River restoration has been making headlines in 2024, from the Colorado River’s humble headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park to the Delta in the Sea of Cortez. For only the third time since 2021, the Colorado River is flowing through the Delta, reconnecting water that began its journey high in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains and supporting critical bird habitat for 1,500 miles downstream.

Closer to home, stream and river restoration is also having its spotlight moment. In the last two years, Colorado has passed key legislation to support stream habitat restoration and to protect key wetland habitat. The state’s Parks and Wildlife Commission also announced landmark plans to explore developing a beaver management plan (see the video starting at 2:09:00). These successes provide a much-needed glimmer of optimism and offer a vision for the future of Colorado and the Colorado River Basin that focuses on connection. These connections—the links between wildfire mitigation and thriving wetland bird habitat, the impact of healthy beaver populations on drought resilience, and the connection between snowmelt in Colorado and shorebirds in Mexico—are the heart of this new vision for Colorado’s watersheds, one that looks beyond the stream.

While these policy successes open the door for organizations like Audubon to help realize this vision, the impacts happen on the ground. We are excited to share a wide variety of volunteer opportunities for our supporters to connect with these habitats that are vital to the resilience of local bird, wildlife, and human communities. Following the theme of ‘looking beyond the stream’, we are highlighting volunteer opportunities that support healthy rivers in three key categories: watershed health, riparian restoration, and stream and wet meadow restoration, as well as bilingual-focused volunteer opportunities.

Watershed Health

Wildfires can have devastating impacts on water quality and natural stream processes that are both costly and timely to fix through restoration efforts. Many volunteer opportunities focusing on watershed health are designed to help make forests more resilient to wildfire or to help restore burned ecosystems. Healthy rivers are fed by healthy watersheds, and these projects are invaluable to protecting Colorado’s water, and the birds and wildlife that depend on it.

Riparian Restoration

Healthy riparian habitats help protect water quality, buffer flood impacts, and provide critical habitat to hundreds of bird species. When key riparian plant species such as cottonwood and willow are threatened, they can easily be replaced or outcompeted by non-native species, such as Russian olive, which do not provide ecosystem services equivalent to that of the native species. Volunteer efforts to support riparian restoration often focus on planting or protecting native species and removing non-native species to protect the function of healthy riparian habitats.

Stream and Wet Meadow Restoration

Healthy streams are the basis of healthy riparian habitats. High-functioning streams are connected to their floodplains and support wide riparian corridors that provide habitat for birds, increase natural water storage, and buffer wildfire impacts. Increasingly, stream restoration is focused on a broad suite of practices called 'process-based restoration' (see pages 28-29). An example of a process-based restoration method is the construction of beaver dam analogs (BDAs) and other man-made structures that mimic natural structures and focus on restoring stream function and processes. These projects are the keystone of river and stream restoration work in the Upper Colorado River Basin and offer a unique volunteer opportunity to engage in this work.

Watershed Health Volunteer Opportunities

Saturday, September 14
Wildfire Restoration: Tree Planting – Womens+ Project - Waitlist
Larimer County
Register here
This unique opportunity, offered by Wildlands Restoration Volunteers (WRV), is focused on engaging women and non-binary volunteers in impactful, and welcoming work. This Womens+ project will focus on re-seeding burned areas of the Poudre River watershed.

Sunday, September 15
Cameron Peak Fire Tree Planting - Waitlist
Larimer County
Register here
WRV is returning to the Poudre Watershed for another day of seeding trees in the Cameron Peak burn scar – open to all volunteers.

Saturday, October 5th
Wildfire Mitigation - Fuels Reduction
Jefferson County
Register here
Join Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) in working to reduce wildfire risk at Berrian Mountain Park through fuels reduction. Untrained volunteers will help move felled trees into slash piles. VOC Is also seeking certified chain saw operators for this project. 

Riparian Restoration Volunteer Opportunities

Saturday, August 3 – Sunday, August 4
Installing Caging to Protect Riparian Cottonwoods
Montrose County
Register here
VOC is working on the West Slope to protect critical riparian habitat in the Dolores River. Volunteers will work to update caging around cottonwood trees to protect this key species. VOC is seeking volunteers for Saturday and/or Sunday.

Thursday, August 15
Installing Caging to Protect Native Plants
Mesa County
Register here
Join Rivers Edge West for a morning of installing caging around native riparian species on Dos Rios Island. This work will protect key native species from foraging wildlife.

Saturday, August 17 – Sunday, August 18 
Russian Olive Removal – Blanca Wetlands 
Alamosa County 
Register here
Volunteers will work with VOC to remove Russian olive, a problematic invasive species. The Blanca Wetlands are especially important to bird species that migrate through the San Luis Valley.

Thursday, September 5
Connected Lakes State Park Restoration – Non-native Species Management
Mesa County
Register here
Rivers Edge West is working with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to restore 43 acres of wetland, riparian, and upland habitat. Volunteers will focus on non-native species removal, as well as other restoration activities.

Saturday, September 8
Riparian – Russian Olive Removal
Jefferson County
Register here
VOC will be working at Majestic View Nature Center in Arvada to support wetland and native plant restoration. Volunteers will be removing Russian olive.

Thursday, September 12
Riparian Restoration – Willow Transplant with the Bureau of Land Management
Mesa County
Register here
Willows are essential to healthy riparian ecosystems. Volunteers will work with Rivers Edge West to transplant willow at key locations.

Thursday, September 19
Russian Olive Removal – Sandstone Ranch
Weld County
Register here
Work with WRV to remove Russian olive, a problematic invasive species that can outcompete native species, from stream corridors near Longmont.

Thursday, October 3
Connected Lakes State Park Restoration – Planting Native Species
Mesa County
Register here
Rivers Edge West is working with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to restore 43 acres of wetland, riparian, and upland habitat. At this event, volunteers will focus on planting native species.

Saturday, September 21
Planting Native Vegetation – Big Thompson River
Larimer County
Register here
Support WRV’s work to restore riparian vegetation along the banks of the Big Thompson River. This event is a partnership with the City of Loveland and the Big Thompson Watershed Coalition, along with other community partners.

Stream and Wet Meadow Restoration Volunteer Opportunities

Friday, August 2 – Sunday, August 4
Wet Meadow Restoration for Greater Sage-Grouse – Walden
Jackson County
Register here
WRV will be spending 3 days near Walden building Zeedyk structures to prevent erosion in wet meadows critical for Greater Sage-Grouse. WLRV prefers volunteers sign up for all three days for this event.

Saturday, August 31 
Butler Creek BDA Garfield County
Register here
Volunteers with Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers will help build beaver dam analogue structures along Butler Creek to support natural stream restoration processes.

Saturday, August 31 – Monday, September 2
Gunnison Sage-Grouse
Gunnison County
Register here
Volunteers with WRV will work to build Zeedyk structures, to support natural stream processes that maintain wet meadow habitat, key to Gunnison Sage-Grouse. WLRV would prefer volunteers who can commit to all three days.

Bilingual Volunteer Opportunities

Saturday, September 7 
Families/Familias - Coal Creek Trail Riparian Corridor Restoration – Waitlist 
Boulder County
Register here
WRV’s Famlias projects are family-oriented, bi-lingual volunteer events. Volunteers will be planting trees and removing invasive species along the Coal Creek riparian corridor.

Sunday, September 15
¡Celebremos al Aire Libre! - River Restoration
Garfield County
Register here
Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers and Wilderness Workshop are hosting this event in celebration of Latino Conservation Week. Volunteers will be helping the city of Glenwood Springs with riverside restoration on the Colorado River.