is a mainstay and a big part of our spring efforts and then in the fall we hold our annual fundraiser,  The Big Snow Bash which occurs annually on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Every May/June we partner with American Rivers and OARS to host an annual Yampa River Awareness Project float trip down the Yampa Canyon.

How did 2023 go? Check out our 2023 Annual Report to see what we’ve been up to!

Friends Network: Friends of the Yampa is proud to be in partnership with the Friends Grassroots Network and the Conservation Lands Foundation. To read more about this partnership, please visit our FGN/CLF page here.

Want to keep more up to speed? Join us on Facebook!