Lake County River Watch Program: A Year in Review
Over the past ten months, Blue Element’s Lake County River Watch Program has become a cornerstone of our programming. Launched in Fall 2024 with three sampling sites, the program expanded to seven sites across Lake County in Spring 2025. River Watch is a statewide volunteer water-monitoring initiative, developed in partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and River Science.
Through River Watch sampling, we monitor rivers and streams for key indicators of water health, including temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, hardness, alkalinity, metals, nutrients and macroinvertebrate populations. The resulting data contributes to a publicly accessible community science database, supporting a wide range of stakeholders—from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, to CPW and local and regional watershed groups.
Beyond generating valuable water quality data, River Watch serves as an educational tool. In collaboration with the aquatics team at CPW, we identified key locations where data is needed to support aquatic wildlife decision making. We gather data to monitor water quality supporting current greenback cutthroat populations, as well as to determine potential sites for introducing hayden creek cutthroat.
River Watch provides hands-on experiential learning opportunities for local youth, pairing water sampling with local watershed education to give students a meaningful connection to the rivers in their valley. This year, we have engaged students and community members in partnership with Project Dream at Lake County High School and Get Outdoors Leadville! (GOL!), in addition to facilitating broader community outreach events. These collaborations allow us to combine science, stewardship, and education, empowering our community to care for and understand our local waterways.
This work is made possible through the generous support of Climax Mine, GOCO and Serve Colorado, whose grant funding enables us to maintain and expand River Watch throughout Lake County.
Authored by Emma Henderson, Blue Elements Water Quality and Education Specialist
