Yampa Basin Rendezvous

YBR-2021

2024 Conference:

Connecting the Drops: Linking Weather, Watersheds, and Communities for a Resilient Water Future

May 29-30, Allbright Auditorium, Colorado Mountain College, Steamboat Springs, CO

The Yampa River is one of the wildest remaining major tributaries of the Colorado River and supports a rich ecosystem, local agriculture and ranching, and a robust recreation industry. It also provides crucial water supplies to local stakeholders and all those downstream. However, warming temperatures, rising snowlines, and increased drought occurrence and severity pose serious risks to the water-reliant ecosystems of the Yampa River Basin. How are we, as a community, stewarding our watershed amidst historic climate extremes to ensure our own water resilience? This question will be at the forefront of the 2024 Yampa Basin Rendezvous. This 2-day event will provide an overview of the record weather and water extremes that continue to define our present and future in the Yampa River Basin, and showcase the current water and riparian land management policies and practices that can lead us to the resilient future we desire. The overarching goal is to provide a venue that encourages a science-based, community-centered approach to create informed, adaptive, proactive, and science-based management strategies and policies for the Yampa Basin’s natural resources and communities.

During the seventh-annual Yampa Basin Rendezvous, participants will examine the Yampa River Basin with a focus on climate and weather, water policy, watershed management, and community engagement strategies. The Rendezvous will include morning discussion panels with regional experts, water managers, scientists, and leaders, afternoon field learning, and an evening community showcase happy hour event.
Building a resilient water future in the Yampa Valley requires deep, meaningful connections with people who live, study, work, and steward rivers in the West. This event is part of ongoing efforts by the YBR partner organizations to develop and strengthen those connections.

Check out this article highlighting the 2024 conference!

2024 Schedule (more info TBD)

Wednesday, May 29th

8:30 am – Door open; coffee

9:00-9:25 am – Welcome and introductory remarks

9:30-10:50 am – Panel #1

11:00 am-12:20 pm – Panel #2

12:20-1:20 pm – Lunch Break

1:30-4:00 pm – Field Trip

5:00-7:00 pm – Poster session and networking happy hour (downtown?)

Thursday, May 30th

8:30 am – Doors open; coffee

9:00-9:25 am – Welcome and introductory remarks

9:30-10:50 am – Panel #3

11:00 am-4:00 pm – Extended field trip (with boxed lunch)

Evening – State of the Yampa address

What is the Yampa Basin Rendezvous?

In 2018, Friends of The Yampa partnered with the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E), Yampa Valley Sustainability Council, Colorado Mountain College (CMC), and Steamboat Resorts, to co-organize the Yampa Basin Rendezvous (YBR).

The conference is highly collaborative, science-based, and focuses on water and weather in the Yampa River Basin.

The event is now in its sixth year and provides an opportunity to explore relevant research and foster discussions in the Yampa River Basin to help inform management decisions and build collaboration.

Why is the Yampa Basin Important?

The Yampa River is one of the wildest remaining major tributaries of the Colorado River and supports a rich ecosystem, local agriculture and ranching, and a robust recreation industry. It also provides crucial water supplies to local stakeholders and 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.

How are we, as a community, measuring the existing seasonal variability and adapting to manage the impacts of current and expected seasonal changes? Join the dialogue, connection with others, and let’s talk about climate!

YBR Mission

The YBR strives to be an opportunity for reflection, communication, appreciation, and collaborative, interactive learning about the Yampa Basin ecosystems, environment, weather, climate, people, and culture and their intersections, for members of the Yampa Basin community as well as all the communities downstream who rely on the Yampa’s water.

YBR Goals

Connect students, researchers, institutions, and community members who live and work in the Yampa River Basin to share knowledge regarding climate variability and change that has impacts on the environment, people and the economy. Build community and encourage collaborative problem-solving and planning, and provide an opportunity for citizens and visitors to be informed about the state of the Yampa Basin and the people and plans in place and in process to protect it.

More Information about the Rendezvous

We will explore the science behind projected changes in precipitation and temperature patterns and their effects on resource management, how we monitor and measure these changes, and whether or not our existing systems are capable of matching historical predictive skills for resource management. Through this dialogue with the local community, we hope to pair CW3E’s research directions with the community’s expertise on the challenges and successes of resource management practices in the Yampa to identify how additional climate and weather information and research may be beneficial.

This event is an effort to connect graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, researchers, staff, and faculty from the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E; cw3e.ucsd.edu) to river basins throughout the west, to pursue the mission and goals, listed above, of this new center. CW3E is based at the University of California San Diego’s (UCSD) Scripps Institution of Oceanography and is building a regional community of scientists and engineers to work on western weather and climate problems.

The 2024 YBR Steering Committee:

Garrett Mcgurk, co-chair, Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, UC San Diego
Jenny Frithsen, co-chair, Friends of the Yampa
Jacob Morgan, co-chair, Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, UC San Diego
Emily Burke, co-chair, Friends of the Yampa
Madison Muxworthy, Yampa Valley Sustainability Council
Nathan Stewart, Colorado Mountain College
Ellen Knappe, Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, UC San Diego
Halie Cunningham, Yampatika
Holly Kirkpatrick, Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District
Andy Baur, The Nature Conservancy
Patrick Stanko, Community Ag Alliance
Brian Murphy, River Network
Silas Axtell, Colorado Mountain College



 

 

 

Partners